SLUSH 2015 was more than just the ordinary technology conference. The impact track, which was started last year with a handful of people, was the most talked about theme this year. “Slush Impact” created more attraction and provided an open platform for many to come together.
In addition to great keynote speakers and honorary guests on the Slush Green Stage, Slush Impact, together with Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, World Bank and fifteen hubs from across the world also hosted the Global Impact Accelerator program, bringing the top thirty impact entrepreneurs to Helsinki for a 9-day boot camp.
The first ever Slush Impact Accelerator boot camp, which took place between 6th -14th November 2015 brought together startups from fifteen emerging countries. Out of three hundred applications, the startups with the most impactful and potential ideas were selected through the local innovation hubs to participate in the Global Impact Accelerator program and Slush 2015.
The program aims to help founders by building their skills through workshops and trainings, offers networking opportunities with the world’s most prominent investors, and enables new opportunities with Finnish and international partners.
As content creator partner Impact Iglu, powered by Aalto Global Impact, organized a one-day workshop on Design Thinking with Professor Mikko Koria, Program Director of Aalto University’s International Design Business Management (IDBM) program. On Saturday 9th, the selected thirty impact startups plus ten startups of Impact Iglu’s community took part in this workshop, which was held at Finnish Nature Center Haltia, located in Nuuksio National Park.
“It was one of the programs I looked forward to the most,” says one of the entrepreneurs from South Africa.
The workshop was intended to provide participants with practical tools for service design and design thinking. Starting with the broader concept “ecosystem” the participants were grouped to work on their value proposition and guided to develop a business model around it. The final session consisted of a group prototyping presentation. The teams presented their findings through role-playing, while the rest of the participants took part as their opponents or supporters. The room was full of energy and the synergy was unbelievable. With that, we ended the indoor activities and took the teams out into Finnish nature for a photo scavenger hunt. Instagram #impactilgu #haltia #slush15
Watch this short video to get an impression of the day!
This post was written by AGI
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