The excitement is building!
On Sunday evening, Disrupt!/Graphics!/ will kick-off at Darb 1718 in Cairo. Two renowned keynote speakers from the graphics space will be speaking at the Kick-Off. Graphics thought leader, Hani Mahfouz, will start us off with the keynote, sharing some thoughts on trends in the industry. Then after a short orientation, participating innovators will get on stage to pitch their ideas for projects they want to work on in less than 1 minute. The participants will then form 15-20 teams who will continue to work together throughout the workshop. And then we will listen to an inspiring end-note from well-known comic artist, Magdy El-Shafee.
But this is all just the beginning.
After they take a few days away to find other team members who might want to join them, the graphics enthusiasts will come back on Thursday morning, ready for the big event. During those next 3 days over the weekend, the teams of graphics entrepreneurs and innovators will design a business model, develop the concept of their product or service, and start building their business. They will work through the Innoventures’ Ideathon program, using visual tools and practical exercises that they can directly apply to their project. More than 20 mentors have already signed up, with expertise in a mix of graphics, business and technology; and more mentors are still signing up! These mentors will give valuable feedback and advice to the participants as they work through their business model and pitch. In parallel, a number of sessions specific to the graphics-industry will also be provided by experts from that field. Khallat will show us a case study of how they used stop-motion animation for a campaign they did for one of their clients. And Cairo Hackerspace will set up a Hack Corner, where participating teams interested in integrating technology into their products can get some advice on electronics and fabrication, or even hack a prototype up on the spot!
Sounds like a lot of friendly support available, but you can be sure those entrepreneurs won’t have it easy!
69 individuals, representing 31 project ideas, were selected to participate in the workshop, out of 125 that completed the online application, and those too out of 490 who signed up for the workshop on Facebook and other channels. After the first challenge of building a team of at least 3 people, with backgrounds in art, technology and business roles, they will then compete for one of the top 3 winner spots. The teams will have to practice pitching their business model at the end of every day, and get feedback from our resourceful mentors, gearing up for the final pitch on Saturday! A panel of 5 experienced industry figures will act as our judges, mixing experience from a diverse set of related business and creativity areas. They will have the job of selecting the best 3 of these competing teams, for the prizes which include a cash prize from Mideast Creatives, as well as more support from Innoventures and Ideaspace as they continue to launch their startup business.
It’s set to be a crazy week! Stay tuned for more updates.