IncuFest x UBD Entrepreneurs Week Feature Fresh Incubatees, Seasoned Alumni
November 14, 2022
Entrepreneurship Village (EV), Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) in collaboration with the Office of Alumni Relations and Advancement (OARA) organised the “IncuFest (Incubation Festival) x UBD Entrepreneurs Week” at the Student Centre of UBD from 14th to 17th November, 2022.
The “IncuFest x UBD Entrepreneurs Week” acts as a platform for student startups to showcase their businesses and innovative concept ideas to the public. From the August 2022 intake of the Discovery Year (DY) Incubation programme, 32 students from multi-disciplinary backgrounds showcased their business ideas in the entertainment, retail, food & beverages and services categories. The student startups underwent training in building entrepreneurial mindset and various skillsets through a series of workshops and activities to help develop their entrepreneurial projects during the semester.
Also participating in the four-day event were 8 well-established UBD alumni entrepreneurs. These alumni act as role models to current student startups; by illustrating entrepreneurship as a possible post-university pathway, as well as by sharing their knowledge, experience and wisdom in sustaining their businesses. Alumni of UBD, especially those businesses which are strategically aligned to the strengths and technical focus areas of UBD, may also join the UBD Startup Centre (USC) to incubate their businesses.
Officiating the event was Professor Dr Mohd Ayub Sadiq, UBD Assistant Vice Chancellor (Innovation & Enterprise) who also toured the showcase, comprising 29 individual and 5 group innovation projects, as well as displays from 8 UBD alumni entrepreneurs. In his speech, he mentioned that UBD is focused on collaborating with industries in various areas of mutual benefits, including joint research and development and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). These are done by leveraging its proven strength in teaching and research as evident from its recent improvement in Times Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking. EV and USC are two avenues that UBD has opened to outside organisations to collaborate with the university; by allowing industries to collaborate closely with UBD startups and alumni USC members.
During the event, the student startups also had the opportunity to pitch their business ideas to industry judges from Baiduri Bank, Shell LiveWIRE Brunei and Darussalam Enterprise (DARe). The LivePitch competition aims to ascertain the business-feasibility, innovativeness and sustainability of the ideas and concepts, as well as to give feedback to the startups before progressing their ideas for further research and development as well as commercialisation.
The event is held twice a year to establish a dynamic and supportive innovation ecosystem for startups and entrepreneurs at the university, in line with UBD’s mission of becoming a “University of Innovation and Enterprise”.
Pg Dr Emeroylariffion Pg Hj Abas and Nurul Aqilah Hj Muzani
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