How It Works
The SanaripThon is open to all citizens of Kyrgyzstan and from commercial, not for profit, NGO and academic institutions. The SanaripThon competition is team based, so you are encouraged to form interdisciplinary teams of between 5 and 8 participants. The goal of your team is to come up with a practical idea – an idea that you are willing to take forward as a business, a project, or an advocacy campaign.
The SanaripThon is a competition. If you are selected to participate, you will need to think which of the three challenge areas you are going to address. At the SanaripThon you and your team will have just over 48 hours to brainstorm and put together your idea into a practical solution and presentation. The quality of your idea, its practicality, and, ultimately your ability to convince the judges that you are able to successfully implement the idea, will decide the winners of Phase I.
The SanaripThon is just the beginning. The winners of the SanaripThon hackathon – will be invited to a “boot camp” – where they will work with business and technical advisors to turn their ideas into a realistic project proposal or business plan. The proposals will be evaluated by a group of expert judges and the winner will qualify for up to $20,000 in the form of a grant-based investment to deliver on their proposal.
The SanaripThon is not a prize competition, it is an investment into launching new projects and business ideas. In proposing your team, make sure that you are prepared and plan for success. Depending on the challenge you choose, your team should should include a number of skills: business, legal, technology, marketing, and academic. Innovative thinking requires creative individuals; Good proposals need a clear understanding of the needs, the gaps your idea will fill, the competition (what else is out there?), the audiences (beneficiaries or clients), marketing and/or outreach, financial plan, and legal advice. If you win – you will have be turning your your idea into a reality!
If you are an individual interested in participating, fill out an application and tell us why. We will add individuals to teams where we see an opportunity for a stronger more competitive team and idea!