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In this blog, we look at various innovation support forums that a budding innovator can tap into.
The following is a list of support forums and resources that have made innovating extremely accessible and affordable to budding innovators, especially students:
A Makeathon is an event in which people come together to ‘make’ things together. The main drivers for a Makeathon are three fold:
The Makeathon process involves the following stages, and is typically involves 1-3 days of engagement:
Bootcamps are varied in their nature and scope. Training boot camps involve intensive training sessions for learning a new skill, a technology or a product. Coding boot camps involve coding sessions to learn how to build software applications using a specific technology or tool. A blogging boot camp can teach you how to write blogs. A creative writing boot camp can teach you how to start with creative writing. You could have a boot camp to learn any subject or topic.
“Hackathon” combines the terms “hacking” and “marathon” and implies an intense, uninterrupted, period of programming to build something cool. A hackathon is usually a day long (can be even 36 hours, 48 hours, etc.) coding competition where software programmers, developers, designers, etc. come together in small groups and build working software prototypes from an idea in a limited amount of time.
Hackathons involve competition between teams at a high level. Mostly, there are money prices to be won for the first, second and third best idea which is decided by a Jury. The emphasis is on the realization of an idea. Most colleges these days organize hackathon events for their students.
Makerspaces, sometimes also referred to as innovation centres are creative, DIY spaces where people can gather to create, invent, tinker, explore, discover, learn and create things using a variety of tools and materials available on hand. Maker Spaces are often equipped with 3D printers, software, electronics, craft and hardware supplies, tools, and more. Many Maker Spaces also offer mentoring and coaching support for people to learn or create things. There are several Maker Spaces sprouting up in metro cities these days where DIY enthusiasts come together to innovate in a collaborative environment. Some colleges have also set up DIY labs / Maker Spaces.
Entrepreneurship cells are typically setup in educational institutions - dedicated to promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship among students. That is, to bring out entrepreneurial flair in students.
Entrepreneurship cells often organize business modelling and business plan contests for students to come up with and present their business ideas to a jury for mentoring and/or funding support. They also organize training programmes and tech talks to help budding innovators hone their skills and expand their knowledge base. Entrepreneurship cells also provide networking opportunities for students to interact and learn from prominent entrepreneurs, industry professionals and venture capital agencies.
Business incubators are facilities established to nurture young (start-up) firms during their early months or years. It usually provides affordable space, shared offices and services; hand-on management & business related trainings, mentoring, marketing support; help with commercialization; and often, access to some form of financing. The sole purpose of a start-up incubator is to help entrepreneurs grow their business. Many colleges these days have incubators to encourage innovation among their student community.
Start-up accelerators, also known as seed accelerators, are fixed-term, cohort-based programs, that include mentorship and educational components and culminate in a public pitch event or demo day. Unlike business incubators, the application process for start-up accelerators is open to anyone, but highly competitive.