Empowering Startups: Opencampus Prototyping Week in Kiel

At the beginning of March, Opencampus, an educational initiative, hosted its Prototyping Week in Kiel, where participants worked on a startup project within a week. They could either bring their own idea or work on someone else's. At the start, each idea was presented to the group, teams were formed and everyone got to know each other.

The business ideas came from all sorts of topics: From dog treats made of cheese, an AI-supported beauty product finder to a healthy work chair. A few people already had a running business and needed some help in website building or marketing, too.

Approximately 50 people participated, working on a total of 16 ideas. The week was divided into working phases and workshops covering topics such as artificial intelligence, business model development, presentation skills, and pitching. In addition, prototypes were created and tested with customers to gather feedback.

At the end of the week, each team had the opportunity to pitch their project in a beautiful local cinema hall and receive further feedback. The week concluded with an Aftershow party in a cozy coworking space and café.

Personally, this week gave me so much energy and confidence in working on my Startup ideas and sharing my experiences with others. It is an amazing feeling to be surrounded by like-minded folks who want to build something valuable for society. I would love to do this multiple times a year as it was amazing to see what can be achieved within a week.

I think these types of focused work weeks should be mandatory in schools and jobs to craft important skills of students and employees. Not only work-related skills, but for life basically.

I am glad that Opencampus is offering such amazing experiences in my town. They are also an education program with lots of different courses about Machine Learning, Game Development and Starting a Startup. For more information have a look at their website or Linkedin:

Website: edu.opencampus.sh

Linkedin: linkedin.com/school/opencampus-sh/

By <a href="https://wsa-global.org/person/marvin-ottersberg/">Marvin Ottersberg</a>