Shaping the Future of Youth Entrepreneurship in Pakistan

The IBA Entrepreneurship Society in collaboration with Center for Entrepreneurial Development held a business start-up competition, 'INVENT -2019'at IBA Main Campus, Karachi from the 19th – 21st of April.

The objective of the event was to foster a start-up friendly ecosystem for young innovators from across Pakistan.

The event attracted over 100 young innovators from eight cities across the country, all of whom had submitted their ideas under the event's thematic areas of Health & Agriculture, Technological and information, System Health & Agriculture, Shell Tameer Social and STEM Education, and General & Traditional.

For the 36 finalists selected, a series of mentoring sessions and workshops were delivered by industry experts, professionals and seasoned entrepreneurs to prepare the best entrepreneurial potential for the final round.

The first day consisted mostly of workshops with most of the day spent with the participants familiarizing themselves with the Campus and each other. The later part of the day was spent in team building exercises and mentoring sessions.

Sameer Ahmed Khan, the founder of Social Champ, conducted a workshop on social media marketing, vision, and customer segmentation. This would prove to be especially vital for the participants once their start-ups take off into the corporate world.

Dr. Shahid Qureshi, the Program Director at the IBA Aman Centre for Entrepreneurial Development, conducted a useful workshop on the current entrepreneurial trends which would keep the participants up to date. His message to the participants was "Every person is unique and idiosyncratic and has an entrepreneurial potential. A proper entrepreneurial mindset can help each individual to unleash their entrepreneurial potential."

Ms. Saba Khalid, the founder of Aurat Raaj, helped the nervous participants with their pitches for the following day by leading a session on how to conduct the perfect Elevator Pitch.

The final pitches held on Day 2, were conducted before a panel of judges comprising subject matter experts from industry, academia and SME sectors.

The participants performed amazingly and astounded the judges and the attendees with their brilliant ideas.

At the closing ceremony Mr. Habib Haider – Country Head of External Relation, Shell Pakistan Limited said 'My heartiest congratulations to our country's young talent. It is heartening to see events like these bringing like-minded entrepreneurs together from across the country for greater exchange of innovative ideas and thinking. Shell Tameer has always been at forefront to collaborate with key stakeholders to encourage an enterprise-friendly ecosystem and provide opportunities for young entrepreneurs to contribute towards a brighter and prosperous future for Pakistan."

Following Mr. Habib, Dr. Farrukh Iqbal-Executive Dean and Director of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi commented "Entrepreneurship is the need of the moment for this country and is taken very seriously at IBA, this is the reason we have a dedicated Center for Entrepreneurial Development at IBA where different initiatives are underway to promote the entrepreneurial culture among our youth including certificate courses, summer schools and engaging competitions."

The ceremony ended with Dr. Farrukh appreciating the organizing team and presenting token of appreciation to the prominent team members of IBA CED Mr. Azad Ahmed, Mr. Rao Israr, Mr. Muhammad Talha and the prominent team members of the IBA Entrepreneurship Society who have worked tirelessly for this event including Muhammad Taha Rafiq-Manager of IBA Entrepreneurship Society, Arsalan Noman-Director General INVENT'19, Tahir Sultan-CTO INVENT'19, Areeb Bin Shahid- CEO INVENT'19, Yasir Surani- CFO IBAES, Wasif Rasheed and Ushna Faraz-Executive Council Members.

The winner of the category 'Shell Tameer Social and STEM education' was Green Energy Revolution Now, a social entrepreneur creating biogas for rural areas in Sindh to address the reduction of CO2 emissions caused by the burning of wood for cooking and saving more land from deforestation. The Runner-up was a female entrepreneur running a local Air B&B for the residents of Hunza and Gilgit to earn additional income during the few months of tourism in the country. The third winner "Walk way School" works with students belonging to lower social-economic backgrounds to bridge the gap in the private and public education system and providing a better chance of enrollment in universities.

All three winners of each category received token seed money to invest in their hard build enterprises.

The winning teams were awarded cash prizes in the following fashion:

Shell Tameer Social and STEM Education
1st Winner (Rs. 100,000): Green Energy Revolution Now
2nd Winner (Rs. 75,000): Lets Home
3rd Winner (Rs. 50,000): The Walkway School

Technology and Information Systems
1st Winner (Rs. 100,000): Leekwall
2nd Winner (Rs. 50,000): Enent

General and Traditional
1st Winner (Rs. 100,000): Satrariyun
2nd Winner (Rs. 50,000): She Bakes

Health and Agriculture
1st Winner (Rs. 100,000): SMT (Self-Management Training)
2nd Winner (Rs. 50,000): Mukhlis Fertigo

The event ended with a formal dinner for the participants, judges, and management team members.

We wish all the participants the best of luck for their futures!

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