By Silke Küstner on May 1, 2013 in ON CAMPUS

When we received an invitation to cover an event organized by 360° Develop Prize, I did not really know what to expect. I never considered myself an entrepreneur that would simply tackle the world’s poverty with my own crazy idea. So when I got there, I felt a little lost and – frankly – impressed. Meeting people my age who are working to build up their own company while studying full time is quite an accomplishment already; even more so because these people are not simply doing it for their own profit, but they are using their idea to solve a social or environmental issue. How many 25-years-olds do you know that are working on an innovative sustainable fertilization method to improve agricultural processes in rural India?

Luckily, the aspiring entrepreneurs are not alone in their quest. Denmark provides lots of great opportunities for start-up companies and one of them is the 360° Develop Prize.

Established several years ago, “Develop Prize is a competition for social entrepreneurship, in which students create innovative and sustainable businesses in developing countries.” Participants can not only win an office space but also get a 3-month program with professional training and workshops at Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship as well as great networking opportunities.

However, this competition offers more than just some media coverage and a good prize at the end. Develop Prize, organized by 360° – Students for Sustainability/oikos Copenhagen, actively supports potential entrepreneurs throughout the process by offering several free workshops from inspiration, to idea assessment and business plan creation. In order to find out what this actually looks like, I went to their last workshop – and I was in for a real treat!

Develop Prize hired an expert from Social Lab to teach us how to tackle social and environmental problems of the developing world by developing creative ideas through – certainly – very unorthodox methods. Divided up in small groups, we went through various stages of idea creation and assessment using real-life examples from the participants and discovered astounding and very entertaining new methods. (Who would have thought that you can come up with 15 new ideas by associating a picture of urinals with your core issue?!)

But long story short, here’s a list of the lessons learned:

1. Quantity, not quality – 100 ideas in 1 hour: Yes, it is possible! (But don’t ask me how. We used a lot of post-its…)

2. Set high goals, that way you will get further: As a wise businessman once said, “Aim for the moon, that way, even if you miss it, you’ll still be amongst the stars!”

3. Postpone judgment and critical thinking: Every idea is valid. (at least at this stage)

4. Build on each other – “yes, and…” rather than “no, but…” : Keep an open mind, stay positive and make the best out of what you got.

5. Dare to fail

6. Collaboration is key: Even the best entrepreneur can’t make it alone. So, use your network wisely.

Finally, go through all your ideas and make them useful and valuable. This so-called idea battle will help you assess how much impact each of your concepts has and how realizable they actually are.

All in all, I was really impressed by the facilitators as well as the participants and got inspired to work on my own projects. Whether or not this will turn into a successful business remains questionable. If you want to see some actual promising and innovative ideas, however, come to the final Develop Prize event on June 11th or, even better, submit your own business plan by May 15^th and get a chance to prove yourself!

Curious? More infos can be found at www.360students.dk.

Also, if you want to know more about Social Lab, check out their website or visit their idea lab at Roskilde Festival.

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360° – Students for Sustainability, copenhagen, Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship, Develop Prize, innovation, oikos, social entrepreneurship, start-up

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