Venture Makers Innovation Challenge – Vietnam 2023
Eco Hack: Innovating for a Sustainable Future
HCMC: 21st October 2023
Hanoi: 22nd October 2023
What is the Venture Makers Innovation Challenge?
The Venture Makers Innovation Challenge “Eco Hack: Innovating for a Sustainable
Tomorrow” is delivered by Western Sydney University's Launch Pad Technology
Business Incubator from Sydney Australia.
The Venture Makers Innovation Challenge put participants in the driver’s seat to
solve an emerging problem and develop and communicate innovative ideas. The
skills learnt in this challenge would be valuable whether they become an employee
for any organisation or choose to become an innovator, inventor or entrepreneur.
During the challenge, interdisciplinary teams will explore how the world can innovate
for a sustainable tomorrow to mitigate against the effects of climate change.
What are the key dates?
Information Session
• Ho Chi Minh City: 10th September 2023. Location and time to be confirmed
upon registration.
• Hanoi: 16th September 2023. Location and time to be confirmed upon
registration.
Challenge Day/Hackathon Challenge
• Ho Chi Minh City: Saturday 21st October 2023, 9.00 AM – 4.00 PM (location
and date to be confirmed upon registration).
• Hanoi: Sunday 22nd October 2023, 9.00 AM – 4.00 PM (location and date to
be confirmed upon registration).
What is the time commitment?
The Venture Makers Innovation Challenge is a whole-day hackathon event (9:00 AM
– 4:00 PM). Every team member is expected to be there and participate from start to
finish.
To prepare for Challenge Day, every participant must complete the Pre-challenge
Work on Open Learning (details provided after registration), which takes
approximately 2 hours to complete. More details about the Pre-challenge work can
be found under the “How do I prepare for the Challenge?” section.
Who can join the Venture Makers Innovation Challenge?
The Innovation Challenge is suitable for Year 11 and 12 students, 16 years and
older, with an interest in STEM, humanities, social sciences, business, education
and health areas.
Will there be prizes and other incentives?
There will be 3 winning teams at each Innovation Challenge Day in Ho Chi Minh City
& Hanoi, with high value prizes for each individual from the winning teams (up to 5
members per team including a representative teacher).
First Prize: Trip to Sydney, Australia*
(One prize for each Challenge in HCMC & Hanoi)
This will be a customised trip for up to 4 winning team members and an
accompanying teacher. Students will visit the Western Sydney University campuses
where they will keep developing their skills for the future.
Prize will include:
• Trip to Sydney, Australia for up to 4 winning team members and an
accompanying teacher.
• A packed schedule including tours of the Western Sydney University
campuses, education about Sustainable Development Goals, Venture Makers
skills session, guest speakers and a Sydney City Tour.
• Flights, accommodation and meals provided.
• Dates: Mid-February 2024 (to be confirmed upon registration of teams).
Second Prize: Kindle Paperwhite Gen 4 8GB (Valued at $180 USD)
(One prize for each Challenge in HCMC & Hanoi)
One Kindle e-reader per winning team member. Up to 5 Kindle e-readers per team
including the representative teacher.
Third prize: JBL Bluetooth True Wireless Tune 220 Earbuds (valued at $100
USD)
(One prize for each Challenge in HCMC & Hanoi)
One JBL Earbuds per winning team member. Up to 5 headphones per team
including the representative teacher.
*One First, Second and Third Prize to be awarded at each Innovation Challenge
being held in HCMC and Hanoi. Terms and conditions for the competition available
at final registration of teams.
What will I get out of the Challenge besides the listed prizes?
All participants who complete the Challenge will receive a digital badge and
certificate while building new skills through:
• DIGITAL BADGE – Receive a digital badge and certificate while building job
readiness.
• NEW THINKING – Work closely with students and industry leaders to find and
engage with new innovative ideas.
• LEADERSHIP & TEAMWORK – Build skills to lead and collaborate with a
team.
• INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS – Network with industry mentors and influential
people from industry, the university, and government.
• NEW SKILLS – Work with a range of specialist mentors to develop
transferrable skills that build your job readiness.
• NEW FRIENDS – Engage with students, staff, and entrepreneurs and enjoy a
fun experience.
Do I need to have a team to register, or will I form a team later?
As part of the registration process, you will have to register with a team up to 5
members including a representative teacher. This means we don’t allow individual
registration.
What is the registration process?
You should ensure the following steps:
• Your team has a maximum of 5 people (including a representative teacher)
• All team members need to register their information by fill in the form on
http://events.westernsydney.edu.au/eco-hacks-2023-vietnam.
• All team members need to complete the consent form and include in one drive
folder, then submit it with the registration.
• If you are on a team already, you need to provide the name of the team during
registration.
Is there an ideal team composition?
There is no ideal team composition. However, we would encourage your team to be
multidisciplinary in makeup. An ideal multidisciplinary team could for example consist
of an IT student, a humanities student and a business student as well as others with
particular interests or expertise in challenge question theme areas.
We will be providing mentors to facilitate the challenge work with the teams.
How do I prepare for the Challenge?
Attend the Information Session
For those who missed the session, you can watch the recording (available on Open
Learning).
Pre-challenge Work
Step 1: Form your team
•
•
Up to 5 members per team including a representative teacher.
This means we don’t allow individual registration.
Step 2: Prep work for Challenge Day
• Complete the Challenge Pre-warmer on Open Learning.
• Homework: submit the problem statement on Open Learning:
o Conduct research surrounding your chosen theme – and come up with
a problem, in the form of a problem statement, that your team wish to
solve on Challenge Day.
o *IMPORTANT: DO NOT GET TO A SOLUTION! Solutions to be come
up with on Challenge Day.
What do I expect on Challenge Day?
The Venture Makers Innovation Challenge is a whole-day hackathon event (9:00 AM
– 4:00 PM).
*Note: Each team must have at least one laptop to use for research and putting
together a presentation for the Pitch Competition on Challenge Day.
The challenge is a guided experience for the teams. We will be going through a
journey from problem and idea conceptualisation through to solution design and
validation and how to pitch or design or a short high impact style talk about your idea
or solution.
Teams will come together throughout the day for workshop style sessions while
working as a team through the stages of the challenge. Below is the Program Outline
for Challenge Day.
Challenge facilitators and subject matter experts will rotate between the teams and
provide 1:1 mentoring, feedback and guidance to the teams throughout Challenge
Day.
Fun and engaging activities in and around communicating ideas and non-verbal
communication hacking will be conducted throughout Challenge Day as a pressure
release valve and to prepare teams for their final pitches and presentations.
After the Pitching Your Idea training session, teams will be required to pitch their
solution to a panel of judges. These presentations will be 2 minutes in length.
The judging criteria will be announced at the start of the challenge.