Review on Underdogs’ 1st Webinar : Training Korean Social Innovation Startups
The Underdogs Global team delivered its very first webinar — ‘Underdogs Coach Training Program Briefing Session: Training Korean Social Innovation Startups’ on last April 27th and 29th. This post is to review the webinar in details and share insights from the very first untact program Underdogs Global had.
Underdogs Global’s very first webinar, Training Korean Social Innovation Startups, was organized as a briefing session for Underdogs’ Coach Training Program, ‘Asia Tomorrow Together’, which we hope to start its official launch in July 2020.
In addition to the briefing which included an introduction to Underdogs Social Innovation Startup Approach, there were six cases of Korea’s social innovation startups presented with a summary of their business and the impact they work to create.
With much gratitude, we had a total of 15 participants during the two days, from 7 different countries, with 6 participants from Vietnam, 3 from Hong Kong, 2 from China and 1 each from Taiwan, Mongolia, the Philippines and Brunei — a truly international setting created from the genuine passion on social innovation startups.
Our team at Underdogs, we must confess we were very excited and yet nervous because we were announcing our new program on trainer training, and this was our very first experience of organizing an online event with such an international group.
The webinar had two main sessions;
1) Introducing Underdogs and 6 Korean Social Innovation Startup Cases
2) Introducing Underdogs Global Coach Training Program
The 1st Session: Introducing Underdogs and 6 Korean Social Innovation Startup Cases
In the first session, although many of the participants already knew Underdogs, we started by explaining our work and achievement so far, and how our startup approach can be contextualized in different settings including in different countries, to give a general background of our global work.
This was followed by a presentation from Ted Kim, one of the Underdogs’ startup coaches, on Underdogs Social Innovation Startup Approach, why we have developed a particular approach and methodology in training potential/early-stage startups, how we design customized programs and what is the no. 1 principle for Underdogs.
Probably the most interesting presentation, also led by Ted, is the six case studies. All these startup teams have participated in Underdogs training programs(under different programs with different partners).
- Gram Company : manufacturing environmental-friendly cat litter from coffee waste targeting households with cats
- Re:move : manufacturing nipple patches for women who want to be free bras
- So,dosi : creating and producing travel information on local cities in Korea for foreign travelers
- HELLO ARTSEA : creating and managing an online platform for archiving children’s artworks
- Huddling : a matching service for young people with rooms to stay, by connecting them with spare rooms in elder’s homes
- MOM : an online agent platform for plant materials which are produced but were not sold
For each case, Ted also shared a summary of their business model and values, the short-term performance of their business (during the MVPs) and an insight that for all successful business performances the teams need to be more ‘action-oriented’.
Also, it was pointed that the areas of social problems that these teams are trying to provide a solution to is a reflection of the transition from a ‘traditional social problem-solving enterprise’ to ‘everyday life (related) social innovation business’.
The 2nd Session: Introducing Underdogs Global Coach Training Program
The second session was led by Jihye Ahn, the global program director at Underdogs, to explain in details our new program ‘Asia Tomorrow Together — Underdogs Global Coach Training Program’.
She started by sharing the background on the program, in particular why it is important to have a network of global coaches who will eventually be our partners for collaboration. It was also emphasized that for Underdogs one of the key indicators of success is the capacity building for participating coaches, that the program itself is beneficial for them.
Feedback and Insights
When planning and organizing this webinar, we had so much we wanted to share, and it was challenging to narrow down the scope and arrange the sessions with a specific focus.
In fact, there were some feedback from the attendees that the topics we covered were too broad considering the time and setting provided, and suggested we organize more focused sessions for an in-depth understanding.
Also, since this was our very first webinar for the Underdogs Global team it may have been obvious that we were not completely comfortable with the setting. We were very much concerned that the interaction with the attendees could be very challenging as well.
After the very 1st day we learned that it would be helpful if we had allowed more time and prepare activities with the attendees to create an encouraging environment.
Last but not least, some of the attendees commented that the connection was not very smooth. Such technical issues could be from any cause, but at the same this alarmed us to search for more stable online tools as well as having a backup plan for maximum participation and inclusion for all attendees.
Following up on these feedback and our own wrap up, our team decided to continue this series of webinars on Korea’s social innovation sector. We thought that this is probably the most appropriate solution to keep us connected to the wider world, to continue to share and spread out the thoughts and talks on social innovation.
So, in this coming June, we are holding another webinar, sharing our experience of working with ‘Rural Economy Ecosystem — How Entrepreneurs Can Create (Social) Impact’. Please stay tuned for more updates!
If you are interested to find out more about our Underdogs Global Coaching Training Program and joining the program, please read through our recent article here.
Contact us at jye@underdogs.co.kr for any questions you may have.
