The STE²M Economy
All aboard!
Today was a STE²M day. What's that? Females in Science, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Engineering, and Math.
I spent most of the day with Women helping other Women and Girls as well as with Dads of Daughters discussing strategies for girls to learn programming, challenges for female founders in Europe, and Enterprises looking for more great Channel Talent.
And it hit me. This is a new economy. (Take this survey to help us change the world around this! CLICK HERE!
The STE²M economy.
Did you know that studies in Africa show that children of mothers who have spent five years in primary education are 40% more likely to live beyond the age of five? And that if Egyptian women were employed at the same rate as men that country’s GDP would climb by 34%?
How do we grow this new Economy? STE²M (science, technology, entrepreneurship, engineering, and math) fields play a direct role in driving economic growth. Women in STEM jobs earn 33% more than those in non-STEM occupations and experience a smaller wage gap relative to men. And STEM careers offer women the opportunity to engage in some of the most exciting realms of discovery and technological innovation. Increasing opportunities for women in these fields is an important step towards realizing greater economic success and equality for women across the board.
We grow this one woman at a time.
the Change Makers
- Chics Connect has seen phenomenal growth and has taken some amazing initiatives for connecting women,who help each other to achieve their dreams,ambitions,missions as well as assist in everyday challenges life throws at a Neo-Age Women of today. Chics Connect is now present in Dubai, Jamaica, California, India and Denmark and is launching in Toronto, Turkey, Denmark and Australia soon. They have 4,800 members across the world!
Their fearless leader helping to create this new economy is Hurratul Maleka Taj - who is passionate and at 25, has already started 2 companies! I loved chatting with her today about her plans! Watch out world!
SonderConnect's goal is to support women entrepreneurs. Since their launch in April 2016, they have focused on mentoring and supporting their founders. The first batch of 13 founders have been mentored consistently over the period of six months. The founders are encouraged to approach SonderConnect even after their graduation from our mentoring program. Over the next few years their goal is to become the ultimate women entrepreneurs support and mentoring group. India being the oasis of startups, we believe there is immense potential for women lead organizations.
Their fearless leader is Lathika Pai, who is a serial entrepreneur and has over 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship. Her team consists of: Vaishali Kasture, Sejal Shah Gulati, and Anju Shenoy -- all amazing leaders and change makers. I have dinner with them each and every time I head to India!
Girls in Tech is focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of girls and women who are passionate about technology. Adriana Gascoigne founded GIT in 2007 to create a support framework to help women advance their careers in STEM fields. GIT has more than 50K members around the world!
Today, GIT aims to accelerate the growth of innovative women entering into the high-tech industry and building startups. They achieve this through the creation of proprietary, innovative programming and strategic global partnerships.
Today, I met with the new head of GIT Berlin, the fearless Nakeema Stefflbauer. She is founder of her startup helping everyone learn how to code, understand architecture, and more.
She is passionate about changing the game in Europe - especially the hub of entrepreneurship Berlin!
Women of the Channel - Bob Demarzo - Yes, men are supporting this new economy too!
The Women of the Channel connects women in telcom and IT Channels for the purpose of collaborating to grow their businesses, and to support each other with best practices and mentoring. Bob has his right hand leader -- Allison Hughes -- running the event, but Bob is actively engaged and very supportive.
Our discussion today was around how to help startups in the channel / sales aspects and to ensure that female founders and VCs are well represented!
Artificial Intelligence Colleges
OK.
I admit it. I am in love with Artificial Intelligence (aka AI).
As an undergraduate at Duke University, I took classes in it even though it is so far away from where AI is today!
So I played with an AI company - Graphiq - to find top AI colleges.
Below are the results!
Very intriguing!
Mexico Startups Take On Online Education and Stock Image Purchasing!
Congratulations to TutorOnline and Capptu.com, two web based platforms built to create efficiency in online education and stock image purchasing.
These two companies are well suited as Mexico's SmartCamp winners for their smart approaches to an ever growing need for imagery in marketing and on-the-spot education!
What's their story? TutorOnline is an online tutoring platform where any student can have access to a private tutor through our virtual classroom; anytime, anywhere.
Global Industry Analysis, market research firm, projects that by 2018 the global market for tutorials will reach $102.8 B USD, more than 30% will be coming from emerging markets. TutorOnline aims to be the leading online tutoring in Mexico and Latin America.
Capptu.com is a crowdsourced web platform designed to create a community of stock images that allows amateur and professional photographers to have their photos available for sale in a marketplace where potential buyers can acquire licenses. Purchasers can also convene competitions to order "on-demand" photos for any given particular purpose.
Capptu uses SoftLayer as their main server which gives support to all our back-end platform functioning.
Thanks again Capptu and TutorOnline for participating! Follow their stories @TutorOnlineMx and @Capptu.
For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Beijing SmartCamp Winners Revolutionize Dental Care and Recruitment in China!
Some exciting news comes our way today after this past weekend's Beijing SmartCamp event. Two innovative startups have created exciting solutions that will help revolutionize dental care and recruitment in China.
Congratulations to 51Hunter and Haoyayi for their exciting new products!
To give you a brief overview, 51Hunter uses an advanced algorithm to match talent seekers with talent in the industries of finance and banking. Because so much of China's gross domestic product is based on human capital, this algorithm serves to reduce the transaction cost of this match, and further deeply reduce recruitment costs.
Haoyayi has built a search engine to fill a much needed gap in pairing dental patients with quality dentists. China currently only has around three hundred state-owned dental hospitals and three hundred million patients. Most dentists in China are private and there are two-hundred thousand of them. This search engine will match the patient with the dentist through an internet search engine.
"Haoyayi has bright market foreground and the user needs will be very large in the future," said one audience member of Haoyayi's solution.
We're excited to continue to follow the stories of these startups in China and wish them well in their next round of IBM SmartCamps. Congratulations Haoyayi and 51Hunter!
For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Singapore Startup Makes Waves in Creating Innovative Internet of Things Smart Grid Technology!
Some exciting Internet of Things news out of Singapore this week! Congratulations to gridComm for winning this week's Singapore pitch competition and moving along to the next virtual challenge stage of IBM SmartCamp 2015!
So what is GridComm all about? To put it simply, they are building energy-aware smart devices that react to conditions on the electricity grid and implementing an Internet of Things network based on the existing power grid. That's why we say they are absolutely making waves in building Smarter Cities!
To put it more specifically, gridComm aims to transform cities into smart cities by providing the power line communications semiconductors, devices and systems that enable the transformation of the electricity grid into a smart grid. By connecting utilities to their customers, gridComm's semiconductors, modules and DIN Rail PLC modems help transform meters, streetlights, homes and industrial buildings, and other appliances into energy-aware, "smart devices," which react to conditions on the grid.
The Singapore team was very excited to award gridComm the winner after hearing an excellent pitch, watching the team remote control a street light, and for their commitment to a smart nation initiative!
gridComm plans to host their startup on IBM Softlayer and use analytics from Watson and Bluemix.
Again, a warm congratulations and thank you to gridComm and to all startups who participated in this year's IBM SmartCamp Singapore!
Follow gridComm's story on Twitter at @compareandshare. For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Opening up the Sharing Economy in London! Smart Camp Winner!
Some exciting news out of London from yesterday! Congratulations to Compare and Share for winning yesterday's pitch competition in London as part of IBM SmartCamp 2015.
What is Compare and Share? Think economy sharing aggregated. Compare and Share is the comparison site for sharing. This startup was born out of a passion to have the experience of a lifetime without it costing the earth. Compare and Share has users in 195 cities and the community continues to grow fast. Options include money-saving accommodation and transportation deals, plus a sharing economy directory of over 7,600 brands.
With a dedication to opening up the sharing economy, Compare and Share demonstrated the best market and competitive awareness, penetration and a solid team to drive the business to success and award them winner of IBM's London SmartCamp.
What is Compare and Share's purpose, "We're here to open up the Sharing Economy for everyone and make sharing easy, quick and approachable. Sharing is better for our communities because it promotes smart access to goods and services, it's better for people because it connects and builds relationships, and it's better for our pockets because it helps us save and make money." (http://www.compareandshare.com/about-us/)
Thanks for participating in London's SmartCamp event Compare and Share!
Follow Compare and Share's story on Twitter at @compareandshare. For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Announcing Tech.London - a Digital Ecosystem for London built on IBM Bluemix!
Today I am proud to announce the partnership of IBM with the Mayor of London and Gust, on a new digital platform for the ecosystem called TECH.LONDON !!!!
TECH.LONDON is THE digital place for London startups, investors, influencers, and developers to collaborate on innovation and disruption. tech.london
In one place it has:
- All London Startups, VCs
- News
- Events
- Meetups
- Courses
- Jobs
- Funding
- Open spaces
And more
It’s more than just a portal - it’s a digital community creating a World Class ecosystem that will enable the collaboration and innovation necessary for reinvention of today’s world.
There are 3 reasons why IBM has invested in this London Ecosystem NOW.
First, London is a city of Developers – the new King Makers.
There are over 18M developers worldwide --- and a large cluster of them are right here in London. This developer Skill is the key to the kingdom.
Second London is a start up magnet.
- With the “startup explosion” of over 140K startups globally, London is in the Startup epicenter and was recently ranked one of the top cities in the WORLD where entrepreneurs want to meet up and #1 in Europe. Did you know 34K digital and tech companies reside in London/
And third, London startups are global – they internationalize at a much faster rate than those around the world. Over 1B pounds of investment goes into London Start-ups!
Tech.London is an essential resource to help connect and continue the strong growth of the London tech scene.
IBM’s investment in Tech.London is twofold:
First, with technology. Tech.London is powered by IBM Cloud – our Bluemix platform that is the fastest growing developer platform in the world.
IBM’s sponsorship of Tech.London goes beyond being built on IBM Bluemix.
Tech.London is powered by the People and so IBM is ensuring the local IBM teams, who just rated IBM as one of their favorite employer in Europe, help to create this community.
- With IBMers from South Bank to Level 39 and beyond, we are sharing our best employees to work Shoulder to Shoulder with the London Ecosystem. Knowhow, Kingdon, Monitise, and Push Technology are examples of IBM’s partnership locally.
Examples include:
- Hackathons – like the one just last week at Wimbledon where we had teams deliver amazing Innovative solutions around Fan Experience.
- Academics - like the partnerships at the Imperial College of London – where we are helping students use Cloud, IOT, and their imaginations to power a balloon to 30 kilometers to read information to have weather become Smarter.
- Meetups with the Future of London in diversity. Diverse workteams drive innovation – so we are hosting meetups and events around Coding to help more women and girls select tech as a viable career choice.
- Resources – like IBM’s Global Entrepreneur Program that allows new companies to use up to 77K pounds free use of the IBM Cloud but more importantly Free Technical Support and GTM help.
Each of these types of activities will now be easily found by the local community by Tech.London to disrupt the WORLD!
This exciting public/private partnership between IBM, the Mayor of London, Gust and a wide range of local partners puts this powerful digital platform into the hands of the London community for the London community.
Tech.London will be a great value to innovation and disruption creating a launchpad for continued growth here in the capital.
TECH.LONDON – check it out! tech.london