Judging 2026

Phoenix Nest / Judging Events /
2025-2026 Edition

The Jury - The 'Phoenices' of 2026

We are honoured to announce that The jury for the final event of the 2025-2026 edition of Phoenix Nest will consist of:

Revealed in January 2026 ...

Master of Ceremony

Mr Fady Tabbara

UNIS I&S Teacher

Finalists
Judges Score Card
Slide deck

Special Thanks to

Mr Nguyen Huy Thong, Ms Nguyen Thi Thuy Lien, Mr Ngoc Phung, Ms Giang Pham - Technical and Logistical Support
Ms Kate Dore - UNIS Service Learning Coordinator
UNIS MS Science and Design Teams

Judging criteria

The Challenge

Work as a team to develop a plan for a sustainable social enterprise that has a meaningful impact at our school, in Hanoi or in Vietnam. Pitch your plan to the Phoenix Nest judges and convince them to invest in you!

Technical success

Functionality: The social enterprise provides a product that works/does what it needs to do/achieves its goal.
Feasibility: The social enterprise provides a product that can realistically be produced by 8th graders at the proposed production scale.
Availability: The social enterprise uses materials and tools that are realistically available/accessible.

Marketing success

Target audience: The social enterprise has a realistically accessible target community - the community that is positively impacted by the social enterprise.
Impact: The activities of the social enterprise have a high impact on ‘solving’ the problem - on working towards the SGG target
Communication: The social enterprise has a clear identity, a clear Unique Selling Proposition and a strong plan to promote its business objectives.

Business success

Investment: The social enterprise is financially feasible from the initial investment.
Sustainability: The social enterprise is financially sustainable over time. The budget balances in a healthy way.
Growth potential: The social enterprise has realistic growth potential beyond the initial business idea.

Innovation success

Disruption: The social enterprise does something that does not exist yet.
Goodwill: The social enterprise does something that appeals to our UNIS community specifically.
Behaviour change: The social enterprise does something that positively affects the behaviour of stakeholders.

"Constraints aren't the boundaries of creativity, but the foundation of it." -- Brandon Rodriguez.

Judging Events

Preliminary rounds

February 10 & 11

UNIS Theatre

Programme

Monday, February 10 | 13:00-14:00 | 8.5 (6 teams)
Monday, February 10 | 14:30-15:30 | 8.4 (6 teams)
Tuesday, February 11 | 10:00-11:05 | 8.1 (4 teams)
Tuesday, February 11 | 11:55-13:00 | 8.2 (5 teams)
Tuesday, February 11 | 14:30-15:30 | 8.3 (4 teams)

All teams will pitch to a 4-person jury. The judges will be UNIS staff or parents only. The team’s pitch and the judges' feedback will be filmed as input for the evaluation stage of the project. These pitches will happen during Design class time in a conference room in Building B8B.

Final

Friday, February 14

UNIS Theatre

Programme

09:20-09:30 Announcements
09:30-09:40 Welcome to the judges and procedures
09:40-10:10 Pitch Team 1, 2, 3, 4
10:10-10:20 Break
10:20-10:50 Pitch Team 5, 6, 7, 8
10:50-10:55 Judges retreat
10:55-11:05 Results and presentation of prize
11:05 MS Lunch

The top 8 teams scoring highest against the judging criteria will pitch again - this time at the Phoenix’ Nest finale event in the UNIS Theatre. There will be 4 high-profile judges for this event.

Stage Planning