Under the slogan of seeking "specific solutions to real problems", CPA Innovation, the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (Cuti), ORT University and the Da Vinci Foundation jointly launched the 2016 edition of its Emprendetón competition.
The opening was led by Bruno Gili, managing partner of CPA Innovation, who presented the proposal, thanked the sponsoring companies - Red de Futuros Empresarios, Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria (INIA), Manentia, Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII) and Bantotal - and encouraged the participants.
The competition, which is being held for the second year, challenges entrepreneurs to present innovative ideas in the categories of Agriculture, Health, Banking and Creative Industries, to solve specific problems posed by local companies. Participants will have the opportunity to train with professionals from the organising institutions, who will guide them through the process through mentoring.
Each of the ideas will go through the stages of ideation, maturation, prototyping and presentation in front of a specialised jury, which will choose a winner per category. Each winning team or entrepreneur will have the possibility of receiving incubation for their proposal and access to seed capital to develop it.
The launch event was attended by Pablo Realini, co-founder of Ironhide Game Studio, a Uruguayan game production company that has achieved important international success, who shared his experience and gave advice to those present when it comes to entrepreneurship. Among other things, Realini pointed out the importance of working on ideas that they like and that add value, of carrying out prior research, both of the market and of the competition, of accepting feedback and learning to read the messages of the target audience.
Then, a representative of each company told the main problems faced by their sector and presented the challenges to be solved by the entrepreneurs.
Gabriel Ciappesoni, director of INIA's National Meat and Wool Programme, outlined to those interested in Agro the challenge of getting quality Uruguayan meat directly to the homes of their customers in different countries. In addition, he urged to look for a technological solution to obtain information in real time when an abigeato occurs.
With regard to the banking sector, Fernando Panizza, head of research and development at Bantotal, called for solutions that change the way people save, educate people financially and buy. Claudia Fernández, from Manentia, explained that most of the financial sector has business management systems with old technologies, which is why a tool should be sought to integrate modern systems with those used by banks. She also encouraged the search for a solution to develop credit history, which is essential to optimise the delivery of loans.
On the other hand, Alicia Rossi, head of IBM Uruguay's Health area, presented two challenges to entrepreneurs interested in this topic. One of them has to do with quick access to information on travel insurance when people are abroad, and the other has to do with elderly people hospitalised in recovery and their access to personalised services.
Finally, in the Creative Industries category, inaugurated with this Emprendetón, three companies presented issues to be solved. Damián Osta, manager of the newspaper La Diaria, spoke about the technological reconversion of the subscription model, while Pablo Oliveri, from the production company Indias, urged to find a solution to guarantee advertisers their right to use the materials of an advertisement with modifications, beyond the passing of the years.
Gonzalo López Baliñas, from the content website "Teo y la máquina de ideas", proposed to develop a platform to find specific talents and professionals, and on the other hand, how to bring good communication consultancy to small and medium-sized companies, which are the majority in Uruguay and which do not generally take these services into account.
Those interested in participating in Emprendetón 2016 can apply for their idea until Monday 19 September inclusive, through the website www.emprendeton.uy, where they will find all the challenges detailed by category.
Source: mundomarketing.com
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