To further empower the next generation of business leaders, SparkUp, BusinessWorld’s multimedia platform for passionate, wildly creative, go-getting millennials, is launching the first-ever SparkUp Camp.
SparkUp Camp is a workshop, competition, and reality television program (yes, a TV series) aimed at cultivating, highlighting, and judging the business skills of the country’s next generation of entrepreneurs.
Each season follows a batch of young entrepreneurs learning and competing to find out who the next big name of their chosen industry will be.
This year, SparkUp Camp shines the spotlight on Metro Manila’s flourishing food industry.
The camp is divided into four phases — workshop, competition, trade fair, and business reality series — which will run from September through December of this year.
In the first phase, 24 groups of entrepreneurs selected from an initial pool of applicants will undergo workshops to be led by some of the country’s most renowned experts in their respective fields.
Participants will then pitch their creative and innovative business ideas to three SparkUp Camp mentors-judges, who will select four groups each to take under their wings.
The chosen participants will go through a series of challenges that will test if they have what it takes to build a socially and economically relevant food business.
To celebrate the entrepreneurial ventures of the campers and provide them with a space to showcase and promote their products, a week-long food fair will be mounted. This event will also serve as the culminating activity of the camp, from which only the top contenders will emerge.
From October to December, the stories and journeys of the participants will be aired as an eight-part reality TV show on ONE News, the premier news channel of Cignal TV.
Registration for SparkUp Camp is ongoing. Entrepreneurs ages 18 to 30, who are either sole business proprietors or part of a team (with four members, at the most), can join — so long as their food business is still in infancy and has been around for no more than three years.
In addition to the immersive learning experience, a plethora of networking opportunities, and bragging rights, SparkUp Camp winners will receive cash prizes, free-of-charge retail space in one of Ortigas & Company’s properties, hundreds of thousands of media values, and more!
To register, go to www.bworldonline.com/sparkupcamp-register.
SparkUp Camp is powered by BusinessWorld, in partnership with Ortigas & Company and ONE News.
Several universities have helped make the camp possible, including Ateneo De Manila University, University of Santo Tomas, Far Eastern University, University of Asia and the Pacific, Miriam College, Enderun Colleges, Entrepreneurs School of Asia, San Beda University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Mapua University, and St. Paul University.
SparkUp Camp is supported by the following media entities: The Philippine Star, The New Builder, TOMCAT, TOMASINOWEB, Green Giant FM, DZUP 1602, and Maroon FM; and by the following organizations: Go Negosyo, Philippine Franchisers Association, Young Entrepreneurs Society, Society of Thomasian Entrepreneurs, Junior Confederation of Finance Associations – Philippines, Enderun Entrepreneurs Society, Junior Financial Executives – University of the East Manila, UP Circle of Entrepreneurs, FEU Entrepreneurship Club, Ateneo Management Economics Organization, The Bedan Entrepreneurs Society, UA&P Enterprise Management Association, and UP Association of Business Administration Majors.
