Androvation 2019
After fantastic growth and improvement in just two years, the third iteration of the Androvation programme promised great things: another opportunity for the budding entrepreneurs at St Andrew’s College to create and develop business ideas to solve real world problems.
After an extremely successful 2018 programme, there was plenty to live up to. The programme kicked off on Friday evening with an insightful look at innovation and entrepreneurship with Dr Steven Hitchcock, a lecturer at the University of Sydney in the discipline of International Business. Dr Hitchcock inspired the participants to think about the breadth and depth of ideation and introduced a number of common pitfalls.
The ideation stage kicked off early on Saturday morning, with groups beginning to find their footing; a number of probing ideas and potential projects were entertained. Over the course of the day, we welcomed a number of knowledgeable business professionals to challenge the groups to think outside the box and truly consider: is this idea solving a real problem?
As ideas slowly morphed into existence and brains began to tire, each new insight into the business world reinvigorated the groups to view their business ideas in new ways. I would like to extend, once again, my sincere gratitude to the mentors over the course of the weekend: Steven Hitchcock, Alex Carpenter, Lisa Fedorenko, Sam Clarke, Dean Gingell, Tony Green, and Gerard Hines. This was the largest cohort of mentors we have ever had at an Androvation event, and we are all truly grateful for their time. I can say with confidence that the mentors added an element of excitement and rigour to the programme, and all the groups strongly benefitted from their expertise.
After a long Sunday putting together a presentation deck for their ‘Minimum Viable Product’ (MVP), the Androvation event culminated in pitch presentations to a panel of three judges. We heard from a total of four groups on the evening: the first presenting an augmented reality application to bring textbook content to life, the second an online platform to re-think ethical tourism, the third a website to centralise and simplify consumer experiences at busy organisations, and the final group hoping to make scholarships more accessible and easy to apply for. After a long period of deliberating, the judges awarded the winning prize to the third group, InSync, comprised of Monty Hannaford, Lachlan Martin, and Grace Papworth.
In summary, we had an extremely successful Androvation 2019. I would like to thank all the participants this year for their hard work and dedication. I know this process is extremely challenging and intense. We had some brilliant ideas this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing them come to fruition. I hope to see the programme continue to grow from strength to strength over the coming years!
Xander Hoskinson (Fr 2018)
Pictured (L-R): Hester Wilson, Steven Hitchcock, Craig Wilson, Lachlan Martin (Fr 2019), Grace Papworth (Fr 2019), Monty Hannaford (Fr 2019)
Photographed by Minami Takahashi (Fr 2014)