A! Innovation Showcase

 2014 Innovation Showcase Feedback

By Lionel Kgatla for Ubuntuvation Youth Organisation

Ubuntu-Botho and Innovation

Name of Event/Activity        : 2014 Activate! Change Drivers Innovation Showcase

Venue                                                : Alpha Conference Centre, Magaliesburg

Date                                        : 17^th to 18^th January 2014 – Travel dates excluded

Ubuntuvation Contingent  : Sydney Mathebula, Tholakele Molelekwa, Thulisile Buzani, Nkululeko Ntuthu, Maphuthi Choung, Lionel Kgatla & Bongani Hlatshwayo

Purpose                                 : The GreeInland Project Pitching

“Everything already exists in our infinite Universe. All we need to do is to allow ourselves experience the beauty and riches of life, to let these Divine gifts in our existence, to open ourselves to the unlimited , unconditional love and all the blessings that it brings with it, to open the door and let the triumph and success into our habitat”. – Zlatoslava Petrak

Greetings honourable Ubuntuvators,

Let me first of all start by briefly explaining what the Innovation Showcase is. The Innovation Showcase is a major highlight on the Activate! Calendar because it is an opportunity for all activators to gather in one space to meet each other and share their experiences and passions. Activators’ ideas, initiatives and projects will be on show as part of the Showcase Expo and will add to the rich fibre of the event. Imagine two days of innovation, exploration, interactive workshops, inspirational guest speakers, sharing ideas around transformational change.

The whole programme for the Showcase is wrapped around innovation and inspiration to stimulate and expand thinking horizons as expressed through the theme: “Inspiring Possibilities”. Below I will provide the feedback guided by some of the titles outlined in the event programme.  

Day One

1. Inspiring possibilities with David Harrison, Siyabulela Xuza and Gcina Mhlophe

-       This session was full of inspiration as the above-mentioned speakers shared their life experiences, their achievements and success stories. David Harrison shared his miracle when he and four other friends survived a slide of large masses of snow and ice down a mountain in 1988 after cold four days with no water and food. That indeed is inspiring as it shows resilience. The Harvard University graduate and a rocket man Siya Xuza came in and shared the mystery behind his love for science. As he went on to enjoin us his experiences been in the MIT labs I concluded that Xuza was on point when he said: “Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon” no wonder he has a minor planet named after him. Indeed that is very inspiring from a young man who hails from Eastern Cape, eMtata to have done such amazing things extending to meeting Nelson Mandela and Barrack Obama family just to mention but two. uMama Gcina Mhlophe inspired us by her story telling attributes, it had me reminiscing my time in grade 8 learning about her during Arts & Culture classes, she taught us how to nurture an opportunity until it yields your desired results. What a brave woman she is...she said the youth have grandmother Google to tell us stories of the past.

2. !magine a Country...Engaging with South Africa’s top public innovators.

-       This one was full of innovation and inspiration. We had to interact with an abundance of top innovators who are doing great things to innovate and inspire the world. The few are LIveSA magazine, querio – a survey and mindset learn mobile application, bread bin interactive – a company that distribute basic education content and materials online for schools and Community Development Resource Association – CDRA is an NGO offering a variety of services to not-for-profit initiatives around the world, particularly those concerned with development.

3. !magine Youth... sharing ideas and imagining opportunities.

-       In this session we were grouped according to provinces and sharing ideas with each other as to what can we do to strengthen the network and continue to drive change provincially. The session culminated in developing a database of our details with the aim to establish a collective provincial team with regional representations per districts that will serve to bolster the network and centralize opportunities.

  

4. Refuelling at the Activate! Cafe...resourcing, connecting and engaging.

-       We were introduced to a candid of all possibilities through innovation as we interacted with about 30 or more top innovators who descends from both business and civil societies. Here we were at liberty to resource by collecting different tools and materials from various stalls ranging from books, manuals, articles, brochures and pamphlets. Furthermore we got to connect and engage with other fellow young innovators about partnerships and further capacity building.

5. iShift Launch...James Thomas memorial with special guest Colleen Thomas 

-       The widow of one of the late founding fathers of Activate! James Thomas who was short recently in Nairobi Colleen Thomas introduced an online platform for activators to utilise. The online resource is called iShift Mindsets. iShift is an online entrepreneurial mindset development platform established in 2010 by Allan Gray Orbis Foundation. It is based on attitudes distilled from the Foundation’s five pillars:

·         Achievement Excellence

·         Personal initiative

·         Spirit of Significance

·         Courageous Commitment

·         Intellectual Imagination

-       iShift allows you to explore and unlock your inner entrepreneurial leadership ability through this self-directed learning system. The immense value of critical self-analysis and the spaces in which we operate are augmented by iShift through its reflective platforms and tools that can unlock your inner potential through the multitude of insights that it provides. This is especially useful, as it allows individuals to focus on their specific personality traits, providing a far more appropriate system of learning, where these skills and underlying self-knowledge can be used to hone Activators’ abilities to be successful public innovators. 

Day Two

1. Introduction to elevator pitches...here we were been introduced to the proceedings to follow in the showcase expo. We were given 2014 Innovation Showcase Catalogue which contained the projects to be pitched at the Showcase. One out of many other interesting objectives of the booklet is it serves as a point of connection: it could connect people with similar interests or ideas and it could connect existing projects with potential projects.
2. Elevator pitch expo...this is the moment where The GreeInland was sold at a greater scale and we had different people including activators and facilitators with five stickers each. The stickers were for pasting on the project that you like on the stalls. Ten projects that had the most stickers won R 2500 cash prize and R 7 500 Voucher towards the development of the project. I would like to extend my appreciation of the support that fellow Ubuntuvators contributed during the expo.
3. Activate! Years two and three - Chris Meintjes...as much as year one is the year of forging a network of change drivers. Year two is a phase of strengthening the Activate! Network of change drives. This is a phase where activators connect to each other, enrich the network and each other with their dynamism and diversity and increase their effectiveness individually and collectively. Furthermore, year three is the phase of activating leadership for public innovation. Activate! Is a credible force and role player in the public domain, raising expectations of what is possible for young people to achieve, for business to cooperate and for government to deliver?

-       Graduates of year one are supported to establish;

Connections Hives: Nationally networked focus specific action group

Local Stations: Purpose driven local networks

The Switch: Project development Forums; turning ideas into reality

-       And contribute to:

Activate! Engage: Fostering discussion, and activate partnerships within and beyond the network into public domain.

Including Activate! Exchanges (dialogue), Our Voice (blog), Post (e-newsletter) and the Junction (an online resource bank).

AQ [IQ + EQ = AQ]

Activating enquiry and building mental muscle through seminars, workshops and formal NQF studies and online learning platforms

Starting at NQF level 5 Certificate in Community development

4. Activate! Presents...here Activate! Awarded people who helped with the recruitment drive for 2014 activators. 5 activators received R 500 worth of airtime each and other two activators managed to receive a Samsung mini Tab and Samsung Tab 2 gadgets. Furthermore the session got more seriously exciting when the announcement of ten most voted projects out of 87 that were presented during the elevator pitch expo arrived. Our project the GreeInland was announced second out of the ten and awarded R 2500 cash prize and R 7500 voucher towards the advancement of the project. The money can be redeemed by emailing the Activate offices. Ladies and gentlemen let me inform you that during this moment I managed to shed a tear having to reminisce about the toiling that was involved in making sure that both UYO and The GreeInland Project are visible and convincing to the masses. Those tears indeed did not reflect pain but victorious joy. My notion towards the money is we must not rush to redeem it since we don’t even have a bank account. I suggest that we act smart and open a bank account whilst equally strengthening our executive structure because it is a fact that when money is involved we need to have a robust and legit structure that will serve and account on both narrative organisational and financial reports.

4. Celebrations...This was the moment where we celebrated been activators. We were awarded attendance certificates for the 2014 Innovation Showcase. Moreover, we received six different coloured bracelets that serve as a reminder of what we experienced in our first year. These spheres/pillars represent the core focus areas of the programme.

·         Purple – Identity.

·         Blue – Innovation.

·         Green – Leadership.

·         Yellow – Articulation.

·         Orange – Socio-political navigation. 

·         Red – Activate change.  

Of the sixth sense

1.    Conversations I had at the showcase...

...with Ms Mpho Maphologela – she runs an events company EventsGirl. In our conversation emerged the launch of UYO and as much as she agreed to help us organize the launch she also warned when picking a date and location of the event. Nonetheless Ms Maphologela promised to email me the necessary information and templates regarding the launch moreover she was more than willing to conduct research for us and come up with a suitable date and venue of the launch. She said the documents should reach us by the end of this week. The templates shall be used by us in order to come up with the necessary information she needs.

...with Ms Kanyisa Booi – Administrator-in-chief of Young Generational Thinkers (YGT), an organization based in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Ms Booi and I spoke volumes about introducing Expanded Public Works Programme – Non-State Sector programme for the unemployed youth in our areas and provinces. The programme funds the creation of work opportunities only the civil society arena so we are suitable to participate. Without any further delays Ms Booi has emailed us the necessary application documents this morning. The documents need to be filled and returned by 27^th January 2014. What needs to be done is to respond accordingly to their invitation to participate in this opportunity to change lives of youth.  

...with Mokgadi Phokobye – Ms Phokobye is a UJ student who is passionate about environment. She hails from Limpopo and has always wanted to start an environmental initiative. Her vision is still an idea under construction so we exchanged contacts details and agreed we will communicate further on how she can partner with us as far as environment is concerned.

...with Ms Flow – she works for a Corporate Social Investments company based in Gauteng. Ms Flow originally hails from Limpopo and she is willing to assist us get proper funding to realize our idea. I asked Ms Choung to take her contact details as she requested that I email her our documents so that she is abale to look for relevant programmes that suits us and UYO. Flow is her nickname; I assume Maphuthi has recorded her full names when taking her details.

NB: To all who attended the Showcase please share your conversations with us.

2.    Tools and materials I collected at the showcase...as I mentioned earlier that we collected different types of material and tools ranging from books, manuals, articles, pamphlets and brochures that will build us become better public innovators. Below is the list of what I have managed to collect:

-       How to set up past pupils’ association

-       100 Thoughts on advancement

-       Energising civil society by inspiring a passion for philanthropy

-       Pocket guide: Leadership for Advancement

-       Funding basics

-       Building relationships with potential donors

-       Striking the rights chord

-       Organization in development: Points of view

-       In conversation

-       iShift Mindsets

-       2014 Innovation Showcase Catalogue

-       The Corporate Social Investment Handbook

-       The phases of individual human development

-       The phases of organisation development

-       The NGO as a unique organisational type

NB: Everyone is welcome to share with us what they have collected.

3.    Potential recruits...Joel Mokone and Butji Mclean Mpogeng have informed me about their availability so serve in UYO so I suggest that we look into it and approach them into becoming part of our progressive team.