OVER 101 teams from across Guyana, with two to five members each, in two age categories of 14-17 years and 18-21 years, recently participated in the much-anticipated Ideathon-Guyana 2022 held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.

The teams were dealing with problems currently affecting Guyana’s Education, Entrepreneurship, Environment and Health sectors provided by the respective ministries to the organisers.

Based on a one-page summary of their proposed project concept, these 101 teams were whittled down to 35 teams – 17 teams in the 14-17 years category and 18 teams in the 18-21 years category.

Over 125 participants from these two categories were present at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Sunday, December 11, 2022.

A team of expert advisers/mentors chosen by the organisers in collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister’s Industry and Innovation Unit and the University of Guyana was at hand to offer advice and mentorship to these teams to help them better understand the problems they were dealing with as well as how to present their solutions in an appropriate way.

The Mentors comprised of Dr. Quincy Jones, Director of School of Allied Health of University of Guyana; Eric Phillips, Lecturer at University of Guyana; Diana Gobin, Lecturer in Department of Environment at University of Guyana; Malik Williams, a talented ICT Engineer & Digital Consultant and Shahrukh Hussain, Director of the Office of the Prime Minister, Industry and Innovation Unit.

This was followed by judging of these presentations by the panel of judges comprising of well-known experts.

The judges adjudged the teams in two groups – one group judging the 14-17 years category and the other judging the 18-21 years category. The participants’ enthusiasm was visible since the morning when they set up their booths at 19:30 hours.

The final rounds were held in the afternoon inside the central dome of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. The top seven contenders from each category were given the opportunity to present their reports/presentations in front of a packed audience of about 250 people, including the Diplomatic Corps, Minister for Public Service – Sonia Parag, Minister for Human Services and Social Security – Dr. Vindhya Persaud, Members of Parliament, including Ganesh Mahipaul of the Opposition, Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana – Prof. Paloma Mohamed, businessmen/entrepreneurs, Civil Society, NGOs among others.

Former Captain of the West Indies Cricket Team, the legendary Sir Clive Lloyd, was also present in the audience.

Based on Judges’ decision, four prizes were given in each age group category, including Overall Best prize, followed by three Runners-up prizes.

The winners were awarded with trophies, medals, certificates, gift hampers as well as a hefty cash prize consisting of US$ 400 to each team member of the winning team that won the overall prize, US$ 300 for each team member of the first Runner-up team, US$ 250 to each team member for the second Runner-up team and US$ 200 to each team member of the third Runner-up team.

Mr. Athrav Kotehal Gowdara, a student of Class 12 at the Guyana International Academy ( American International School of Guyana) initiated the IdeathonGuyana 2022 concept, based on advice and mentorship received from Peter Han – founder of SkyTree mentoring; Eldon Marks, Founding Director of V75 Inc. and Shahrukh Hussain, Director of Office of the Prime Minister’s Industry and Innovation Unit.

Athrav then teamed up with his colleagues – Pratham Joshi of St. Mary’s International School of Tokyo, Yash Saxena from Monte Vista High School, California USA and Lucien Stanley of the American School of Georgetown.

They reached out to the Ministries of Health, Education, Tourism/Commerce/Industry and Natural Resources of the Government of Guyana with the request for problem statements on the issues affecting Guyana currently, based on which the teams were asked to come up with innovative solutions.

In his speech, Athrav stated that his idea of promoting such Ideathon came as a result of him being the son of a diplomat (he is the son of Dr. K J Srinivasa, High Commissioner of India to Guyana), after travelling across over 40 countries, staying in six countries across five continents, where he saw a huge polarity between elite and non-elite, rich and poor people, the distinct challenges faced by the under-privileged across societies and the fact that he noticed that many young people having potential solutions to these problems never got a chance to be heard.

Athrav stated that he realised that he should do something in Guyana to provide solutions afflicting those sectors under this Ideathon.

This Ideathon aimed to promote a spirit of competition among the youth but at the same time to be an educative event being all inclusive – which was achieved with Youth from all across Guyana representing diverse socio-economic groups being present.

Their solutions to each of these problem sectors were well received by the judges/mentors and a wide range of audience who had come to observe the Ideathon in progress.

High Commissioner of India to Guyana Dr K J Srinivasa, in his speech, spoke about how India has become a centre for start-ups and entrepreneurship and the need for the youth of Guyana to pitch in to resolve these problems of Guyana.

He thanked all the stakeholders, sponsors and partners of the event while giving a call to the youth of Guyana to continue their innovative journey and strive for excellence in the future.

He charged the youth of Guyana to always keep “country first” motto in their thoughts and actions and hoped that the event ignites the young minds of Guyana, the Government of Guyana/the entrepreneurial sector of Guyana to take necessary steps for this way forward.

Minister for Public Service, Sonia Parag, in her speech, thanked Mr. Athrav Kotehal Gowdara for the initiative and expressed her appreciation for the vast participation and innovative solutions presented by the participants.

She appreciated the competitive spirit of the Guyanese youth. The Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Prof. Paloma Mohamed, while commending the role by the various judges and mentors from the University of Guyana and the participants from the University of Guyana, also applauded the initiative and stated that the University of Guyana stands ready to support such initiatives in the future.

She appreciated the High Commission of India’s support for the initiative of Athrav.

The Overall winning team in the 14-17 years category was from Queen’s College – comprising of Ms. Vasanna Persaud, Ms. Sameera Shaw and Ms. Anaaya Jain, who gave a solution to an education sector problem.

The other winners in that category included teams from Marian Academy, Queen’s College and University of Guyana who presented projects in education, health and entrepreneurship sectors. The senior category of 18-21 years was won by a team from University of Guyana – Young Influencers Programme and included Ms. Terriann Wright, Andrew King and Jerry Collins. The other winning teams were from the University of Guyana and Amateur Groups – Chicken Fry Bytes and Ultimatus Electricus, which presented their projects in Environment and Education.

The winners of the Ideathon will now be encouraged to be a part of an Impact Lab which is proposed to be held (based on the availability of resources) in consultation and coordination with Office of the Prime Minister’s Industry and Innovation Unit, IDB Innovation Labs, V.75 Inc. TheBrainStreetGroup, Action Invest Caribbean Inc, University of Guyana amongst wherein their proposed solutions could be improved to a scalable level, bearing in mind the potential practicability of the solutions.

The event is deemed to have excited the youth of Guyana to participate in similar events in the future. More details on the event are available at www.guyana-ideathon.com.