It is imperative that Bangladesh becomes a part of the growth engine for the world and provides a sustainable model of development by providing a large number of technological and other solutions for the world. In sync with Bangladesh's future possibilities, Woori Bank Bangladesh has brought its flagship competition, 'Woori Idea Fest 2018' for university students. The main goal of this initiative was to give the university students the opportunity to share their exceptional new ideas for the real business world in the context of Bangladesh and the global market. The slogan of this contest is: "Light up your idea, be the pioneer". This year the competition was launched with four universities; namely- University of Dhaka, Jahangirnagar University, North South University and East West University. The competition comprised three rounds.
The round one was for idea submission. It consisted of two days of campus registration in each of the four universities. In the days of campus registration, the students were able to collect and submit their registration form in Woori Bank's Idea Registration Booths. Later, the registered students had to submit their ideas online within two weeks from registration date. Total 1,500 students registered. As many as 246 ideas were submitted within specific time.
From idea submission round, 12 best ideas were selected from each of the four universities for an intra-university final round, totalling to 48 teams in the second round. In the intra university round the 12 top participants had to present their ideas. In this round the judge's panel consisted of Woori Bank Management and respective university's faculty members or authoritative body. Among the 12 ideas from each university, only top three ideas of intra university contest won the ticket to participate in the grand finale or the inter-university final round.
Before the final round, all 12 finalists were invited to Woori Bank's country office premises at Gulshan-1 and they were provided a short orientation session by the Woori Bank management team. The orientation session consisted of overview on Woori Bank global operations and its Bangladesh operations and few guidelines for the finalists to assist them in enriching their idea further and to prepare themselves for the grand finale round.
On the day of the grand finale, all 12 finalists have to present their Ideas to the judges from BIBM and Woori Bank. The theme of the grand finale is "Innovative business and promotional idea for banks in Bangladesh". Based on their score, the winners of Woori Inter-University Idea Contest 2018 will be announced where the champion will receive a cash prize of Tk 100,000, runner-up Tk 50,000, second runner-up Tk 30,000 and third runner-up Tk 20,000.
The grand finale will be held at Lakeshore in Gulshan 2 of Dhaka on December 13 (today), starting from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm. The chief guest of the event will be Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, former governor of Bangladesh Bank.
Woori Bank Idea Fest is a celebration of country's innovation potential, particularly those ideas which stem from the youths. Competitions such as Woori Bank Idea Fest will provide a window to the creative and innovative solutions for business development through innovations, student ideas and other technologies for various sectors.
The writer is a final year student at Bangladesh University of Professionals. He can be reached at arabid418@gmail.com