With the slogan “Live United – Creating trends, leading changes”, Social Open Innovation Village continues to lead efforts and initiatives to create change towards addressing social problems with a human-centered approach.
At the National Festival for Innovative Startups, Techfest 2021, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh directed “Innovation is a collective mission so we must have a collective approach for it. Innovation must also be the Revolutionary mission of the people”. Inspired by and carried out under the direction of the Prime Minister, since 2022, Social Challenge and Innovation Village has officially been renamed Social Open Innovation Village (SOIP), elevating its activities towards mobilizing and promoting collective efforts of the people with many different actors involved in solving organizational, governmental and social problems by utilizing open innovation.
Social Open Innovation Village (SOIP) aims to:
Capacity building
A series of Workshops on Social Open Innovation Startup
Startup support
Hackathon 2022 for inclusive development; Social Open Innovation Startup Forum programs for youth and women; Shinhan Square Bridge Award – Global Trach Award ($60,000 for 5 startups at Techfest 2022 to receive training and expansion support in Korea)
Investment networking
Host Techfest Vietnam in Korea 2022 and support connecting Vietnamese – Korean startups and investors.
Policymaking
High-level policy forum on Social Open Innovation.
Head of Village
Ms. Nguyen Phuong Linh
Executive Director of Management and Sustainable Development Institute (MSD), United Way Vietnam
Co-Head of Village
Ms. Hooyung Young
Vice President of United Way Worldwide Southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea
Co-Head of Village
Ms. Tran Van Anh
Program Director of MSD –
United Way Vietnam
With Vietnam’s transition to a higher value economy, the country faces different social challenges such as matching jobs and youth with different skill sets, inequalities in education access and inclusion among disadvantaged groups and communities, etc. Particularly, the turmoil of COVID-19 pandemic triggers the uncertainty and increase the vulnerability of this under- severed population. Thus, more social challenges need to be solved through an innovation living-lab.
Initiated by Shinhan Square Bridge project team in Vietnan, Management and Sustainable Development Institute cooperated with National Economic University (NEU) and then Happy Women Leader Network (HLWN) Vietnam launch Social Challenge and Innovation Village (VISION) in Techfest 2021. VISION is designed as a living lab of joint efforts of different stakeholders including investors, NGOs, government agencies, communities, media and different development actors to join with startup/ corporates to Identify issues/challenges/opportunities, Seek the opportunities, and Create changes. The VISION is critically essential to connect the “owner of the challenge” to the “solver/innovator” to translate the theory into practice in the changing context toward sustainable development.
The VISION in Techfest 2021 is a platform for innovation and technology startups, in partnership with other stakeholders, to creates values to Vietnam communities. Therefore, the key focus of the village is to promote and accelerate innovation and technology to create inclusion for development. The Village’s slogan is “Live United – Creating trend, leading changes”.
The Village’s activities are sponsored by Shinhan Square Bridge coordinated by MSD/UWW and the contribution from Program 844 coordinated by NEU
Head of VISION Techfest 2021/ Executive Director of the Management and Sustainable Development Institute
Co–head of VISION Techfest 2021/ Program Coordinator 844 at National Economic University/ Program 844
Co – head of VISION Techfest 2021/ Program Director of MSD/ United Way Vietnam
Co – head of VISION Techfest 2021/ Vice – president of United Way Worldwide for Southeast Asia, Korea and Japan
Co–head of VISION Techfest 2021/ Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Happy Women Leader Network
Co–head of VISION Techfest 2021/Director of the Center for Science and Technology Application and Entrepreneurship, Vietnam Association for Intellectual Women
“Future Solution 2021” Contest of Vietnam Social Challenge and Innovation Village TECHFEST 2021 is a program to find, support and honor Vietnamese innovative startups operating at home and abroad with efforts to transform, adapt, survive and develop, contributing to the implementation of the dual tasks: effectively preventing and controlling the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring economic development while addressing social challenges.
The contest is expected to bring Vietnamese entrepreneurs and businesses connections in terms of financial resources, development partnerships, knowledge sources and also support from experts. Innovative startups joining the contest also have the opportunity to pitch in front of domestic and foreign investment funds and further expand their connections with experts and advisors in different fields.
Teams participating in the “Future Solution 2021” contest will focus on providing solutions to social challenges and issues in the following areas:
Solutions should aim to support and meet the needs of customers falling into at least one of the following groups: children, youth, women, people with disabilities, farmers, migrant workers, ethnic minorities, or other organizations/enterprises serving at least one of these customer groups.
Contest Rules and Regulations
3. Requirements:
Eligible participants
(1) Vietnamese individuals or people of Vietnamese origin who are living and working in and outside Vietnam regardless of gender, age, occupation and have innovative products/services/technology, has already had business registration and a sample product;
(2) The individuals who are eligible to participate in the contest are referred to as “Competition Team”;
(3) Techfest 2021 Contest will have 2 competing tables for companies with the following characteristics: