Just like that, another Disrupt It Weekend is in the books. This past weekend marked the fourth Disrupt It Weekend-style event in Thunder Bay. If you are not familiar with these events, they are weekend-long events where individuals pitch ideas, form teams, and build the foundation for a business; and finally, participants finish with a pitch of the plan to a panel of judges.
Each year brings new themes, challenges, and opportunities which makes every year just as exciting as the last! This time, we partnered with EcoSuperior and EarthCare Thunder Bay and targeted issues surrounding environmental sustainability. Individuals were challenged to ‘think green’ and look at ideas that would create a significant positive environmental impact. We saw many different ideas pitched on Friday night, and from there, it was narrowed down to seven different ideas that would be developed over the weekend. Then, individuals self-formed teams around the seven following ideas:
- Divyland- Bring gardens to as many yards as possible through a monthly subscription program where they will install, maintain and harvest the garden while you get to keep the crops
- Event Green- An organization that would allow events to easily ‘go green’ by providing them with reusable dishware, recycling and compost bins, signage, and everything else needed to be a completely green event
- Jump Protein- Farming crickets to use as nutritional supplements and a variety of different protein products
- NXG- An electric scooter that operated like a bike and has the capacity to be smarter than your smartphone
- BinMe- An app that gamifies recycling by tracking how much and what you recycle, then awarding points to let users compete with friends and others in their community
- EcoNest Village- A tiny home movement in Thunder Bay that focuses on affordable housing, a sense of community, and having a low impact on the environment,
- Envirosavers- A mobile app that works similarly to other loyalty reward programs; it provides rewards to individuals trying to lower their carbon footprint.
After a long and dedicated 54 hours by all the teams, it was time to pitch. The teams were competing for 4 prizes; Grand Prize, Category Prize- Greenhouse Gas Emission, Category Prize- Sustainability Acton Plan, and People’s Choice Prize - which was determined on votes by all in attendance. It was a tough choice for the judges because all teams had put in a lot of work into validating their ideas and determining the impact that these ideas would have on the environment. The winners from this year’s Disrupt It Weekend are:
Grand Prize- Divyland
Category Prize- Greenhouse Gas Emission: Jump Protein
Category Prize- Sustainability Action Plan: Event Green
People’s Choice: Jump Protein
After the fourth year of having another Disrupt It-style weekend, we definitely don’t see this being the last! So keep those ideas going and we will see you in 2019!
