Good morning everyone,
Just a quick note regarding SM's comment " I don't see university students
showing interest."
Having a open event or a kiosk where students are expected to show up
doesn't work in most environment, whether in Mauritius or abroad. This has
been my experience everywhere across the world.
However, when interacting with a closed audience (some would say "captive"
- the best way possible!), the students quickly start sharing fantastic
ideas and projects that they never would have discussed in any other
setting. This has happened while visiting 3 different universities in
Mauritius, when interventions in specific classes led to great exchanges.
To link this back to Vincent's suggestion to hold the event during DevCon,
it seems like a great idea because 1) the audience will have a certain
interest just for showing up to the DevCon itself 2) it will be a "forced"
opportunity for said audience to meet the start-up community, whether they
act on this opportunity or not, and 3) hopefully it will spark some members
of the audience to have discovery moments such as the ones witnessed during
my campus tour last year that were great eye-openers for everyone involved.
By the way, Fast Company published their list of the world's most
innovative companies
<
http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/sectors/africa>
yesterday and it just so happens that Africa's third most innovative
company is African Leadership University <
http://www.alueducation.com>,
based here in Mauritius. Having been a facilitator there, I can vouch for
the discovery moment method that is proving to change the way people think
about education, but mostly how people think about *changing mindsets*.
If this thread on developing the start-up ecosystem in Mauritius should
serve any purpose, changing mindsets should be at the top of the list.
Just my thoughts :)
E.
On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 7:40 AM, S Moonesamy <sm+mu_at_elandsys.com> wrote:
> Hi Vincent, Ish,
> At 12:31 16-02-2016, vincent pollet wrote:
>
>> hmmm not sure what you meant but replace the word "crowd" by "public" if
>> you want. It has almost the same meaning for me :P
>>
>> Am not interested in politics but I hope, we could achieve awareness
>> regarding opportunities in Mauritius.
>>
>
> I read Ish's comment as meaning that the objective of an event should not
> be about filling a room with people. As a group we can either aim for 100
> persons in the audience or 10 persons in the audience. I usually prefer to
> have 10 persons who are interested instead of 100 persons who are there
> because the event is free.
>
> There was a news article in the weekend edition of the WSJ about startups
> in New York. It was interesting to read about the organization of a
> meeting about startups. Is there anything similar on the island?
>
> There was an event to get things started; it can be described as
> awareness. Why should the group do more awareness? There is a video of
> the event.
>
> I think having students is not a bad idea as they are the next generation
>> of startupers and leaders. Exposing them early to such debates could be a
>> great benefit for them and I don't think it will lower the level of
>> discussions.
>>
>
> I'll commend both Elizabeth and Vincent for volunteering to move forward
> with startups. I don't see university students showing interest. Ish has
> volunteered a lot of his time organizing events for university students
> over the last few years. I participated in two of the events. Although
> there was some discussion there wasn't the exchange of ideas to get the
> dynamics going.
>
> I don't think that the level of discussion is a problem. I'll comment
> about debates; the usual on the island is lecture style workshops. I
> wouldn't blame the audience for that.
>
> The leaders of this group are young and dynamic. The persons do not have
> to wait for the next generation to become leaders. :-)
>
> It will be our role to prepare interesting questions and stop sterile
>> topics, in order to make sure that this "startup event" is as interesting
>> as possible for everyone in the audience/crowd/public :P
>>
>
> I am waiting to hear the proposals which will make the event interesting.
> :-)
>
> I also would like to give credit to MIU for organising this event (and the
>> previous one). I don't know where we stand with the logo but it will be
>> great to have one by the then.
>>
>
> There is only one person who has volunteered to design a logo for free.
> I'll ask Shelly about that. Where will the logo be used?
>
> Regards,
> S. Moonesamy
>
>
--
<http://www.turbine.mu>
Received on Wed Feb 17 2016 - 05:52:36 PST