Katherine Olives
Thank you to all who made Friday's Idea Jam 4NYC such a success. We had a BLAST jamming out with you!
Twenty-five students attended the ideation session and split up into groups to tackle five categories: connected cities, women in tech, sustainability, affordability, and civic engagement. The idea was for each team to come up with an innovative solution for one of those 5 categories of civic/social challenges. Each team would pitch their idea to a panel of expert judges at the end of the day in competition for our fabulous prizes: a grand prize of $1,000, as well as the runner-up prizes to fast track their Zahn Venture Competition applications and exclusive access to the Zahn Center and its resources!
Once everyone had settled in with their teams, our ideation leader, Jason Wisdom of Design Gym, led everyone in a warm up. Participants planned a birthday party with a “Yes, And” mentality, meaning they learned how to suggest an idea and add power to it by using the word “and.” Once warmed up, the real innovating began. The teams were guided throughout the day in segmented ideation tasks: Examine, Understand, Ideate, Experiment, and Distill.
Teams started out examining the issues behind their respective categories. Each student interviewed one another to gauge personal takes on the problem while building rapport as a team. Then, they engaged in an in-depth research phase where they tracked down striking facts and statistics that brought out the issues. Once they had a wealth of interesting and diverse information on their topics, it was time to organize what they knew by categorizing the most relevant, and removing the irrelevant. Jason encouraged that it was important they wouldn't embark on the actual ideation stage until the end, so that when they did, every team had all of the information they needed.
The room was full of creative minds and everyone was anxious to start generating solutions to the problems they had uncovered. So when it was finally time to ideate, the room was abuzz with excited energy! Each group assigned a facilitator who ensured that the flow of ideas was directive and constant for a short period of explorative brainstorming. Then, it was time to close in on the best ideas of the bunch, and commit to one pitch for the panel of judges at the end of the day.
In the end, all of the ideas were so excellent that the judges decided that everyone would be granted access to the Zahn Center and its resources, and all ideas would be fast-tracked into this year's Venture Competition.
Our grand prize winner, however, was the women in tech team. They called their winning idea “Wizzle.”
Wizzle – a content-based networking site for aspiring female techies. Young women will use this app if they are having doubts about their futures in technology, and find inspiring stories from female entrepreneurs, match with mentors, network with other women in tech, and harness the motivation to keep going! The goal is to close the gap between the high level of interest in technology amongst young women and the low number of adult women actually pursuing the field.
Honorable mention was given to DrinkUp, one of the teams charged with making New York City more sustainable.
DrinkUp – an eco-initiative to decrease plastic bottle waste by establishing re-fill water stations throughout the city
Other great ideas included:
Hey New York €“ civic engagement YouTube channel to engage NYC citizens to address current issues and connect people with city offices
PotFix €“ interactive website for NYC residents to log and report pot holes across the city to enable quicker fixes across all boroughs
GreenTech €“ incentive program to encourage large scale recycling with an emphasis on electronic waste
Eureka!- uses environmentally safe materials to build sustainable NYC affordable housing
Not only did an amazing group of participants attend, but we were fortunate enough to be visited by Minerva Tantoco, the very first CTO of NYC, who shared her personal journey as a woman in tech with the entire room. She also spent time mentoring the groups working on civic engagement and women in tech. Adrienne Schmoeker, a Strategic Partner in the Mayor's Office of Technology and Innovation, also joined us for the day, as well as Rebecca Shumlin, Digital Strategist at New York State, and Robin Fitzgerald, a Digital Marketing Intern at New York State. These inspiring women worked intimately with our teams, offering expert coaching throughout the day.
We were also joined by many of our partners at Standard Chartered Bank, including CEO of the Americas Julio Rojas. Each and every Standard Chartered Bank team member (about fifteen were present!) worked with students during the session's entirety. We owe all of our VIP participants and partners a big thank you, especially our judges, Rebecca Shumlin; Elaine Chin, Regional Head of Corporate Affairs at Standard Chartered; William Smith, Community Liaison at Assemblyman Wright's Office; Ray Garcia, Entrepreneur and Advisor at Bouyant Capital; and Joe Barba, Director of Entrepreneurship at CCNY and Engineering Professor. And, of course, a special thanks goes to Jason Wisdom of the Design Gym, our fearless leader of ideation.