Author: Emma Nkonoki / Geo-ICT team

An inspiring workshop week related to entrepreneurship and innovation was held as a collaborative effort of the Geo-ICT team in March 2019 in Dar es Salaam. The aim of the workshop week was to foster a close working connection and partnership between higher education institutions and the innovation ecosystem. Each Geo-ICT partner university took part in the facilitation of the event, and participants came from the academia, hubs, and startup sector. The actual workshops took place in 5 different hubs in Dar, so that each day of the week the participating group moved from one hub to another: the week started at Smart lab, then continued to Ndotohub, Sahara Ventures, Twigalpha and ended at Buni Hub for the final session.

In the workshops, the participating startups presented their challenges to the team, after which the university participants worked together with the startup entrepreneurs to brainstorm solutions to the challenges. The workshops were of interactive nature and each group presented their results at the end of the day. During the week, different tools were used to solve the challenges and the focus on each day varied; for example, some days focused more on business models and others on stakeholders. On the final day, the university participants and representatives from each hub gathered at Buni hub to go through the events and achievements of the week.

All in all, the week was a success, and the participants from academia and business alike praised the style of the workshops. Moving from one hub to another meant the participants were exposed to different environments and different challenges each day of the week. This was exciting and made participants more curious as the days went by. Also the networking part of the week worked out very nicely, as the university staff were able to connect with people from the startup sector and work together. The connections started to form and could be witnessed before the week had ended. The workshop week truly gave a chance to think deeper on how academics can work together with the hubs and entrepreneurs to help the learning process of their students.

Thank you to all participants and facilitators for the successful event!

Watch a video from the workshop here.