I had the privilege to take part in the inaugural Nordic Life Science Innovation Challenge (http://www.biopeople.dk/index.php?id=819) this past weekend from 5 September to September 7. I found out about the opportunity on the KTH innovation website. Ironically, the majority of the event took place in building Q, where our exercises take place.
Half the folks flew in from Copenhagen and most were well into their graduate degrees or were involved with their own start ups already. It was quite the experience to network with these individual from many walks of life with impressive track records. I was put into a group that consisted of a Dane, a Belarusian, and a German (yes, quite the diversity).
I was expecting more of an event with training on pitching an idea, but ultimately it was a case competition centered on the biotech industry. The 6 or so ideas we as a group could choose from were given to us, some more open-ended than others. I didn’t have the background as the others did on biotech and life sciences but I sought to input as much of my perspective as I could throughout Saturday and Sunday. Nonetheless, my biggest takeaway was the impressive collaboration and mix of varying viewpoints that drew together to come up with a 5-minute pitch to a jury of established entrepreneurs with only 10 hours of work.
Considering that this was the first time this event was held, I was and still am impressed by the quality of it, the presenters that came to speak, and most importantly, the diversity that was represented. I was told that this is something that will take place on an annual basis together with the Nordic Life Science Days in Stockholm. If anything, this is a great networking opportunity with individuals that have tremendous entrepreneurial spirit. I hope to participate in it again and I highly recommend it to those that will be here in the coming years!
And I will leave you all with a couple of pictures of the participants and the coordinators of the event:
#Dreamgineering