Techstars Startup Weekend Sustainability Selangor - Day 1

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6 Min Read

Yusmani Yunus, Bizpod Incubator Executive

IN THIS ARTICLE

Kickoff Day: Introduction and Ice-breaker

It was finally the weekend that everyone was waiting for! The months of anticipation leading up to this particular weekend on 29th July to 31st July 2022 was incredibly anxious. This was especially true for the 14 participating teams, organizing crew as well as the mentors and judges involved. The Techstars Startup Weekend Sustainability Selangor was the biggest event in town.

 

As the clock winds down towards that fateful weekend, the organizing crew consisting of Taylor’s Student Council members – a 30 crew team – prepared the essentials of hosting an event of such magnitude. These includes briefing all the participating teams’ multiple times on timing, preparation as well as flow for the weekend. And the most exciting part is, the Grand Pitching Finale will be held at Taylor’s Lakeside Campus on the 3rd day of the event. The judges and mentors were heavily involved in these preparations to ensure that everyone put up a good show. And what a performance it was! 

Screenshot showing the group photo for the induction day for the competition

Kickstarting a Hectic Weekend

On the Friday, 29th July 2022, the crew gathered all the 14 participating teams to kick off the 54-hour weekend! The emcee, Shahbaaz Ali, a representative from Techstars started off the event with a round of introductions of every team from their names to the solutions that they are proposing and will be preparing to present to judges at the end of the event. After a brief introduction session by everyone, it was time to loosen up and get to know each other better before the grind starts. It was a great session with active participation from everyone – from Taylor’s own students to external students from other universities. The organizing crew then came out with ice breaking session to strengthen the connection between the participants.

 

One of the main reasons for this was because some of them have not met each other if they didn’t come in a pre-set team. During the ice breaking session, the 14 teams were split into 5 breakout rooms to network and share ideas amongst themselves. Right after the ice breaking session, the organizing crew gave out all the resources needed by the teams to prepare their presentation. Each team were given guides to Google Startup, GoDaddy Registry and also Discord links as well as Mentor videos for the teams to study.

 

Once all the teams were given these, it was the start of a very hectic weekend for the participants! They are now fully equipped to realize their ideas into feasible business plans. It was the first step towards their final presentation. It was all up to the teams and their determination throughout the weekend!

Screenshot showing the SDG and Business Model for Canvas Workshop

At the same time, during the 1st day, we are hosting two workshops for the teams which are Sustainability Development Goals by our expert on that topic, Mr Lin Woon Leong & Business Model Canvas workshop by our facilitator which is Shahbaaz Ali. Hopefully these workshops might give them more insights on the SDG and at the same time they can learn about BMC that is very useful for this competition.

 

After the end of the first briefing call, they were by themselves. Some of the teams stayed up late into the wee hours of the morning!

 

So, what happened on the next day? Let’s find out in the continuation of this series in the 2nd Day! 

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