The 1%CLUB is the marketplace that connects smart development projects with people, money and knowledge around the world at onepercentclub.com.
Have a look and be part of it!
Every now and then deleted sections / pages of a website lead you to the 404 page of that site. Most of the time it is the standard error page, because they forget about designing the 404-error page.
Sometimes you will find an errorpage in the look and feel of the own site, or with an corporate identity. You can do more with an errorpage!
You have a smart business idea but stuck on the way forward? How about you let us offer you wings and help you take that idea to the next level? At the Nailab, we provide the physical and knowledge space where business minded teams grow intelligent companies. You create, co-create, learn, experiment and grow. We support your freedom to do what you are destined to do.
Allow us 2 minutes and 34 seconds of your time. Here is an animation about the nailab as an incubation spot.
The animation was done by Vive Visuals, who are part of the nailab family. These creative’s do high-end motion graphics for Commercials, Visual synthesis, Architectural and Engineering visualization, Learning Aid, Concept design, Film and animation and other visualizations.
When I got invited for Creative Minds Uganda by Michel and Sanne the first thing I thought was that this would create great possibilities. Imagine the leading social entrepreneurs you’re travelling with will meet some 1%CLUB projects. What will happen then. What knowledge would be exchanged.
The most common question from projects is how to promote your project. How to get people’s attention, connect with them and get supported. When I spoke to Michel about this he replied that the Be More projects have the same question. So why not work together and invite both 1%CLUB projects as well as Be More projects. Let’s organize a workshop on digital storytelling and social media.
DAY 1: IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR STORY
And so it happened. 5 1%CLUB projects. 7 Be More projects. 22 participants. During the introduction it became clear that the participants came from all over the place. Of course people from Masaka –were the workshop was held– and Ugandan capital Kampala but also Gulu (northern Uganda), Bukoba (Tanzania) and Kigali (Rwanda). In terms of travelling hours: 10 hours was not an exception.
To be honest, the workshop I prepared before I left The Netherlands has not been used. After travelling some days with Creative Minds Uganda and several meetings and workshops I realized the best workshop would be a workshop where everyone could contribute the best of itself.
Like Jaap. Jaap van ‘t Kruis is documentarymaker and storyteller. Before talking about connecting people and social media, the story is the key. What story do you have to share? What personal and authentic stories your project contains? Stop talking about a vision and mission. Stop the ‘bullshitbingo’. Start to share what the project is really about. What drives you? Jaap started the workshop to ask the participants about their projects. Everyone had to do a 1 minute pitch that was recorded with a flipcam. After that, Jaap shared a handout which helps you to pitch your project:
Attention, how to get someones attention.
Interest, what’s the central message.
Desire, what are the advantages of your project.
Action, how to motivate people to take action.
Of course, this AIDA model is nothing new. However, it is very useful to determine what you want to share. Short and to the point.
The groups were splitting up and working with a –Creative Minds Uganda– facilitator on their story. And great stories came up. Stories worth spreading and that hit the key message. Personal stories straight from the heart. Or just that one single example of success. The successtory of one single girl that dropped out of society and with the help of Jjingos organization got a new chance and ‘’now has the same smile on her face like I have’’ in Jjinog’s words. Or like Milton: ‘’to help other people makes me feel better’’. Or Benjamin who lost both his parents and now, via Kampabits, is doing an internship at Mountbatten to become webdeveloper: ‘’I want to pass on my knowledge to other youngster so that they’ll get the same chance like I got’’
These stories, personal, authentic and to the point, were recorded as well. Impressive to see what had happened in those 2 hours that everyone was working on their stories. All ‘before’ and ‘after’ videos were shown after lunch. There is much to say about these videos. Better to show one of them. And I would love to share them.. But, unfortunately, we’re still facing some issues with the Internet which makes uploading videos pretty impossible. As soon as possible I’ll add them to this post!
Update: the videos have been uploaded! Watch the before- and after pitch of William Rutta below here:
the ‘before- pitch’:
and the ‘after- pitch’:
No words needed…
DAY 2: SOCIAL MEDIA, FROM SCRATCH
All participants spent the night in hotel at the conference room. And a bit disappointed I met them again the next morning: ‘’the Internet was down last night so we couldn’t continue’’. And the Internet was not coming back that day. Thus, day 2 was improvised. My own biggest ‘lesson learned’: when you depend on Internet make sure you’ve enough screenshots of everything you want to show…
Despite the given situation Nils managed to explain Twitter. With a flipover and a marker he gave a great presentation about what Twitter is all about and what is its potential. Nils is the initiator of #durftevragen (#daretoask) in The Netherlands and with some examples he explained how Twitter can be used as tool to ask your questions and achieve goals. He even introduced the initiative in Uganda: #totyabuuza
In addition to Nils I shared the story about a girl I met a week before in Kenya: @kenyansavvy. A blogger and ‘tweep’ living in Nairobi who did her internship at an artsproject for children in Rwanda. When she saw that the president was passing near the project she asked Paul Kagame –the president of Rwanda– to drop by on Twitter. With just one single tweet she managed not only to meet the president of Rwanda, she also handed over a tshirt of the NGO she was doing her internship at. If that wasn’t enough they even swapped iDeos backcovers. Read the blog about the meeting at kenyansavvy.com.
After I gave a brief explanation about Facebook, groups were splitting up again to discuss about possibilities social media can offer to spread their stories. In my group, with all 1%CLUB projects, we used our time not only to discuss social media but also how to use the 1%CLUB website. A brief introduction about the background of the 1%CLUB was a start of one hour of questions, discussions, sharing experience and advices on how to the best out of your projectpage. Projects were not only blasted by the possibilities, also many questions popped up like ‘’what is the best way to approach someone you don’t know yet’’ and ‘’how can I create a task that attracts people?’’
Because of failing Internet it was a bummer we couldn’t practice what we just learned. Despite this, the Friday session was very usefull to get on the right track.
Two intensive days. 22 motivated and passionate participants. 9 motivated and passionate facilitators. The workshop was, in all ways, very useful and we learned a lot. Not only for the participants, also (especially) for me. Being aware of stories you have. On the other side, being aware of limited access to Internet for people that run the project. In the middle there’s the answer. For me one thing is clear: these stories have to be told.
An enormous ‘thank you’ to all, Be More and 1%CLUB, participants.
An enormous ‘thank you’ to Jaap, Nils, Sanne, Anneke, Olga, Jasper, Fanny and Michel for their absolutely best 1%.
NaiLab aims to support smart and business savvy Kenyan entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into viable businesses. NaiLab focuses on incubating knowledge driven (intelligent) businesses. In short, NaiLab is the incubator, where ICT meets the rest of the economy and society.
Since the launch NaiLab received more than 50 applications for becoming the first incubatees in NaiLab. Last Friday we have selected the first five NaiLab Incubatees. We had a welcoming event where they pitched their startup ideas to each other:
The five first NaiLab Incubatees:
SoluMobi – Startup focused on mobility solutions. These solutions include mobile applications and mobile-based web design. SoluMobi is known for developing Msema Kweli, a mobile application that helps keep track of Community Development Fund projects. It does this by putting the power of keeping track and commenting on the projects via SMS, email and social media platforms in the hands of any person.
Vive Visuals – A startup visual effects company that does high-end motion graphics for film, commercials and a broad range of visualizations. They showcased some impressive first animations and are also preparing an animation for NaiLab of which they showed the promising first sneak preview last Friday.
M-Order – M-order solution is one of the innovations that came out our neighboring IHub space. M-order is a real-time mobile ordering application that provides an efficient and faster way of ordering products of Small and Medium Enterprises. Of course Pete’s Coffee is their first customer so you can order your cappuccino from any spot in the building by using your mobile phone.
Inposting – This new startup is developing a matching service linking interns & early stage job seekers with prospective employers. It will be a talent discovery engine. Inposting looks for best fits in terms of skill sets and employer requirements are established in an efficient, hassle free framework.
TEDx Kibera – TEDx Kibera organizes TEDx events in the slums of Nairobi that take inspiring ideas worth spreading to and from Kibera, Mathare, Korogocho and Kangemi. They were in NaiLab from the moment we opened our doors and are now officially our first housemate.
Besides these five first NaiLab Incubatees some entrepreneurs were selected as NaiLab Seedlings and will be supported to create teams around their ideas and work out their plans. We are still open to new applications so if you have an idea for a business startup please fill in the application form or drop by at NaiLab for a coffee.
Inspired by 404Sponsoring (Dutch) I donated 1% of my website, my error page, to the One Percent Club. So when something goes wrong with my site, there is nothing wrong about it…
