Donostia Innovation Challenge Week

Last Monday we went to the Kursaal with the aim of gaining knowledge about the different technologies are being developed nowadays, as well as to get an insight on the ways cutting-edge products are usually presented.

Reception:
My first impression wasn't specially pleasing as they made us wait for an eternity outside (which turned out to be worth because they gave us water bottles). We finally entered and find ourselves a little bit lost at first.

Welcome speech:
A woman came and gave us a speech (a kind of welcome and informative one), accompanied by two men who were supposedly a bussiness man and a Council worker.
Then, we were assigned different bracelets with different colors, and we had to head to the room that had the light which matched with the bracelet's color.

Exposure of disruptive technologies:
My team had as topic the 3D printing, the use of modern printers that enable you to print real objects with an array of different materials. We, my teammates and I, were supposed to think about an issue that affects Donostia and its citizens. We could not think of anything but a handler for the plastic bags at first, but we finally came up with the great idea of a menstrual cup with an incorporated software that processes every little change it is happening inside your vagina.

Motivational talk:
After we had defined more deeply our revolutionary idea, we were asked to attend a motivational talk where a man (Iker I think, perhaps Iñigo) told us his experience being a short sized teenager. I understood what he was trying to tell us about self-esteem and attitude when it comes to deal with something, but I could not stand his example of a terrible experience, he was just 10 cm below the average at 13, as if he was not going to grow. I did not really enjoy the talk due to its lenght and the way it was arranged, but I do not think it was a waste of time for everyone attending the talk.

Design thinking methodology:
After some (personally useless) odd games, a man explained us how to create an elavorated design of our idea. Meanwhile, another man with a graphic tablet was schematizing every idea the first man explained. At the end, we got a complex scheme with all the ideas we were expected to take into account.

Lunch:
They gave us a sandwich with fruit (quite decent) and we, my friends and I, spent the spare time to play Twister, joyful if you ask me. I would rather go for a walk just to hover over the area and have an ice cream, but we were not allowed to leave the installation, shame on them.

Energizer exercise:
Once we finished eating and playing, we went back to our ideas, but first we played some rating games in where we were asked to rate our level of tiredness, energy, or even our love for chocolate.

Visual thinking:
Afterwards, they gave us a block of post-its to each group to stick them to the walls as we came up with new aspects for our menstrual cup. After a few minutes of hard thinking, we chose one of the ideas as the best one (mine, unsurprisingly), the app to connect the menstrual cup to one's mobile phone.

Team working:
As the experience was coming to an end, we had to write our ideas about the product on a paper, properly written to appeal the possible customers.

Presentation to the companies:
The crucial moment arrived, we had to present our idea to the bosses of two companies. We were hesitating whether they would like our idea or not. But they approved it and claimed it as unique, a total win!
To sum up the experience, I found it interesting but I reckon that it lacked in many aspects.