The first ever Ideathon organised by the School of Business (BUS) got off to a running start on May 9. Over a hundred BUS students, from 11 diplomas, formed 25 groups to compete in brainstorming ideas for Singaporean Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

The event began with ice breakers and a training workshop on creative and design thinking. Teams were given 99 minutes to brainstorm. Focusing on the number “99”, shortlisted groups then had 99 seconds to pitch their ideas to the judges. Their ideas were judged based on their relevance, innovation, feasibility, amount of ideas generated and must be able to be implemented within one year.

Ideathon 2018 was graced by three judges: Mr Titus Ang, Lead Trainer at Reactor, an organisation which trains students aged 14 to 24 to be entrepreneurial and innovative - Mr Jorge Rodriguez, Group Managing Director of Influential Brands and Mr Samuel Ang, Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Temasek Polytechnic.

When asked about the significance of Ideathon 2018, Mr Ang said: “I think this would help raise awareness in the youths. They will have a stronger understanding and drive to be a part of and support the SMEs in Singapore, as well as, hopefully, the ideas coming up will be able to impact the SMEs in a significant way.”

The winning group was Left Direction, a team-up between the Diploma in Communications and Media Management and Diploma in Hospitality and Tourism Management. Among their many ideas was a Tinder-inspired app. Swipes up would add an item to their wish-list, swipes down would add it to their cart and right and left swipes would be to like or dislike the item, respectively.

Mr Ang was impressed by the ideas generated. He said: “There were a lot of very good jewels around, it was difficult to choose among the many choices that we had. There were a lot (of ideas) that seemed to be able to work”

Ideathon 2018 was organised with the help of the Business Studies Club and sponsored by the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) and SingTel.

Kathir, a Year 3 Law and Management student participant, said: “It makes us think in an innovative and entrepreneurial way because the working environment is not going to be exactly how TP is going to be and it is going to be something that is different. I feel that the sense of innovation and creativity is important for youngsters to survive in the working world.”

By: Chin Zhi Hui Samuel