Travel and Tourism Hackathon

Executive summary

Both internal and external stakeholders agree on large quantity of investment projects in Kyrgyz Republic but certainly not on their quality. Industries are stagnant and lack innovative projects. Skills and knowledge that employees demonstrate at work are far behind the market’s needs.  That being stated, one of the most crucial problems in Kyrgyz Republic as a transition economy is significantly widening gap between what market demands and what specialists can offer. There is a low level of innovative approach in both sides of a job market.  

There are many ways to change such status quo. Progress in education, innovation in industries, and increasing governmental support to promote entrepreneurship are some of the determinants of such change. With a mission to promote the development of a startup ecosystem in Kyrgyz Republic, the Public Foundation “KG Labs” in collaboration with the Tourism Department under the Ministry of Culture, Information of Kyrgyz Republic, Kyrgyz Services and Software Developers Association (KSSDA), community of developers, Association of Young Entrepreneurs “JIA,” American University of Central Asia with an innovative campus, a co-working space “Ololo Haus”, a leading business incubator “Ideagrad” have joined forces to bring all stakeholders in one place to prototype new technological and innovative ideas aimed to boost the tourism industry and to provide new job opportunities for citizens of Kyrgyz Republic. All stakeholders proactively provided their services pro bono and also contributed to cover some operational expenses and prizes for winners.

Our success

KG Labs, as a leading role player who organized the event and coordinated all organizing team members, provided participants practical skills in design thinking of an idea, product development, customer development, lean startup, scalability of the project, pitching and making presentations in front of potential investors. A team of energetic and enthusiastic professionals with a background in content design, event management, startup development have effectively carried out the following activities:

• Conducted 4 ideation sessions prior to Travel and Tourism Hackathon. Speakers covered many aspects of this industry starting from problems in this sphere to eco-tourism. Each ideation session gathered 3-4 speakers and around 80 attendees from different fields, the last one having around 100 people. After ideation sessions, practical workshops on brainstorming, design thinking, business development were led by organizers. Such master-class practice engaged attendees themselves and provided a great opportunity to already acquiring new set of tools to launch a startup;
• Made a comprehensive presentation about Travel and Tourism Hackathon for key stakeholders including the speakers of ideation sessions, tourism committees under the Association of Young Entrepreneurs “JIA”, International Business Council and many others;
• Carried out both online and in-person meetings with potential stakeholders: industry professionals, developers, designers, marketers for brainstorming of ideas, market testers, potential investors, sponsors and partners of the events;
• Designed and produced content of each event by focusing on the goals and results of each ideation session;
• Produced all branding materials together with a leading branding agency “Mozgami”;
• Organized a group of mentors in-person and online;
• Selected and invited a group of speakers and judges;
• Helped teams with developing of their minimum viable products (mvp) during the Travel and Tourism Hackathon;
• Helped teams to develop full scale products and accelerate skills in structuring a deal with investors (angel/mezzanine financing, venture capital) after the Travel and Tourism Hackathon;
• Provided feedback from industry professionals about product feasibility and things to improve before/during/after the Travel and Tourism Hackathon;
• Helped 2 leading prototypes, particularly “Challengers” and “Chak Chak” (for more information about these projects, please see below) to get funding by participation in Bishkek Investment Forum in December 8th, 2016.

The Tourism Department under the Ministry of Culture, Information of Kyrgyz Republic has actively provided all the necessary information, expertise in this industry as well as national media coverage of the event to share with a broader audience. The Kyrgyz TV channel has conducted in-person interviews with organizers, mentors and participants of the Travel and Tourism Hackathon both in kyrgyz and russian languages and broadcasted once during the prime time and twice later. News reports are available on the web site od the Kyrgyz TV channel. Please see the attachment for the full list of media publications about the project.

The KSSDA has put efforts to bring together participants from the IT community to the event as KSSDA is considered to be a leading attractor of specialists in IT sphere.  

The Association of Young Entrepreneurs “JIA” provided constant mentorship and expertise of its tourism industry professionals by helping teams to get practical knowledge about the industry, learn about problems local travel and tourism companies face, helped to build prototypes and assisted in fundraising efforts for prototypes in the series of subsequent events.

Some prominent potential investors, donors and mentors who were invited to the Travel and Tourism Hackathon include:

1) Aman Tentiyev, a private investor;

2) Emil Umetaliev, an entrepreneur and investor (HR director of the LLC “Kyrgyz Concept” travel and tourism agency attended);

3) Zhumadyl Egemberdieyev, an entrepreneur;

4) Edil Adjibaeyv, a potential team mentor;

5) Aibek Dunayev, an entrepreneur and others.

About the Project

The project consisted of several components: 4 pre-hackathon ideation sessions, Travel and Tourism Hackathon and follow up activities. In preparation for the Travel and Tourism Hackathon, KG Labs has carried out 4 ideation sessions, which took place throughout November in different coffee and creative locations in Bishkek, where participants met with industry professionals and learned about market opportunities, problems, and technical obstacles. After each Q&A session with professionals from JIA, participants generated ideas about possible startup ideas and things they need to learn prior to Travel and Tourism Hackathon. The Tourism Department provided a comprehensive presentation about tourism opportunities in Kyrgyz Republic. In addition, after each session, KG Labs conducted skills-based workshops in brainstorming, business model development and presented ideas from hackathons conducted in different countries in order to train others in the approach to developing a “lean startup.”

During the Travel and Tourism Hackathon, which took place on 2-4^th of December at the American University of Central Asia and a co-working space “Ololo Haus”, the most promising ideas were picked by participants after all the initial fourteen ideas were pitched to the audience. The most feasible six projects remained and teams were formed. During the Travel and Tourism Hackathon, mentors guided 54 hours around-clock event participants as they developed their tourism business ideas and prototypes. The event had several checkpoints when teams had to demonstrate the progression of their ideas and any specialized help that they might have needed. During the two days, teams were taught about pitching, presentation skills to prepare to the final event – the presentation of minimum viable products. The judging committee consisted of industry professionals from the IT and tourism sectors, who picked the most promising products:

1) Daniar Amanaliev, a co-founder of a working space “Ololo Haus” and an art studio “Ololo” who has previously worked at a leading tourism company “Kyrgyz Concept” as a general manager;

2) Zhumadyl Egemberdiev, a co-funder of “Shoro” company that produces Kyrgyz national drinks and has tourism destinations such as Kara-Bulak resorts and “Supara” ethno complexes;

3) Andrew Wachtel, a president of the American University of Central Asia;

4) Zarina Chekirbaeva, an executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Kyrgyz Republic;

5) Edil Adjibaev, a founder and CEO of www.picvpic.com;

6) Bermet Tursunkulova, a member of the main organizational committee of World Nomadic Games 2016;

7) Azamat Zhamankulov, a head of Tourism Department under the Ministry of Culture, Information of Kyrgyz Republic.

Sponsors and partners of the event provided valuable prizes for teams. Potential investors were invited for final presentation.

As follow up activities, KG Labs met with teams over the following two weeks to learn about progress and additional help they need to make their projects plausible. Finally, two promising startup projects “Challengers” and “Chak Chak” (for more information about these projects, please see below) were presented during the Bishkek Investment Forum (BIF) organized by JIA on December 8^th of 2016. Participants were able to meet with real investors and interested parties to accelerate projects. Local and national media in support of all stakeholders covered all events.

As a result of the Travel and Tourism Hackathon, KG Labs qualified six projects (40 participants involved) with working prototypes to address the issues of the tourism industry in Kyrgyz Republic. The following are the project descriptions that serve as a proof for the project to have accomplished its goals:

1) Challengers will enrich traveling and sightseeing experience. When traveling and sightseeing, it is a matter of a fact that many tourists get the same kind of experience, impression and emotions. They make the same kind of photos and have the same kind of stories to tell. “Challengers” is a unique platform that allows tourists to fully engage in culture, traditions of people and a country. This online platform is a great way to feel a part of the country and close to a new culture. In addition to mainstream sightseeing, a tourist can go through exciting challenges by using this platform, which consists of tasks that are based on culture and traditions of a country and must be accomplished by users. For example, tourists visiting Kyrgyz Republic could challenge themselves and learn how to make kurut (dried and salted plain-yogurt balls), play kok-boru (horse game with a goat carcass) and cook tandoor samsy (dish with meat and fat in a special oven made of clay). In this way, a tourist will additionally gain a unique experience to discover a local culture. Families and friends would envy by following a traveller’s photos, videos and his/her bravery to accomplish such challenges both online and in reality.

“Challengers” has elements of variety of games indicated on a digital map. Tourists can go through the list of challenges, read their descriptions, users’ reviews, and finally to accept or decline a given challenge. For a tourist to challenge his/her families and friends, all the results can be published and shared in social media.     

Challengers as a winner of the Travel and Tourism Hackathon also won the nomination of “audience’ favorite”. As a team of promising developers, marketing specialists, web-designers and a leader with a vision and with constant, face-to-face and online mentors from Estonia, Russia, Croatia and Bishkek, Challengers highlighted the importance of a design thinking for innovation, a possibility of gaining know-how set of skills, team building, leadership, and a working prototype. As the product was presented at  BIF on December 8^th, stakeholders from public and private sectors demonstrated their interest to further work with the team. “Challengers” is an evidence for the project to be a success and achieve its goals.    

2) Chak Chak will be the most trusted friend for tourists, is a chatbot for Telegram app. This chatbot consists of the most reliable and updated information that is necessary for a tourist to know to visit a new country. The content includes information starting from prices for travelling between cities to english-kyrgyz dictionary. In addition to the main content, there is a possibility to send HELP/Urgency signals in case there is a danger and/or unpredictable situation. Moreover, upon the necessity, users will be able to contact specialists of a call-center and get necessary information from a real person.

A business model of Chak Chak is based on two kinds of clients. Tourists use the chat bot for free, whereas, business representatives will be charged for placing information about their companies and service within the data of the chatbot. Special partnership rates will motivate business groups to provide customized options for users.

Chak Chak won a second place at the Travel and Tourism Hackathon and were also given a chance to present their project at BIF. As a result, they gained important network for further implementation of the project. The Department of Tourism highlighted the importance of the Urgency call element of the chatbot for tourists to be safe and/or prevent dangerous situation.

3) Myth map will make maps more entertaining, learning about history more exciting. This map is for travellers who love walking, hiking and cycling. The map shows only touristic sightseeing destinations. It is easy to navigate on this map as well as to learn about history of Kyrgyz Republic. The target audience is not limited to tourists but also locals who can also use this map and learn more about the history of Kyrgyz Republic.

In many cases, tourists visit mainstream sightseeing locations. Tour companies offer the same kind of tour packages with visits to approximately 20-30 places. For tourists who are in Kyrgyz Republic for the second time, it is hard to offer something new for them. And, this map allows discovering new places to visit in Kyrgyz Republic and/or to discover new features of already visited locations, which other kinds of maps do not show. New destinations include unknown places with beautiful nature for visiting, camping and cycling reasons. Maps do not show locations with information that directs a tourists to visit places that provide new experience to uncover new corners of the country, the best locations to watch eagle hunting, horse games, nomad traditions apart from mainstream performances and/or touristic locations. Finding such precious information about undiscovered places and know their exact location is worth of one click on this map.

Myth map can be also used for education purposes at educational institutions.

4) Trelper (from combination of words such as traveller and help) is both a web-site and an app can become a leading platform for tourists to get full information about a country including information about cities, cafes, statues, prices for transportation, ways to navigate and others. There are two functions of Trelper: 1) a chat that offers all answers to any kind of relevant questions; 2) an option to contact a call-center specialist.

5) Wishmaster will make tourists’ wishes come true. It is an app that allows tourists to access content about entertainment in a country such as horse riding, hiking tours, alpinism, rafting and others including in Bishkek. Upon several steps of verification process, any person living in Kyrgyz Republic can register as a guide and provide important information, advice for tourists. There is a possibility to chat amongst the users that can provide an opportunity to meet new people. In terms of business model of the project, tourists are charged for their registration. The most important feature of this app is the most comfortable interface that allows getting information by quickly swiping entertainment options.

6) Zorguide (zor is a local slang for saying “cool, awesome”) will bring together tourists and tour guides. The main feature of this app is an opportunity to provide rates that determine quality of tour guides’ services and it is the best way to indicate the most trusted and the best tour guides in the country. There is an extensive search option of tour guides based on their skills and hobbies. If a tourist wishes to find a local guide who can do archery or dance ballroom dances, this is a best and quickest way to find out, so a tourist can visit places of interests and a tour guide can offer a customized tours based on his/her hobbies and abilities.

As for the business model of this app, tourists are charged for tour guides’ service and tour guides are paid upon their completion of work. This app gets commission for each transaction.

Why we decided to launch this Project

In many cases, people are afraid to start their own startups, test or ideate their projects. In other cases, people lack specific knowledge, skills or right network to accelerate their business ideas. Despite the fact that participants of the Travel and Tourism Hackathon had hard times at the first stage of design thinking process of an idea, they learned about tourism industry problems and will further seek opportunities, obtained new skills in design thinking, group brainstorming, team-building and leadership, product development, customer development, pitching and presentation of ideas. Most importantly, participants acquired a set of skills triggering innovative thinking and that the global job market demands. 

The Tourism Department learned about problems and tech solutions in travel and tourism. Based on their experience, they will follow up actions in policy making to improve economic climate for tech solutions for boosting tourism and job opporunities in Kyrgyz Republic.

Industry professionals were given an opportunity to share with their valuable knowledge as well as exchange with their experience with participants. They were challenged by critical questions that came from the audience that pushed them to rethink their projects.

In addition, the project did not aim to support commercial activity or specific businesses/startups, but foster entrepreneurial spirit and general platform. Sustainability is provided in the future by local investors, partners who will see real impact on economy and its role and will sponsor themselves.

How we did it

Four Ideation Sessions:

Each week in November, four ideation sessions were organized prior to the Travel and Tourism Hackathon in different coffee and creative locations in Bishkek. Each ideation session was attended 3-4 speakers and around 80 people.

1) Introduction to travel and tourism. Case study: Kyrgyz Republic. The first ideation session was held on at Traveller’s Coffee and brought around 80 people. After the plenary session with speakers, a team of organizers from KG Labs lively performed a scene of effective brainstorming as how it is done in many companies that are located in Silicon Valley as well as importance of rationally using brainstorming sessions and sticky notes for engaging of each team member especially introverts.

Speakers:

• Marat Danilov, a founder and a CEO of the Trekking Union in the Kyrgyz Republic;
• Nurbek Saparov, a general director of the Kyrgyz Association of Tour Agenicies;
• Ruslan Adjiev, a founder and a CEO of the “Community Based Tourism” in the Kyrgyz Republic;
• Moderator: Aziz Soltobaev, a founder of the Public Foundation “KG Labs” and e-commerce platform svetofor.kg.

2) Problems and solutions in travel and tourism. The second ideation session was held at Sierra Coffee place and brought around 80 attendees from different fields.

Speakers:

• Azamat Zhamankulov, a head of the Tourism Department of Ministry of Culture, Information of Kyrgyz Republic;
• Meder Tilekmatov, a head of the association of resorts in Kyrgyz Republic;
• Alex Johnson, a tour/product developer of tour agency “kalpak.kg”;
• Fabien Selosse, a tour/product developer of tour agency “Nomad’s Land”;
• Moderator: Anatoliy Fedorenko, an entrepreneur.

3) Uncovering and understanding tourism. IT solutions for problems. The third brainstorming sessions gathered around 80 people at Sierra Coffee who were eager to listen to leading experts in eco-tourism, mapping and travel agency development.

Speakers:

• Tomas Ricardo, a founder and CEO of a travel agency “Asia for Adventures”;
• Sergey Krivoruchko, a leading expert and speaker on eco-tourism;
• Representatives of Tez.kg on mapping;
• Moderator: Aziz Soltobaev, a founder of the Public Foundation “KG Labs” and e-commerce platform svetofor.kg;
• Canvas business model speaker: Anatoliy Fedorenko, an entrepreneur.

4) IT solutions in tourism. Global practice. The fourth and final ideation session prior to the Travel and Tourism Hackathon brought around 100 people at Ololo Haus co-working space on 30^th of November to meet with professionals in tourism sphere who has more than 20 years of working experience, a specialist in mapping, and experts in hospitality.

Speakers:

• Eldar Shabdanov, a general manager of Ambassador hotel in Bishkek who talked about apps for tourists’ safety;
• Ruslan Tokochev, a young citizen of Kyrgyz Republic who travelled around the world for two years talked about all the apps and web-sites that he used when travelling;
• Daniar Amanaliev, a co-founder of a working space “Ololo Haus” and an art studio “Ololo” who has previously worked at a leading tourism company “Kyrgyz Concept” as a general manager. Amanaliev shared with his valuable knowledge and experience working in tourism industry but also gave quality content about existing business ideas in travel and tourism around the world. His advice in startup development were well implemented by many participants of the Travel and Tourism Hackathon;
• Moderator: Aziz Soltobaev, a founder of the Public Foundation “KG Labs” and e-commerce platform Svetofor.info

TechWomen Alumni Talk

Techwomen Alumni Talk was organized prior to the Travel and Tourism Hackathon where 6 prominent alumni of the exchange programme “TechWomen” shared with their knowledge and experience of working in companies located in Silicon Valley. Speakers talked about the work culture and reasons of innovative projects in Silicon Valley. They pointed at the importance of professional networking, learning how to learn, design thinking, global trends in IT and tech industries taking over markets as well as phenomenon of startup nations. Critical questions were raised as for empowering girls and giving equal opportunities to achieve their goals in career. This event was one of the brightest within the project and was attended by more than 100 people. The American University of Central Asia, as one of the partners of the project has provided a conference hall to organize this event. All announcements were made about the Travel and Tourism Hackathon and new contacts were made who then took a part at the hackathon.

Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) Alumni Talk

Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) Alumni Talk was conducted prior to the Travel and Tourism Hackathon in November at the American University of Central Asia with a free and open admission, which was attended by more than 100 interested people. Similarly to the TechWomen Alumni Talk, GES Alumni Talk had gathered 5 speakers who attended GES 2014 in Marrakesh and GES 2016 in Silicon Valley. Speakers talked about the Summit and its goals, the importance of startup ecosystem development as well as entrepreneurial culture for economic development, trends and tendencies in IT and tech industry at the global level. They shared with their personal stories of meeting with top 700 entrepreneurs and 300 investors at GES who came from each corner of the world. After the plenary session, speakers gave out books for the best questions from the audience. All announcements about the Travel and Tourism Hackathon were made at the event in order to recruit potential participants at the hackathon.    

Travel and Tourism Hackathon

Travel and Tourism Hackathon brought 40 participants who worked on 6 projects and 11 prominent mentors from various spheres of business development, marketing, coding, web-design, pitching and others.

Mentors in-person and online:

• Kai Isand, a project management, pitching specialist, Garage48 in Estonia;
• Janus Sakkis, a web-designer, animation specialist, Garage48 in Estonia;
• Leonid Pustov, a co-founder of travel related platforms in Moscow including Travelhubr;
• Konstantin Kirsanov, a specialist in travel startups, Russia;
• Chyngyz Kanatbek, a marketing director, “Mozgami” branding agency;
• Nargiz Chynalieva, a founder and CEO, “Dilden” design agency and studio;
• Alexei Lysogorov, a graphic designer specialist;
• Artur Zotov, a marketing specialist;
• Andrei Minkin, IT and tech specialist, CEO of “MadDevs”, a leading software engineering specialist at “Namba Taxi”;
• Gennady Karev, IT and tech specialist;
• Dario Cr., a leading startup ecosystem development specialist in Croatia.  

Moreover

In continuation of “Travel and Tourism Hackathon 2016” project, the Public Foundation “KG Labs” have successfully organized the following events:

1) An informal meet up with the founders, CEOs and activists in development of IT sphere in Kyrgyzstan, which was organized on January 26th 2017 together with “Ololo Haus”, had benefited all stakeholders of this field. Representatives of IT companies in Kyrgyzstan were invited to take a part in discussion of systematic development of IT and innovation, which resulted in a platform for exchange of experience, information and knowledge as well as in increase of optimization and coordination of IT related events in Kyrgyzstan, which are planned for 2017.

The reason of holding such informal meet up came based on our experience of organizing “Travel and Tourism Hackathon” that took place in 3-4-5^th of December 2016. One of the lessons learnt was a necessity to discuss a list of IT events happening in this sphere for optimization of a calendar of these events in 2017. Such initiative has optimized organization of events and attracted more participants at our events up until this time.

The list of participants at the informal meet up:

1. Aziz Soltobaev, Public Fund “KG Labs”
2. Daniar Amanaliev, “Ololo Haus” co-founder
3. Diana Durusbek kyzy, American University of Central Asia
4. Tilek Toktogaziev, “Jashyl Charba”
5. Oleg Puzanov, Namba
6. Ekaterina, from Madevs
7. Daniil Pak, “Wishmaster” team member, “Travel and Tourism Hackathon”
8. Nargiza Adbubalieva, TechWomen alumna
9. Veronika Iurchenko, IT-attractor
10. Aziz Abakirov, KDDSA
11. Roman Kononov, Namba
12. Andrey Minkin, Madevs
13. Aziza Berdibaeva, lmndeit.kg
14. Chubak Boikonov, “Ideagrad” business incubator

More information about the results of this meet up was posted on http://lmndeit.kg Other highlighting points of this meeting include critical discussion of the development of startup ecosystem in IT and technology, building angel investors community, and strengthening pitching skills in front of investors. Lack of high quality pitching skills of startup project presenters at both national and international startup competitions and conferences is popular among IT and technology stakeholders, which has inspired us to organize pitching workshop as well as competition.

2) One of the highlighting points within analysis of the “Travel and Tourism Hackathon” based on survey questions among the participants was the importance of follow-up with teams of Hackathon. Informal follow-up meet up was organized in March 2017. Team members of Challengers, Chak-Chak, Wishmaster, Trelper were present and discussed challenges and opportunities for their projects. The most common problems that startup team members have faced after the “Travel and Tourism Hackathon” include team building and pitching in front of potential partners and investors. The winning team members of “Challenger” have shared their experience of working with their potential partner Mr. Zhumadyl Egemberdiev, a co-founder of “Shoro” company and eco-resort “Kara-Bulak” after the Hackathon. They have highlighted the importance of building network and a platform for matching the startup projects with potential investors. Although Challengers had a business visit to “Shoro” company branches, due to lack of ecosystem for investors working together with startup community members, Challengers as well as other teams are now in search of new partners, investors and team members. Chack-chack team rebranded themselves to skibot and launched chatbot on facebook messenger https://www.facebook.com/skibotkg/ with purpose to help tourists find information about ski tours, destinations and necessary equipment.

Moreover, the teams have expressed their gratitude for sponsors and organizers of “Travel and Tourism Hackathon” for the opportunity to gain network, to develop soft skills in team-building, brainstorming, minimum viable product (MVP), market research and marketing skills, and pitching.

KG Labs is interested in involving all the participants of Hackathon for future events and follow up meet ups for better analysis of startup ecosystem in Kyrgyzstan, which will help to strengthen future projects and research analysis.  

The list of participants of information meet up:

1. Aziz Soltobaev, KG Labs executive member
2. Diana Durusbek kyzy, KG Labs executive member, American University of Central Asia
3. Bermet Malikova, KG Labs coordinator
4. Chingiz Kanatbek, marketing specialist from “Mozgami”, mentor
5. Aliya Israilova, Challengers
6. Daniil Pak, Wishmaster
7. Tillo Alimov, Challengers
8. Jalil Mukhambetov, Chak Chak
9. Seitek Moldokasymov, Chak Chak

3) With an aim to provide a professional opportunity for startup ecosystem community members to develop their pitching skills, KG Labs was inspired to organize pitching workshop and competition, which took place on April 18^th and April 22^nd.

Pitching workshop was organized on April 18^th from 18.00 – 21.00 at American University of Central Asia with Mr. Edil Adjibaev, a founder of “Picvpic” startup, which is based in UK and a winner of international pitching competitions. Mr. Adjibaev was awarded with a title “the best pitching” in Silicon Valley Open Doors, a winner of seed stars world Kiev, winner of Technation Kazakhstan, winner of Echelon27 regional Central Asian finals whereas he has presented his startup e-commerce oriented project in front of investors.

The workshop gathered approximately 60 attendees from different spheres starting from education, business, IT and technology, and startup projects.  Please see attached for the list of attendees.

Questions from the audience varied starting from content and presentation design to as how to negotiate shares during the negotiations with potential investors.

In addition, the participants were given an opportunity to pitch at this event and momentarily get professional feedback from Mr. Edil Adjibaev, which helped them to prepare for the main pitching event that took place later on April 22^nd.

4) In addition to intensive pitching workshop, on April 22^nd from 15.00-18.00 pm, within the annual Career Fair at the American University of Central Asia, another pitching workshop and competition were organized in the Startup section, The event attracted more than 100 participants as well as more than 80 views on Facebook via live-video option. Mr. Edil Adjibaev conducted a master-class on pitching and two presenters from the audience had made presentations about their startup projects in travel and tourism.

The team of judges included Mr. Edil Adjibaev, a representative of association of young entrepreneurs “JIA” in Kyrgyzstan involvement, Mr. Jean-Baptiste, a professor at Business Administration department at American University of Central Asia.

Please see attached for the list of attendees.

List of partners in organizing pitching workshop and competition:

1) American University of Central Asia;

2) www.lmndeit.kg media online source;

3) Ambassador and Solutel hotels in Kyrgyzstan;

4) WIND marketing company within the organization of Career Fair at AUCA;

5) Association of Young Entrepreneurs “JIA” in Kyrgyzstan. 

Background information:

In many cases, people are afraid to start their own startups, test or ideate their projects, and pitch in front of potential partners and investors. In other cases, people lack specific knowledge, skills or right network to accelerate their business ideas. Despite the fact that participants of the Travel and Tourism Hackathon had hard times at the first stage of design thinking process of an idea, they learned about tourism industry problems and will further seek opportunities, obtained new skills in design thinking, group brainstorming, team-building and leadership, product development, customer development, pitching and presentation of ideas. Most importantly, participants acquired a set of skills triggering innovative thinking and that the global job market demands. However, based on our meet up with team members since the Hackthon, practical skills in pitching skills and team-building practices were needed.  

Other than “Travel and Tourism Hackthon” participants, other industry professionals were given an opportunity to share with their startup projects, challenges and opportunities. They were challenged by critical questions that came from the audience and team of judges that pushed them to rethink their projects.

In addition, the events did not aim to support commercial activity or specific businesses/startups, but foster entrepreneurial spirit and general platform. Sustainability is provided in the future by local investors, partners who will see real impact on economy and its role and will sponsor themselves.

Immediate Output results

The project had a positive impact both in short and long-term, for all stakeholders as well as at both local and national levels. Three kinds of immediate results can be pointed out: 1) positive change in mindset and attitude; 2) gaining right and necessary knowledge, set of skills; 3) quality networking and follow up.

First of all and most importantly, this project has revealed several critical problems in our society. People are not equipped with a set of qualities to critically approach and discuss a problem. People do not possess an ‘out of box’ and/or a culture of creative thinking in order to provide new perspectives for problem solutions. Moreover, the understanding of leadership and team building is based on rather one-way approach, from top to bottom, instead of two-ways approach for empowering team members. Many are not flexible in their ideation process and scaling of an idea. Others are not market oriented rather are caught with theoretical assumptions. People are afraid to start their own startups due to lack of experience, insecurities, and right network. There is a low level of a culture of testing ideas, embracing and learning from failures. Therefore, ideation sessions, sharing knowledge and experience with entrepreneurs and mentors with a global perspective provided a great opportunity for participants to open themselves for new ideas, approaches and attitudes. At the Travel and Tourism Hackathon, team members performed better as each hour passed with energetic, positive, open-minded thinking and attitude. At the stage of working at 20 hours, based on their market research, surveys they conducted, the progress was visible.   

Secondly, KG Labs has organized a group of professional mentors in spheres of IT and tech, design, marketing, project management and pitching who constantly guided each team by providing a quality advice and asking critical questions for brainstorming at the Travel and Tourism Hackathon. Their mentorship included Canvas business model workshops, web and graphic design presentations, access to and information about marketing tools starting from Survey Monkey, Google tools, social media and other digital tools for market research. 4 times of pitching sessions with project presenters improved presentation skills from start to the end, Q&A sessions. The difference of the first time pitching and pitching at the final presentations was evident as most of the presenters were clear, deliberate during their 3 minutes presentations.

Thirdly, all stakeholders gained quality networking and not limited to travel and tourism spheres. KG Labs now has a data base of more than 2000 people interested in startup ecosystem development, in social media and in-person. The Tourism Department of Ministry of Culture, Information of Kyrgyz Republic has informed their interest to hold more Travel and Tourism Hackathon like events in the future as they are exposed for new ways of thinking and improving this industry. The Young Entrepreneurs Association «JIA» has invited two promising teams “Challengers” and “Chak Chak” to the Bishkek Investment Forum on December 8th, which was attended by entrepreneurs and investors from Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, India and others. These two teams presented their prototypes within the category «startups», which was initiated by JIA based on consultations with KG Labs and their experience at the Travel and Tourism Hackathon. Such progressive move is an indicator of startup ecosystem development in Kyrgyz Republic. A group of judges that included potential investors have initiated mentorship opportunities for teams. Edil Adjibaev made a commitment to mentor one of the teams. Zhumadyl Egemberdiev has met with Challengers twice and offered an extensive tour to «Shoro» company and other tourism locations such as ethno-complex «Supara» and «Kara-Bulak» resort. The Travel and Tourism Hackathon has served as an evidence for the American University of Central Asia to reconsider their academic and non-academic programmes with a possibility to add content and events related to design thinking and innovation. At this moment, projects to launch innovation labs and impact hubs are being developed in partnership with other stakeholders.

Long Term Impact

For KG Labs, the continuing work to accomplish its goals in order to support the startup ecosystem development in the Kyrgyz Republic.

For public sector, the importance of working together with all stakeholders and adjust public policies accordingly.

For private sector, not just another coffee shop or a trade center but thinking more about added value of a business project.

For participants, a perfect kick off of their startup projects and working with mentors and potential investors.

For mentors, inspiration, improved specialists and potential job employees.

For Kyrgyz Republic, better specialists who would match the market demands, with an attitude to “think globally, act locally”.

Media coverage

Official hashtags: #hackathonkg #travelhackkg #techkg #KGLabs #codeyourjourney

Credentials

Organizers of the Projects are KG Labs Public Foundation and American University in Central Asia. Partners of the Project: Association of Young Entrepreneurs, Department of Tourism under Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism of the Kyrgyz Republic. This project was financially supported by Grants Program of the Democracy Comission under the US Embassy in Kyrgyz Republic.