Prior to the formal launch of Tangent TV, Tangent had begun providing valuable content through our YouTube channel with daily livestreamed skills sessions. The first series ran from March 24^th to April 21^st with Joseph Lanzillotta, Tangent’s Student Entrepreneurship Programme Manager, talking viewers through one part of the Techstars Entrepreneur’s Toolkit each day. 

Following the immense success of the series, Joe has continued with daily livestreams under the banner of Tangent TV. The next three series’ are based around Tangent’s core themes: Imagination Week (April 27^th – May 1^st), Collaboration Week (May 5^th – 8^th), Action Week (May 11^th – 15^th). These series explore trends, tools and inspirations for Imagining, collaborating on and taking action with new ideas.

Watch the latest session here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwvjpegDqyY

On 28th of April, we were immensely fortunate to (remotely!) welcome Brian Pennie (keynote speaker, PhD candidate, university lecturer, life-change strategist, and author of the recently released book, Bonus Time).  Brian spoke candidly and compellingly on coping with adversity and finding a new perspective. You may have heard Brian over the past few weeks on radio promoting his new book; Brian's life used to be very different.  On October 8th 2013, he experienced his first day clean after 15 years of chronic heroin addiction. Brian will talk about the tools he used to overcome his addiction, which are the very same tools that is helping him navigate his way through this latest crisis.

Brian focused on 3 key takeaways ;

1) how we respond to adversity

2) how we make decisions in the new normal

3) priming yourself to win the day, even a COVID-19 day!

Watch the session with Brian Pennie here:
https://eu.bbcollab.com/collab/ui/session/guest/2efaa625385a491597e06b8e939ae031

This year for the first time since the programme began in 2013, LaunchBox will be starting online and working remotely with 2020’s ten startups. The teams have been kept up to date of all developments during this stressful time, with weekly check-ins, remote 1:1 calls, and a variety of other supports provided by the LaunchBox programme manager and Tangent team.

It is another exciting and diverse cohort of startups, all of whom are ready and primed to make as much progress as possible during the three-month programme. Each startup will receive EUR10,000 in funding to progress their idea over the summer, as well as tailored support, networking, mentorship and much more. Thanks as always are due to the programme contributors, many of whom are LaunchBox and/or Trinity alumni, who give their time and expertise so generously to the next generation of innovators. The LaunchBox programme will commence the first week in June.

Almost 7 weeks ago now , a Contact Tracing Centre in the Tangent Space was established, comprised of an interpersonal, inter-collaborative team of Trinity clinicians, civil servants and public representatives and staff from the HSE. A member of the contact tracing team spoke briefly about their experience working in the Tangent Space:

“We speak to people who may have been in contact or have signs and symptoms of COVID-19. Our job is to keep the public safe and to provide as much information as we can to protect the public, by collecting and recording cases in an IT system, which is shared in the daily national figures report. Each morning we huddle, talk about yesterday’s cases, and plan and prepare for the day ahead. The team is happy to be representing Trinity and continuing to help control COVID-19 in Ireland. It’s a lovely time of year to be on campus. The flowers are in bloom. Campus is very calm and peaceful, which makes it an ideal place for us to prosper in our roles.”

In a matter of weeks, COVID-19 developed into a global pandemic. 196 countries are currently affected by the virus and facing similar challenges.

Recently, Tangent Staff, Students and Alumni came together with TechStars and Start-Up Weekend to come up with innovative solutions to these universal challenges.

Ireland’s first remote Start Up weekend Covid-19 edition was one of 55 countries which took part in TechStars Global Initiative to Unite to Fight COVID-19. 13 organisers, two of the Tangent team, had just three weeks to organise a 54 hour start up weekend which would bring students, designers, engineers, coders, entrepreneurs and many others together to develop prototypes which will contribute to solving the most pressing challenges of this global pandemic.

Successful Tangent Alumni from the tech, charity, mental health and start up growth industries made up a group of 40 facilitators, volunteers, partners, mentors and judges who helped the attendees throughout the weekend. Now more than ever, innovation and entrepreneurship is becoming increasingly important. The Start up weekend tackled some of the key challenges outlined by the World Health Organisation including education, entertainment and vulnerable populations. This remote start up weekend exemplified how entrepreneurship and community can effectively unite during a global crisis.