Why leave creativity dormant behind university walls?
Why not bring it to life to solve real life challenges that help local SMEs in the long run?
These were the questions Berytech and JCI, Junior Chamber International Beirut, asked themselves when hosting their joint marketing hackathon on Saturday May 28, 2016 in BDD1294.
Students from diverse universities were selected to work on solving four entrepreneurs’ challenges. During the first working hours, groups of students were asked to analyze the overall situation, looking for strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. The target market was then to be identified, and ways of positioning were to be devised… At the end of the first phase, each group had to devise an action plan.
During the second working phase, the groups had to come up with ideas for a campaign that addressed few of the actions outlined in their plan. Throughout both sessions, the groups were guided by JCI supervisors, and mentors like: Layal Jebran, Krystel Khalil, Hassan Kanj, Majed Al Tamer, and Nour Atrissi.
The judges consisted of the mentors themselves including the entrepreneurs involved in their case study. Each entrepreneur had the right to add their own judging criteria to the pitch.
The groups were rated based on how clear, realistic, achievable, and original their action plan and campaign were. Pitches were also judged on whether they conveyed the message in a brief, timely, and catchy manner.
All in all, the SMEs: Synkers, The Sponsor Company, Trade my Book, as well as Sqwirl app were happy with the results. Audrey Nakad, cofounder of Synkers deemed the event a success. Karl Abouzeid, founder of Sqwirl app, as well as Ali Obeid, founder of Trade my Book both claimed they enjoyed the experience. Nora Abou Chakra, founder of The Sponsor Company, said she learned a lot from the outcome, since the ideas presented were original, realistic and creative.
Blog post written by Yara Abboud, 2016 VP for JCI Community in Lebanon
