Using the online world to change the offline one

Since 2011, UNDP has been organizing social innovation camps in an effort to locate innovative tech solutions that will help to solve issues that exist in different sectors of Armenia.

Social Innovation Camps gather people, ideas and digital technologies in one place. Over the course of two days, business prototypes or models of embryonic ideas are cultivated and developed. The camp transforms these theoretical ideas into precise solutions by uniting people from different walks of life. Designers, programmers, marketing gurus, media and SMM specialists all come together to co-create technological solutions to specific social challenges.

Before the camp

With the support from European Union Kolba Lab invited anybody who was interested to submit their ideas or apply for participation in the camp by filling in a participation application form. Anyone could apply; no limits. We received 55 ideas and almost the same number of participation applications. A professional jury was invited for the first round of selection, shortlisting the best ideas based on a criteria that were published beforehand.

During the Camp

Starting on Friday evening, the camp began with five idea leaders presenting their ideas in a nutshell. The other camp participants picked the ideas that interested them the most, and the newly-formed teams set to co-work and co-create the idea prototypes over the following two days.

By the end of Sunday evening, the teams pitched the outcome of their work to the jury. The jury panel included:

  1. Karen Vardanyan – Director of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises
  2. Lilit Gevorgyan – Executive Director of the Union of Employers of Information and Communication Technologies
  3. Aram Mkhitaryan – Head of Helix Consulting LLC
  4. Araksia Martirosyan – Vice President of World Startup Cup
  5. Alexander Bazarchyan – Director of the National Institute of Healthcare
  6. Astghik Grigoryan – USAID, expert on healthcare project management

Following intensive debate, the jury selected three ideas that will have an opportunity to enter Kolba Lab’s incubation cycle. Throughout the incubation the teams will get both financial support (up to $3000) as well as mentorship, access to UNDP’s network of experts and Kolba Lab’s consulting assistance throughout the implementation of their projects.

The first award went to Satenik Grigoryan’s team, who were working on the development of a mobile app. The app, provisionally called PanDoc, will help users to figure out the most probable reason of their health issue by asking a set of simple questions, and will then direct them to the appropriate doctor or specialist. As a result, users won’t waste time being redirected from one doctor to another, saving financial resources and energy. Satenik also manages the platform Doctors.am, which has an established community of users and doctors who would be invited to test and provide feedback for this new service.

The second award was distributed between two teams:

Gayane Hovhannisyan’s team created a mobile app to help kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder be more confident and accomplished in their daily activities. As part of this app, which will be in Armenian, “social stories” will help the children to develop their communication skills, to organize and guide their daily activities, and will allow parents to be aware of their children’s activities by following them on the app.

Satik Badeyan’s team was working on a web platform project, which will inform users about the laws regulating healthcare service and processes in Armenia. The platform will also provide information on the free and subsidized services that are paid for by the government, and how to access them. This tool will also act as a broker between the patient and the medical institution to solve issues connected to the provision of healthcare services.

After the camp

All the energy and enthusiasm generated during the camp will now put into the implementation of the projects. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to be the first to get updates on the ideas implementation and engage with Kolba Lab’s other events.

Photos from the camp are available on Kolba Lab’s facebook page.