Dream Venture (Day 2) - Startups for Women

Dream Venture (Day 2) - Startups for Women

Dream Venture (Day 2), Startups for Women, held at National Agriculture of Information and Communication Center,Gannoruwa,on 2nd ofJune 2018 brought together more than 150 participation from government organizations, universities, schools,entrepreneurs and private sector. Mrs.Shanaaz Preena,Director for Women Go-Beyond/ Women’s Advocacy of MAS Holdings (pvt) Ltd was the Chief Guest while Prof. Janaka Ekanayake was the Guest of Honor of the event. The main objective of the event was empowering women towards leading startups and entrepreneurship.

The event resulted in a number of ambitious outcomes as many innovative startup ideas were brought forward at the BEST STARTUP IDEA competition held on that day. After the end of day 1, invitations were sent out to the universities, private sector, schools etc. to submit their startup idea proposals.Thus, Dream Venture received 30+ proposals in total. At the day of the event, all the teams who submitted their proposals presented their ideas. The best ideas was selected by a panel of judges comprising professionals from various fields.

Prof.Janaka Ekanayake from Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Mr.Ahamed Nishadh, Mrs.Nevindaree Premarathne from Information Communication Technology Agency(ICTA) of Sri Lanka, Mr.Indula Senaratne from Ceylon Electricity Board,Mr.Jeremy Sandeep Carvalho from Sysco Labs, Mrs.Harshi Samarasekara from Twinkling Dreams Wedding and Event Planners,Tharindu Dassanayake, the founder of ShoutOUT, Ms.Kelsye Nelson, the founder of Gutsy Creatives comprised the judge panel.

Further, Mr.Daya Hettiarachchi, Chairman/CEO at OpenArc Systems Management (Pvt) Ltd , Mr.Lasantha Wickramasinghe, Founder of Builtapps and Mrs.Harshi Samarasekara were speakers at the panel discussion moderated by Dr.Maheshi Dissanayake. Valuable prizes and certificates were awarded to the winners and participants at the award ceremony held after the presentations. The event beheld many appreciative remarks from professionals, guests and students who attended the event while many suggestions were also made for improvement.

Hence, several follow up sessions will be held to mentor the women with startup ideas support them to have a startup career. Mentors from ICTA, University academia and professionals from the industry have already agreed to offer support in mentoring. Moreover, an online platform is under construction to create a platform for interested startup innovators to network with mentors, funding bodies and industry.

Additionally, the support given by partners for the event cannot be forgotten. Amante Sri Lanka(Pvt) Ltd was the platinum sponsor of the event while OutSmart Hub (Pvt) Ltd was the bronze sponsor. Event sponsors were IEEE Central Region Sub Section, OpenArc Systems Management (Pvt) Ltd,Twinkling Dreams Wedding and Event Planners, Stone N String, People’s Bank,M.D.Gunasena, Bata Shoes.

The knowledge partners were Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and Sysco Labs.Media partnership was provided by Readme, Perabeats and Techseekers.