As a Lisbon-based startup-booster and growth hacking agency, it is our responsibility and pleasure to nurture the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in our local startup eco-system.
That’s why this past week of June 25–29th, we had the pleasure of co-hosting a University Innovation Challenge at Rock in Rio Innovation Week - a week long innovation conference in Lisbon, Portugal which gathered the brightest minds in business, tech, digital marketing and artificial intelligence. Our partner of the challenge was Sitel, a global Customer Experience Management company and dear friends and partners to Bravuz.
The Challenge of the Competition — entrepreneurs from top Universities in Lisbon competed to present their most innovative project from their faculty and totally blew us away with their amazing projects ranging from sustainability to economy boosting models.
Day 1 of the University Innovation Challenge kicked off with 3 projects from ISCTE — University Institute of Lisbon with their project Plantar um Sonho (Sow a Dream), Instituto Superior Técnico with their project InMotion and IPAM Lisboa with their project Sem Horas. The teams were exceptionally creative and innovative in their pitches and we loved that they were incorporating the Global Goals for Sustainable Development into their mission.
Following the presentations, the participants sat down with the Jury which consisted of Elsa Couceiro of Sitel, our CEO at Bravuz Eduardo Marques and Alexander Santos of Flag — who gave valuable feedback on their presentation and feasibility of their project.
At Day 2 of the University Challenge, the presenting teams of the University Challenge were IADE-Universidade Europeia with their project Abstract Lisboa and Universidade NOVA FCT with their project EBIMED.
Finally, on Day 3 of the University Innovation Challenge competed Universidade Catolica Portuguesa with their project Headhunt which focused on creating a more interactive and innovative approach to recruiting the millennial workforce.
NOVA IMS presented The Wise Project, which was focusing on social entrepreneurship, to build a link and community between the elderly and youth, and NOVA FCT with their project EMP.
It was a thrilling week of pitching and competition and although all of the projects were incredibly thoughtful, creative & compelling there had to be a winner.
On the final day of the competition, we announced the winning team which was ISCTE — University Institute of Lisbon with their project Plantar um Sonho (Sow a Dream). Congratulations to Prof Hélia Gonçalves Pereira, Maria Lemos Pires, Tiago Cabrita, Pedro Vieira, and Inês Lourenço for the hard-work they put into the project.
What impressed the judges was that their project took on a social approach to entrepreneurship by considering the less developed areas of Portugal and reaching for contributing to several of the EU’s Global Sustainability Goals.
Overall, we were so impressed with all of the thoughtfulness and out-of-box thinking that these young entrepreneurs presented and we are so proud to support their entrepreneurial endeavors through these competitions and mentoring opportunities.
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