The SAP InnoJam connects people all over the world with different backgrounds and different age groups. 99 enthusiastic participants attended the 35 hours’ workshop. From those, 23 students from different universities in Germany participated and I was one of them. It was the first time that I participated in InnoJam and it was an unforgettable experience.
The fascinating workshop started Sunday morning and finished Monday afternoon in Madrid. It was the first time that they introduced and integrated the topic of Design Thinking. The whole workshop was accompanied by lectures concerning the topic of Design Thinking and its process steps. After the topics for the competition were introduced, Polling, Education, Better my Journey, Free Parking ad hoc and Neighbourhood Care, the participants selected their topic. I chose the topic ‘Neighbourhood Care’ and came into a group with 8 other people. There were two other students, who are studying with me at the University of Mannheim. In general we were 8 groups and each team was assigned to a coach, who guided us through all Design Thinking steps. Several techniques and skills were used to inspire us and increase our creativity, i.e., interviews, drawing, post-its and acting.
A variety of food and drinks were offered during the whole workshop, which was necessary because a lot of people were coding the whole night to develop their prototype. I left Ifema, where the InnoJam and Sapphire took place, after 3 am. It was incredible to see how diligently and purposely the teams were coding until the next morning. Each team presented their prototype in 6 minutes in front of a jury of 5 people. The jury gave them a detailed feedback and asked some questions. My team presented the prototype ‘WeCare’, which was a redesign of the neighbourhood experience. In the end the Winner of the InnoJam was presented. All teams implemented excellet ideas. Therefore, the jury announced two Winners. One team that won developed the prototype “ParkIT”, which compromises free parking slots. And surprisingly, the other Winner team was my team. In the moment they announced our name ‘WeCare’, I could not believe that they meant us. It was an awesome moment. We went up to the stage and got a Blackberry Playbook and trophy money. In addition, the Winner teams had the privilege to participate the Demojam on the following day.
SAP offered their own shuttle bus, which drove every 20 minutes from different hotels. In the next morning the Key notes of SAP were presented by SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott and co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe. 11000 people listened to their impressing speech.
After that the Winner teams of the InnoJam attended a demo training session. At the same time another event from University Alliances took place. University Alliances was actively participating during Innojam. They created extra t-shirts for students and mentors. Each of the students got a fantastic t-shirt with a label of their own University. In the afternoon Ann Rosenberg, the Head of Global University Alliance and Mentor, introduced professors from several countries and presented the idea of InnoJam. Me and some other students reported their experience of the InnoJam.
In the evening the Demojam started, where six teams illustrated their prototypes and business idea. Awesome results were presented and my team also presented our prototype again. This time another team won. The one who created the ‘CIO vision’. An amazing evening followed after the Demojam competition. More than 40 SAP employees and students went to a Restaurant and spend there some friendly and funny hours with lots of delicious food and drinks.
It was an awesome time with people all over the world! And I am looking forward to the InnoJam in 2013.
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