First work days in Ahmedabad
After a busy Sunday with team building activities, Monday morning is the kick-off meeting. The 4 sub-teams finally meet their organizations and start working on the statement of work which will precisely define what will be done during the month.
On Tuesday, we’re going to our organization, CIIE, the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship based in the new Campus of IIM (Indian Institute of Management). IIM is a Management University (similar to HEC or ESSEC in France) and CIIE is the incubator of this university which helps entrepreneurs to start their business.
Even if there is a lot of concrete, this is a real peaceful place because buildings are not more than 2 floors high and there are a lot of trees, grass and nature in general. In addition, students and entrepreneurs are very quiet even if we share a room with 3 incubatees.
This first day is made of initial setup (plugs, WIFI, accounts …) and a brainstorming with my 2 teammates after the discussions we had during the kick-off.
After a lunch in the canteen, it’s time to meet again with our CIIE contacts and discuss what we think, expose what we can do and what we can bring them.
As soon as we’re out of the room, we’re approached by 2 start-ups (one doing an app around fashion and another one doing a financial app) to have our comments and feedback about their projects. We’ll try to spend some time with them during our time here.
After we come back to the hotel, we have a meeting with the 4 sub-teams, our mentor and the organization to review what was done. It’s hard to be concentrated until the end since the meeting finishes around 10pm but we made it! We can now go for a sleep!!!
On Wednesday, we’re back in the IIM campus and, while waiting for feedback for our CIIE contacts about what we provided, we have a very helpful meeting with an external consultant working on the project.
We also have great fun in the canteen among of a lot students. We’re trying the local cola drink, Thumbs Up, which is similar to Coke but with more cola.
