Social Innovators Hack!
Social Innovations are all around us – Sharing Economy, Urban Farming, Open University and Microcredit. These are examples of novel solutions to social problems that are more effective, sustainable and efficient, and involve collaborations between the private, public and people sectors.
In Singapore, businesses are starting to embrace the concept of Social Innovation. As part of a new breed of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), these Social Enterprises combine social mission and business – they are Businesses with a Cause.
Singapore is now home to over 400 Social Enterprises striving to transform such diverse sectors as education, food and beverage,
the arts, etc. and to create a more inclusive world for youth-at-risk, people with disabilities, the elderly and other marginalised groups. For the Social Innovators Hack! we teamed up with Social Innovation Park and HPE Helion to uncover solutions that would help strengthen Singapore’s growing Social Enterprise sector.
At this hackathon, participants were exposed to the challenges of the Social sector. They sparked new ways to foster stronger collaborations and communications amongst people in the private, public and people sectors, and build a robust social marketplace to accelerate the growth of the Social sector.
Organised By

In Partnership With

Supporting Partners






Challenges
Building a Social Marketplace
COLLABORATION: Enabling Social Innovators to pool and share ideas and resources
Social Innovators have a tendency to work in silos, but can benefit from more collaborations. But this is highly dependent on personal networks and face-to-face meetings. It takes time to form an effective professional and personal network to execute their ideas.
• Contribute content, questions, ideas, opportunities to collaborate • Enable and facilitate discussions • Recommend connections using data analytics (personal data) and area-based sensing • Match needs and resources, e.g. mentors, partners, funding, etc. • Incentivise Social Innovators to use some or all of these great features to help them in their personal and professional development.
Events
Pre-Hackathon Workshop
Date Wednesday, 3 November Time 6.30pm to 9pm Venue IDA Labs@NDC, National Design Centre, 111 Middle Road, #02/03-04, Singapore 188969 Check out the speakers’ slides
Hackathon – Day 1
Date Saturday, 14 November Time 9am to late Venue BASH, Level 3 Blk 79 Ayer Rajah Crescent, Singapore 139955
Hackathon – Day 2
Date Sunday, 15 November Time 9am to 6pm Venue BASH, Level 3 Blk 79 Ayer Rajah Crescent, Singapore 139955
Experts
Here’s a look at the speakers, mentors, and judges at the Social Innovators Hack!
Speakers / Mentors











Judges



Prizes
Apart from attractive cash prizes for winning ideas, we’ve got some fantastic opportunities lined up for you. Social Innovation Park will be awarding the following opportunities to two deserving participants:
A spot in INSEAD’s Social Entrepreneurship Programme (worth $6,800)
One impactful and social enterprise-minded participant will be awarded a place at this intensive, one-week programme that will equip you with the business skills and frameworks you need to grow your social venture and maximise your social impact. Graduates form a dynamic community of high-level social entrepreneurs, who remain engaged through online collaboration, regular meetings and support.
Find Out MoreA spot in Social Innovation Park’s Social Innovators Accelerator (SIA) Course
The Social Innovators Accelerator (SIA) Course is a year-long business mentorship programme that incubates driven individuals determined to change the world through social innovation and entrepreneurship.
It brings together expert mentorship from top business leaders and robust capacity-building workshops taught by luminary organisations, providing an all-rounded one year programme that will accelerate the social enterprise and take it to new heights.
In the SIA Course, you will learn how to: • Enhance your business value proposition and get an edge up over others • Connect and learn from accomplished business mentors and be connected to the right networks • Secure your business model and gain business insights in workshops conducted by leading business consultancy firms
Ideas
Check out the winning ideas from the hackathon!
Team Let’s Move designed Social Dash, a B2B e-commerce platform that matches for-profit businesses with social enterprises for procurement of corporate gift products.
A platform for volunteers to collaborate on providing healthy dining information, and a site for members to access that information real-time.
Volu created an event marketplace that helps organisations recruit volunteers according to skills required. The algorithm also matches the volunteer’s location and the number of their friends attending a particular event. Volunteering is tracked using points.
A-SAP created a platform that aims to help people in need by providing an easy way for them to submit delivery requests, consolidate the requests and schedule the delivery. The platform benefits the elderly, or people who may have mobility restrictions get goods (e.g. groceries) delivered, and volunteers.
CareU created an app that embodies the Caring and Sharing Economy. Users can earn “Care Credits” (a social currency) when helping others and redeem them to get help. All this is powered by Blockchain technology, which allows the solution to be universal, making payments more reliable.
ROJAKS#2 designed Careville, a multi-stakeholder platform that helps volunteers, VWOs and social organisations to connect, removing initial barriers to entry and encouraging volunteers to log on and find localised volunteering opportunities. Volunteers get badges for their volunteer efforts, as an incentive for them to volunteer again.
HPE Helion
HPE Helion made their cloud development platform, Helion Development Platform, available for participants at the Social Innovators Hack! The platform made it easy for participants to develop and deploy their solutions, allowing them to spend more time refining their idea and addressing the challenges.
About HPE Helion
The Helion Development Platform is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that helps you build great cloud-native applications across private and public clouds. Based on Cloud Foundry and fully integrated with HPE Helion, you can focus on building the right app for any environment.
Support at the Hackathon
While it was not compulsory for teams to use HPE Helion to build their solutions, they got plenty of hands-on, one-on-one support from the HPE Helion team if they did.
Sign up now for free HP Cloud creditsIdeas
Check out the winning ideas from the hackathon!
Team Let’s Move designed Social Dash, a B2B e-commerce platform that matches for-profit businesses with social enterprises for procurement of corporate gift products.
A platform for volunteers to collaborate on providing healthy dining information, and a site for members to access that information real-time.
Volu created an event marketplace that helps organisations recruit volunteers according to skills required. The algorithm also matches the volunteer’s location and the number of their friends attending a particular event. Volunteering is tracked using points.
A-SAP created a platform that aims to help people in need by providing an easy way for them to submit delivery requests, consolidate the requests and schedule the delivery. The platform benefits the elderly, or people who may have mobility restrictions get goods (e.g. groceries) delivered, and volunteers.
CareU created an app that embodies the Caring and Sharing Economy. Users can earn “Care Credits” (a social currency) when helping others and redeem them to get help. All this is powered by Blockchain technology, which allows the solution to be universal, making payments more reliable.
ROJAKS#2 designed Careville, a multi-stakeholder platform that helps volunteers, VWOs and social organisations to connect, removing initial barriers to entry and encouraging volunteers to log on and find localised volunteering opportunities. Volunteers get badges for their volunteer efforts, as an incentive for them to volunteer again.
FAQ
What is UP Singapore
“Urban Prototyping” is a new movement where people from the public, private and people sectors come together to tackle the wide range of social and environmental challenges facing our cities. Urban Prototyping (UP) is a platform managed by Padang & Co, the Open Innovation Company, for crowdsourcing ground-breaking innovations – creating technology and data-enabled enterprises by giving participants access to new technologies and data. At the heart of this platform is a UP Singapore community of 8,000 innovators and change-makers.
Do I need to be able to code to participate?
Not necessary. We welcome people with different skillsets and would expect everyone to contribute to their respective teams. We ask you to indicate what type of participant you are at registration, so we know the mix. At this hackathon, there will be lots of help from the HPE Helion team.
It’s my first UP Singapore hackathon. What exactly will happen during the hackathon weekend?
Our hackathons are intended to be a fun work event, where people volunteer their time and skills to work on their ideas in teams.
The hackathon will start on Saturday morning. On Saturday, social innovation mentors and the HPE Helion team will be at hand help you develop your idea and prototype. Most of Saturday and Sunday consists of work time for the teams, so please bring your laptop and any other equipment or materials that you need to work on your idea / prototype. Food and drink are provided throughout the weekend.
The weekend culminates in pitch presentations on the Sunday afternoon, and prizes are awarded.
There is an idea pitching session that happens both at the workshop and on Saturday morning. If you have an idea, you can do a one-minute pitch to the audience to attract people to join your team. Do think about your pitch in advance!
Please also see the UP hackathon code of conduct. [link to: http://www.upsingapore.com/code-of-conduct/] Check out the UP Singapore blog post “How to Hack a Hackathon” for tips and tricks to make the most of your hackathon experience here!
Is attendance at the pre-hackathon workshop mandatory? What is in the workshop?
Attendance is not mandatory, but is highly encouraged. It will be a useful orientation to the social enterprise sector and is a good primer for the hackathon. We introduce the challenges and invite experts to give these the context
How many people are allowed in a team? Must I form a team beforehand?
All teams should have 3 to 5 people. You will have two opportunities to form or join teams – at the Pre-Hackathon Workshop and on Saturday morning at the hackathon.
Are the participants free to use any technologies?
Yes, you are free to use any technologies. The use of HPE Helion is encouraged, but not compulsory. WiFi is provided, and please bring your own laptop.
Are the participants free to use external datasets?
Yes, you are free to use any external datasets that complement or mash-up with the datasets released for this hackathon. You shall be responsible appropriate use of these external datasets, subject to the originators’ terms and conditions.
What is the closing date for registration for the hackathon?
We accept registrations up to the start of the hackathon on 14 November. However, as space is limited, we encourage you to register as soon as you can.
Do the participants need to be present throughout the weekend? Must participants stay overnight?
There is no restriction on your movement. Just make sure that all the team members work out your respective roles and responsibilities. The workspace will stay open till late (approximately 11pm) on Saturday. But you are not required to work overnight. We’d like everyone to have a good night’s sleep and come in fresh on Sunday!
Is there any age limit for the participants?
There is no age limit. We welcome anyone of any age, so long as they have something to contribute. However, if you are below 18 years old, please let us know ahead of time, so we can prepare a parental / guardian consent form for you.
Why do you need a deposit of $15 at registration?
The $15 deposit is only to ensure that participants remain committed to attend the hackathon. Once you check in at the hackathon on Saturday morning, the full amount will be refunded.