Alongside the International Conference on Co-operatives in the Changing World of Work , India's first ever coopathon was organized on the first two days of the conference with support from the ICA-EU Partnership, IIM Kozhikode, Kerala Startup Mission and UL Technology Solutions, to promote the involvement of youth and technology in co-operatives. Over 20 teams were competing for cash prizes upto 60,000 and a chance to be mentored by some of the best incubators in the region.

Mr. Jithin Chakkalakkal from ULTS began the Coopathon by explaining about the concept. He said that over the course of the 48-hour-long event 24 participants from across the region will work on addressing the challenges faced by the regional cooperative movement. The aim of the Coopathon was to have four multi-stakeholder teams of up to five members each (academicians, researchers, policy-experts, co-operators, incubators, technology enthusiasts etc. on each team) deliberating on the shortlisted problem statements.

Contestants sat in groups which were assigned mentors and discussed the statement of the problems. Two parallel tracks, one with 8 teams and the other with 16 teams had an intensive discussion with experts from the field. The participants were seriously engaged with their statement of problems and the mentors helped them move forward by clearing their queries on the spot.

Counting down to the end of the Coopathon

The winning ideas were a smart shoe designed to track employees for attendance management, artificial intelligence for environment detection to empower people with visual disabilities and a co-operative Uber model application for improved access to basic services. You can watch a brief snapshot of the proceedings of the Coopathon in this video, made by teams of Kerala Start-Up Mission and ULTS.