IESL holds first ever engineering entrepreneurship boot-camp
The first ever Engineering Entrepreneurship BOOT- CAMP ( EEB) for training and development of engineering entrepreneurs in the country, which was organized by the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka, was held on 3rd, 4th and 5th of November, 2018 at the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL) Head Quarters, 120 /15, Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 7.
As the premier professional body for engineers in Sri Lanka, with a membership of over 20,000 qualified engineers representing all the engineering disciplines, the IESL plays a major role in the career development of Engineers.
A three-day training and experiential learningprogramme was held on 3rd, 4th and 5th November, providing residential facilities, food and beverages. The programmewas designed as a boot- camp, where the teams were totally immersed in their own projects, working together from the inception to output, in orderto complete a mission.
During the boot- camp, teams were mentored by experts, to build up entrepreneurial skills and strategies to develop sustainable business models. The knowledge sharing environment within teams gave the proper ecosystem for entrepreneurial activities.
Entrepreneurship is not just a business venture, it is a start- up which is enriched with creativity and innovation to address a potential gap by identifying the problem or need of the market/society/environment or/ and technology trends. Entrepreneurship is a tricky journey and not all start-ups will last long. The challenge is in the strategies used to retain the sustainability of the business model. On the other hand, Engineering is a continuous mechanism of designing, structuring, building to implement some invention, product or service. Engineering entrepreneurship is an enhanced version of Entrepreneurship which is a fulfillment of expertise design to address the market gap using Engineering insight.
The Engineering Entrepreneurship Bootcamp (EEB) is the first step of a long journey initiated by the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) parallel to the Enterprise Sri Lanka programme. We, as Engineers, must so align the vision of forming and creating more Entrepreneurs among ourselves, because, it is the only way to develop our country. Therefore, IESL has taken this initiative to produce more Engineering Entrepreneurs by providing the ecosystem needed to form and create the sustainable business model to get funded to initiate the start- ups using the Enterprise Sri Lanka programme.
The Objective of the EEB programme is to provide comprehensive, result driven Entrepreneurship curriculum for the Engineers to develop start-up ideas/proposals and goal driven training to pitch their start- up for the investors/ P-P-P and Enterprise Sri Lanka programme facilitated financial institutions. The anticipated outcome of the EEB is to produce at least 10 Engineering Entrepreneurship start-ups for the year 2019. The Gold sponsor for the EEB 2018, is Bank of Ceylon.
The EEB was preceded by an awareness session that was held on 12th September 2018 at Wimalasurendra Auditorium, Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka. The awareness session had participation and representation of Enterprise Sri Lanka Programme partners; Bank of Ceylon, People’s Bank, Commercial Bank and Regional Development Bank. Sixty eight ( 68) IESL members participated in the 3-hour awareness programme which was followed by a Q & A session providing EEB guidelines/selection process and instructions for the Boot-camp and issuing applications to enter for the EEB.
At the Boot-camp, mentors presented and shared their knowledge and guidance related to different domains during the six ( 6) sessions delivered to the short-listed teams during 3rd, 4th and 5th November 2018. All the nine (9) teams successfully completed the six (6) major sessions of the EEB program and evaluation by three (3) panels including ideation, practice pitching and final pitching.
On the last day, there were 10 panelists for the Final pitching evaluation; at least two panelists representing domain/s and at least one panelist from the selected financial institute. Mrs. M. H. S. Mala, AGM, Development Banking, BOC; Mrs. Ruchindra Perera, Chief Manager, Credits Branch and Mr. Krishna Kumar, Chief Manger, Corporate Banking, BOC; Mr. Wickramanarayana, AGM, SME, People’s Bank; Mr. Samantha Wimalarathne, Assistant Manager, SME, Regional Development Bank ( RDB) and Mr. Sanath Madusanka, Assistant, Credit Banking, RDB served in the evaluation panel. The EEB will facilitate teams to work continuously towards development of their business plans to obtain funds or loans from Enterprise Sri Lanka pro- gramme or otherinvestors.
The patron, Chief advisor of the EEB program, Eng. Prof (Mrs) Niranjanie Ratnayake, President IESL (2017/2018), Eng. Prof .T.M. Pallewatta, President IESL (2018/2019), Senior Advisor, Eng. Arjuna Manamperi, Snr. Vice President, IESL, Eng. Neil Abeysekera, CEO/ Executive Secretary, Eng. Lalith Pallegama, Chairman, Entrepreneurship Forum, IESL and Eng. Jasmine Nanayakkara, Co-creator of EEB with the organizing committee members, Eng. SajaniThotagamuwa, Eng. Lakmal Isuruand a few volunteers along with the IESLexecutive and operational staff have immensely contributed to the success of the EEB Season 1- 2018. The next follow up sessions with mentoring facilities to the upcoming startups by engineers will be continued by the EEB and Entrepreneurship forum of the IESL.
The EEB is an initiat ive of the Entrepreneurship Forum of the Professional Affairs Committee of the IESL.
Making Engineering Entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka....