It felt different the moment it started. With music thumping, secondary school students marched onto the stage, striking poses in front of a dozen cameras pointed at their direction. They seemed confident on persuading the panel of five C-level executives that the business plans of their tech-powered solutions, crafted to address various social issues, deserve the grand prize at the IdeaPOP! 2024 Final Pitch and Award Presentation, held in early May.
Sponsored by Citi and organized by the charity organization SEED Foundation, IdeaPOP! is an inter-school start-up pitch competition for secondary school students. For four hours, the finale’s atmosphere was uplifting, energetic and touching at times, with non-stop actions throughout.
Cheering was heard throughout the afternoon, as students applauded their peers’ performances, despite being in competition with them. When the team from St. Mary’s Canossian College was awarded the Third Runner-up honor, it was the students from Sacred Heart Canossian College who jumped up from their seats first, delighted for the juniors from their sister school. The project, “Stand By Me”, aims to address the anxieties of those who lose loved ones in sudden circumstances, deprived of the chance of a proper goodbye and closure. The students used Google Colab and Python to develop an AI chatbot which, when trained with the deceased’s voice and image, can simulate video chats. Their business plan calls for backend detection on extended usage and other signs for concern, and has B2B and B2C pricing and marketing plans. The oldest team member is in Form 2.
Aveline San, CEO and Head of Banking for Citi Hong Kong & Macau, was one of the judges. She said, “When evaluating the business plans, we are not merely looking for breakthrough creativity. We also place great emphasis on the students’ ability to fully understand the social issue at hand and to show empathy to those in need.” IdeaPOP! participants have access to an online resource hub that dispenses business planning advice such as market segmentation, market and competitive research, funding sources for social businesses, etc. All 320 qualified students can pick the brains of a pool of mentors from business, technology, and social sectors. “To create a real impact, their plans need to be scalable, economically feasible and achievable,” Aveline added.
The supportive “older” team from Sacred Heart Canossian College went on to grab the First Runner-up prize themselves. Their project “COMPLUS” addresses households’ food waste, and similarly come with a logistic solution to deliver such waste from homes to businesses as fertilizers, and profit & loss projections. Thomas Hung, teacher-in-charge of the team and who was present at the finale, commented, “IdeaPOP! is very different from competitions that we have taken part in. It is a fun, rewarding and memorable experience for students to learn and to shine. Most of all, it’s exciting. Even the qualifying rounds held over Zoom were exciting.”
“IdeaPOP! is fun and exciting because it was designed that way,” says Danny Lee, a seasoned venture capitalist and chairperson of SEED Foundation, who is also one of the judges. “We are encouraging students to keep exploring to find their passions and purpose. Finding your passions and purpose is fun and exciting, and IdeaPOP! needs to capture this essence.”
Everything at the event seems to have this theme throughout. Even the music performance featured young buskers who themselves are pursuing their dreams to be professional musicians. Their set ended with a song about how we all can be stars, if we can find our right place in life.
With tech transforming industries and skills that are valued in the future workplace, “finding the right place” can be both exciting and overwhelming for students. Three IdeaPOP! 2024 finalist teams presented plans that address the uncertainties today’s students face. This year’s Champion team, “TechXplorers” from ELCHK Lutheran Academy, integrated gamification and virtual reality (VR) to let students explore university courses and earn digital certifications, providing students with a clearer vision of future pathways while enhancing their academic portfolios. The Second Runner-up team “Talent Explorer” from TWGHs Kap Yan Directors’ College, also focused on helping students’ career planning with VR. Citing research that 60% of youths do not have clarity on their futures, and 80% of career planning sessions involve merely listening to talks, they aim to use VR to help student explore various careers in a more experiential manner.
Cindy Chow, CEO of Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund (AEF), isn’t surprised future path exploration is a top-of-mind issue for students. “Career advice used to be dispensed by one’s seniors. How do we do this now, when new jobs, industries and careers are springing up all the time?” asks Cindy. Cindy conceptualized SEED Foundation, the organizer of IdeaPOP!, a few years ago, and later registered it as an independent charity. AEF continues to be a major sponsor of SEED, which added Lee Hysan Foundation as a strategic sponsor last year. One of SEED’s programs provides secondary school students with month-long, full time work experience on digital-related projects. “Better let them explore what’s out there first hand,” adds Cindy. Eighteen organizations have signed up to offer spots for this summer.
“Technology advancement is changing the skills needed in the workplace at an unprecedented pace. Educators are doing the best to keep up, and it’s not easy,” comments Aveline of Citi. “We in the corporate sector can, and have a responsibility to, help nurture the talent we need in the future. IdeaPOP! offers a glimpse of the brilliance we can unleash in our next generation when corporate, social and education sectors work together. We are delighted that the future of our society rests on such a bright, innovative, and purposeful young generation.”