Corporate Campus Challenge 2019/20

On Jan 16, 2020 we were proud to present the final pitches of the very first Corporate Campus Challenge 2019/20.

AUDI AG, IDS IMAGING DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS GMBH and GreenCycle Stiftung GmbH & CO KG partnered with the Campus Founders for the Corporate Campus Challenge 2019/20 providing the competing teams with different challenges and the prospect of winning a prize.

With its primary objective to bring together entrepreneurial talent from international background with the corporate and regional innovation ecosystem, the Corporate Campus Challenge started back in Oct 2019. What followed were twelve intense weeks full of creativity and innovation spirit with more than 70 participants joining the challenge.

During the kick-off session in Oct 2019, the companies introduced their challenges, asking the participants to choose between three major topics viz., Digital logistics and production processes, Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with autonomous industrial cameras and C02 neutral business trips. All three challenges on offer were designed to help the participants develop problem-solving understanding and ignite the entrepreneurial spark.

Corporate Campus Challenge 2019/20 Kick-off

The participants formed interdisciplinary teams based on the challenge selected and eventually got to know each other. In a Q&A session company representatives provided the competing teams with further input to give them a better understanding of the problem statement. The 11 teams were then introduced to the coaches offering the participants guidance and advice on the road ahead.

Soon after the teams settled in, it was time to incorporate creative confidence into the participants. Campus Founders’ principles aimed at creative confidence like Together Alone, Tangible > Discussion, Getting started > Being right and not relying fully only on creativity helped impart constructive creative thinking which essentially emphasizes quantity over quality during the ideation phase.

Once the ideation phase was over and the process gathered steam, the participants presented their respective “First Pitches” where they displayed their then state of work. This was followed by an information session about business concepts like understanding B2B and B2C contexts and know the various types of buyers viz., economic, technical, and user/buyer.

The next phase was prototyping and to give an in-depth view about it, the participants were taken on a tour to the MakerSpace Lab at Experimenta, Germany’s largest science center located in Heilbronn offering several interactive exhibits, creative studios, laboratories and an observatory. 

Since prototyping is one of the most vital phases, the participants learned about the various prototyping techniques, assimilating the iterative cycle of Build, Measure and Learn in their works and building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that helped culminate an efficient and effective prototype for their respective challenges. What followed this was a compelling blend of technology and innovation topped with entrepreneurial skills. The teams always strove for the best and after a remarkable journey of 12 weeks, it was time for the Graduation Day of the Corporate Campus Challenge.

The day for which we were waiting impatiently finally arrived and it was time to host the graduation day for our first Corporate Campus Challenge. 

The last day of the Corporate Campus Challenge with the pitch contest and get-together represented the crowning finale for 11 teams of the 12-week program. The teams pitched in their ideas and solutions in front of a great audience. The expert jury put the teams’ ideas to the acid test and critically evaluated them in the categories Best Problem Understanding, Best Pitch and Best Prototype. A special evening especially for the winning teams of the Challenges of Audi, IDS and Greencycle and the Audience Award.

It has been an impeccable start to the new year and the new decade for us.
Stay tuned. There’s a lot more to come.