The first Creathon 2020 was organised by the Singapore National Co-operative Federation (SNCF) on January 18 and 19 at ‘A Good Space’ at Clarke Quay (https://www.facebook.com/AGoodSpaceSG/). 200 young individuals participated in two categories: School category for secondary school students and Open category for youth in the age group of 17-35. The objectives of Creathon were to:
- Raise awareness about cooperatives
- Create new cooperatives that address social issues
- Foster strong social enterprise community
- Instill entrepreneurship and cooperative mindset when young
The event was kickstarted by an opening address from Mr. Kwek Kok Kwong, Chairman, SNCF. This was followed by a session on the basics of cooperatives which included introduction to cooperative principles, the global cooperative scenario, comparison of cooperatives with other enterprises, and steps to set up a cooperative in Singapore. The first session in the open category was by Mr. Justin Lee from the Institute of Policy studies, Singapore. His presentation on, ‘From Designing Cooperatives to Designing Cooperation’ touched on the application of ‘design thinking’ in the development of cooperatives. Mr. Mathew Poh, from The Caffeine Experience motivated the audience through his personal experience from being an offender to an entrepreneur. Mr. Aaron Soon, co-founder of Bev.Eat Pte Lt shared his insights on how the first two cooperative principles ensure cooperatives are structured to scale and sustain social impact. After the knowledge sessions, the participants gathered in groups to fine tune their ideas.
The second day began with Mr. Roy Chong, a founding partner of FRESHER, an online meal delivery service, explaining that while starting any enterprise, one must tackle different elements like strategy, competitors, sales, human resource and to address the right elements in their order of importance. Mr. Daniel The, who defined himself as the offender turned social entrepreneur, highlighted the social element of his venture, Popejai Pte. Ltd. He shared that 90% of Popejai’s workforce is derived from marginalised sections of the community. The final session was by Ms. Tan Bao Yi of NVPC Knowledge and Insights on, ‘Sector insights of 2019’, with special emphasis on environment, low income and mental health .
The final session was the pitch by participants on their cooperative business plans to a five-member panel of judges. The evaluation criteria included: idea/ concept (40%), social impact (30%), application of idea (20%), and quality of pitch (10%).
The first prize in the open category was bagged by the team for their pitch to set up a tourism cooperative.
The winners in the open category
