| Fizah HAB |
BRUNEI’S first-ever Startup Weekend event began Friday night at the Event Hall of Progresif Cellular’s Headquarters in Gadong.
Partaken by some 50 young entrepreneurs and students, the Startup Weekend is a 54-hour workshop and a global movement comprising over 2,000 events running in over 160 countries.
It is aimed at creating an environment where passionate, aspiring entrepreneurs can gather and brainstorm while pitching business ideas and learning how to build start-ups from the ideation stage as well as how to run them successfully.
The evening began with a dinner attended by Progresif Cellular Sdn Bhd’s CEO Paul Taylor, who also delivered welcoming remarks, in which he highlighted Progresif’s focus on innovations with the setup of its Startup Lab.
“The Startup Lab, located here at our headquarters, contributes to shaping society and assists in diversifying the economy away from more traditional sources of wealth and social developments, giving small companies that first leg-up toward greatness, that first step in developing the local market,” he said.
Also attending the event were the CEO of DARe, Javed Ahmad; Siti Mahmud from the British High Commission (Commonwealth and Prosperity Manager); COO of e27 and event facilitator, Jowynne Khor; mentors, workshop participants and members of the press.
The event continued with an ice-breaking session and a Pitchfire session, whereby participants got to pitch their craziest business ideas. If chosen as one of the 10 most popular, their ideas will be featured for the rest of the weekend. After the sessions, the participants were then split into different groups.
Each of the groups was given access to mentors for assistance and guidance. They were then tasked with developing and launching a start-up within 54 hours based on the idea they chose earlier. Other sessions included a business canvas model workshop, a market validation workshop and mentor tanks.
Startup Weekend is a non-profit organisation made up of a community of entrepreneurs who holds the belief that entrepreneurship cannot be taught in the classroom.
The group recognises that the starting phase is the hardest in any entrepreneurial journey, and avails to budding entrepreneurs the best tools and approaches towards creating a business, providing them an immersive environment and the chance to connect with the right people and resources so that start-up magic can happen.
Startup Weekend is supported by Progresif Cellular Sdn Bhd, Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD), Brunei Enterprise, Thredz, Halftone, Samima Enterprise, SWEE Construction Company, and Brunei Solutions Development Centre (BSDC).
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