In a first of its kind, 300-odd startups from across the 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh will come together on the sprawling campus of Koneru Lakshmaiah University at Vaddeswaram in Guntur district to ideate, collaborate and become part of a global community.
The young innovative minds will collectively participate in Climathon 2016, a global event that unites cities across six continents for 24 hours to work for climate, organised by EIT’ Climate-KIC, EU’s main climate innovation initiative, scheduled on October 28.
City-based ‘Y’ Square Business Incubation is facilitating the event in collaboration with KLU. On this day, teams in every city engage on social media to exchange ideas with participants from across the world. The best team in each city receives coaching and support from Climate-KLC after the Climathon to move their idea forward together with the city itself.
Inviting students, entrepreneurs and policy-makers to come with their ideas on city-specific issues such as urban planning, infrastructure, housing, water use, waste removal and satellite data, Y. Ratna Kumar, CEO and Managing Director of Y-Square, says active participation in a global event like Climathon at this crucial juncture when Andhra Pradesh is in its nascent stage could be of enormous help.
Climathon brings together the challenges of the world’s cities with the people who have the passion and ability to solve them. “Hosting a Climathon event will enable and inspire individuals in the State to develop solutions to current issues faced in parts of AP. These solutions will be developed over a span of 24 hours and on a global platform, giving the participants the global spotlight to arrive at the best solutions. Worldwide, the event will be hosted in 121 cities.”
To play mentors to the participants, close to a dozen experts from across the Europe have been roped in. They include Daniel Hires, Project Manager at SwitchMed from Barcelona area; Galina Emelina, visual facilitator and design thinking coach from Berlin, Germany; Scott Bolden, a sustainable solutions designer from Berlin; Charmaine Ho, marketing consultant from London; Eddie Capstick, Director at MakeSense, London, UK; Guglielmo Apolloni, a designer and social-entrepreneur from Milan; Darino Onoprienko (Innovation for Sustainability) from Berlin in Germany; Fiamma DeglInnocenti, design thinker, from Berlin; and Heide Puckert from Hamburg, Germany.
