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Party to fix the world

On the opening night of Design Indaba, Wednesday, 29 February 2012, the party to fix the world comes to Cape Town, when Design Indaba presents Common Pitch: South Africa. Common, a creative community for accelerating social change, offers a prize of US$25 000 to the winning social innovation start-up team. [video]
Party to fix the world

The 11 finalists will pitch and present their idea for making a social change to a panel of judges. Each competing entrepreneur will have five minutes to pitch his or her business idea to a judging panel of industry experts, creatives and business innovators.

Common CEO Richard Demato will present the event, hosted in partnership with Woolworths and MTN. Tickets, at R150, which includes finger food and a glass of wine, are available at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Wednesday 29 February 2012 or from 6.30pm at the door at City Hall.

Judges


  • Ian Moir, CEO of Woolworths
  • Ryan Gould, GM: brand and communications at MTN
  • Ory Okolloh, policy manager and government relations manager for Google in Africa
  • Carlo Ratti, director of the SENSEable City Laboratory at MIT in Boston; also named one of the "50 People Who Will Change the World" by Wired UK
  • John Bielenberg, winner of over 250 design awards, co-founder of Common and partner at Future

Finalists

The 11 finalists are listed below, with the presenting entrepreneur and viewing details, where available:

Vent! is an art and performance platform for South African youth brimming with incredible, creative talent, but few opportunities to express it. It is an outlet to share their stories, hopes and dreams with the world through art, music, and public stage performances.

Presenting entrepreneur: Heather Costaras
Home: South Africa
Website: www.ventproject.co.za
Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGZJsUaMqnc (embedding not available)

Earthbagbuild is a construction system combining ancient building techniques with 21st century technology: a locally developed and patented high strength polypropylene 'EarthBag' filled with earth and stacked. The homes and buildings created are attractive, inexpensive, structurally sound, durable, energy-efficient, acoustically efficient, rot and corrosion proof, fire resistant, non-toxic and bulletproof.

Presenting entrepreneurs: Dr Johnny Anderton, Clare Anderton and Riann Hough
Home: South Africa
Website: www.earthbagbuild.com

Mpower Cup is a menstrual cup - an innovative sustainable solution for sanitary menstrual management for women living in developing countries. It provides a long-term low-cost solution for women during their cycle, allowing them to carry on with normal daily routines, including working and attending school. In South Africa, 13 million women of reproductive age need menstrual management solutions.

Presenting entrepreneur: Glenda Tutt
Home: South Africa
Website: www.mpowercup.co.za

Café Mal is a café-society coffee shop and bullhorn calling all geeks, nerds, hackers, hipsters, makers, builders, intelligistas, intellerati and creative bohemians and sophisticates alike to gather at this social-connector lair, café and gallery space known as Mal - South African slang for "crazy." The Cape Town lifestyles start up space aims to unite innovative minds and hearts from across an often times, still socially-divided city, using the currency of creativity, skill-sharing and café sales to level the playing field and make room for new diverse opportunities for creative capital in Cape Town.

Presenting entrepreneurs: Mawande 'Manez' Sobetwa, Gavin Weale, Mike Schalit and Thobekile Mbanda
Home: South Africa
Website: www.livityafrica.com
Twitter: @LiveMagSA

Pacha's Pajamas is a cross-media social learning and gaming platform based on the dreams of a little girl superhero named Pacha. Produced by Balance Edutainment, each episodic story of Pacha's dreams becomes an exciting learning lesson accessible through interactive books, eBooks, apps, music and video. Pacha: Nature Superhero is the first production of the series, and one of the first games in the Real World Impact (RWI) genre: combining social gaming, experiential learning and entertaining content.

Presenting entrepreneurs: Ricardo Gressel, Dave Room, Aaron Ableman and Abdul-Karriem Ali Khan
Home: South Africa and US
Website: pachaspajamas.com

We The Change is a replicable model of centres of excellence and innovation in the field of early childhood education and care serving children ages 0-8, the years when a child develops the majority of his or her thinking, language, emotional, and social skills, and resistance to disease. Partnering with government, universities and existing primary schools, the organisation's holistic approach incorporates programs of education, healthcare, nutrition, play, emotional support, counselling and child protection for successful 360-degree child development in the earliest years of life.

Presenting entrepreneur: Soiya Gecaga
Home: Kenya
Website: www.wethechangefoundation.com

EcoPost is a social enterprise founded in 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya to address the challenges of plastic pollution, urban waste management, health, unemployment, deforestation and climate change. The company uses recycled plastic waste to create plastic lumber products including fencing and signposts. 500,000 youth enter the job market every year with limited prospects, yet EcoPost has so far created employment for 12 individuals at its local recycling plant. In addition, since 2010 the operation has recycled about 1 million kilograms of waste to create our product, saving 25 trees and 25,000 kg CO2 emissions for every 1,000 kilograms, further mitigating climate change.

Presenting entrepreneurs: Charles Kalama and Lorna Rutto
Home: Kenya
Website: www.ecopost.co.ke

Mine Kafon is a wind-blown, wooden, bamboo-spiked ball, based on homemade childhood toys, and designed to decommission land mines by blowing them up. The ball uses GPS to map its path along the way, creating a record of safe pathways. Thousands of square miles in countries all over the world are afflicted with land mines, rendering land useless and disrupting those who rely on it for their livelihoods.

Presenting entrepreneur: Massoud Hassani
Home: Netherlands
Website: www.massoudhassani.com

Mine sweeper from robertanderson on Vimeo.

Wheel Farm is an urban farm built on Ferris wheel-like structures surrounded by green spaces and residences. The concept combines aesthetic design with integrated systems solutions to solve issues faced by densely populated communities. The Wheel Farm serves as a multi-functional eco-system providing on-site energy, food, water and employment.

Presenting entrepreneurs: Lo Yi, designer and Liu Yang, architect and engineer
Home: China
Contact: moc.liamg@iyolih

Bridgit is a digital web plug-in tool that offers people a direct way to engage in global issues they care about and find others who are doing the same. The application follows a user's daily online movement to match them with NGOs and relevant trends, projects, news articles, and participation opportunities, allowing people to research and - above all - take action in the cause of their choice.

Presenting entrepreneurs: Maja Bergström and Petter Hanberger
Home: Sweden and France
Website: www.majabergstrom.se/www.petterhanberger.se
Video: vimeo.com/35843595 (embedding not available)

Crowdplaces is a user-friendly crowd-funding platform where individuals and communities can pitch ideas and win funding for physical neighbourhood improvements. Projects in underutilised, re-imagined spaces like urban gardens, parklets, play structures, bike security, mobile sidewalk libraries, and murals can be pitched, funded and built by citizens. It is also a place to be inspired.

Presenting entrepreneurs: Marisol García and Krista Canellakis
Home: Chile
Website: www.crowdplaces.org
Twitter: @marigarciago/@kristallakis

crowdplaces from crowdplaces on Vimeo.

About Common

Founded in January of 2011 by Alex and Ana Bogusky, John Bielenberg and Rob Schuham, Common supports, connects and celebrates those designing a new era of more socially minded capitalism through events, services and collaborations. For more, go to www.commonpitchsa.com.

Party to fix the world

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