Red Bull Basement at Tangent:

Last month at Tangent, we hosted the first Red Bull Basement event of the year - empowering students in all areas of study to use innovation to drive positive change with their campuses communities! Over the course of the event, a series of interactive and stimulating talks and workshops were delivered by industry leaders, including Karl Thomas (Founder of Creatovation) and Robert Fitzhugh (Founder of Film Smart Productions).

Last (though certainly not least!), we were lucky enough to have the event MC'ed by Tangent's own Alexandra Verbinschi! Normally the face of EIT Post Award support. Alex demonstrated tremendous bravely stepping up to MC this global event on behalf of Tangent – we are proud to demonstrate our Teams agility!

All national finalists are currently developing their ideas. Over the course of 5 weeks, they will receive work space, mentorship, and micro funding to kickstart their idea. Stand by for the Global Workshop to see what the students have created! 

Provost’s Innovation Challenge 

Here at Tangent, we are once again running the Provost’s Innovation Challenge @ Tangent, Trinity’s Ideas Workspace!

With the Provost’s Innovation Challenge @ Tangent, we offer our socially-minded students the opportunity to come up with solutions to a real-world problem linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals as part of a hackathon taking place later this term. The College community voted in overwhelming numbers – and with almost 38% of votes counted, this year’s Challenge with focus on Sustainable Cities!

We know our students want to make a positive impact on their society, and the world around them, and that’s what the Provost’s Challenge is all about. Trinity has a long-standing commitment to social innovation and sustainability, which is crucial to addressing some of the most pressing issues facing society today, and to preventing global crises of the future. As part of this, the Provost’s Innovation Challenge will provide a fun and creative online environment for teams of students to work on solutions to real-world problems, while competing for a cash prize. This is also a great opportunity to meet new people, and students from different disciplines. There is also a cash prize for the winning solution!

Trinity students can sign up to make a real impact by taking part in the Challenge which will run online from 20 – 22 November 2020: Sign Up Now!

Last year as part of the Challenge, the College community voted to hack single-use plastics, and in AY18/19 the social problem hacked was homelessness. Contact Student Startup & Innovation Manager, Alison.Treacy@tcd.ie , if you have any questions.
 

UPS Sustainability Sprint:

Win €1000 Project Funding!

Are you up for a challenge?

We have great news! We’ve partnered up with UPS to bring Trinity College students a Sustainability Sprint. With the theme “Create today to protect tomorrow” the competition is open to all the Trinity college students who want to embrace entrepreneurship and create an innovative and feasible project about sustainability.

Are you a critical thinker and a problem solver? This is the perfect opportunity to develop your innovative ideas, network and create your own path during and after your time at Trinity.  Don’t miss out on this opportunity! You can win awesome prizes: €1000 project funding, a Sustainability innovation award and ongoing mentorship from Tangent in connection with UPS.

We are excited to hear from you!

Learn more now: bit.ly/UPSSprint

Video Marketing on a Budget

On the 12th October, we (virtually!) sat down with Director of the Dublin Smartphone Festival, Founder of Filmsmart productions, videographer, director, and keynote speaker, Robert FitzHugh. Watch back the webinar here and get practical advice on how to produce quality video content (without spending a ton of money!).

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCwywiXNEzg&t=2s

Tangent Education: Innovation Continues!

Our three Postgraduate courses have all now commenced, bringing together 186 students online across Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Enterprise Development and Creative Thinking, Innovation & Entrepreneurship. We are seeing wonderful engagement from our students across these courses. This year students will engage with a record number of Host Projects, ranging from start-ups to multinationals; from the likes of Trinity Disability Projects to UPS and Matheson.

 This semester, we have seen a record number of students enrolled in our Undergraduate Certificate in Innovation & Entrepreneurship as well as our TEP Module with another 180 plus students taking part.

Professional Education:
This month launched our Taste for Success programme with 14 participants taking part, ranging from artisan food & beverage producers to supermarkets, such as Applegreen. This course focuses on students ideating on solutions to problems that they face as an industry. The spirit of collaboration has been very strong this year, given the new fully online environment, with everybody coming together to tackle and resolve the challenges faced to the industry.

November 5^th marks that start of our Digital Transformation in Life Science Manufacturing programme with students from companies such as Merck, among others, taking part. This is the first time for Tangent to run a programme like this and it’s the first of its kind combining Design Thinking with Programme Management.

Women Who Wow

Women Who Wow, a mentorship programme for female Trinity students with an interest in entrepreneurship, is still open for applications. The aim of the programme is to increase the numbers of female students on Tangent’s entrepreneurship programmes. Women Who Wow offers a year of 1:1 mentorship for successful applicants, who are matched with experienced female mentors from the business, startup and social enterprise space.
 
Applications are open for female students and will close later this month – interested students can apply here. If you or anyone in your network would be a good fit to act as a mentor, please get in touch with Alison.Treacy@tcd.ie
 
Find out more about Women Who Wow: https://www.tcd.ie/tangent/mentoring/women/
 

Join the Tangent Ecosystem! 

Find everything that's happening and more by joining the Tangent Ecosystem below!
 
What is the ecosystem?

Forum 
Find upcoming events, discover opportunities and contribute to discussion threads
Community 
Connect with other innovators to discuss ideas, share knowledge and build teams
Dashboard 
Complete a “Student assessment” for suggestions on how you might get involved
Complete an “Idea assessment” for recommended next best actions on your ideas
Tools 
Follow step by step tutorials to help analyze and develop your ideas

Sign up here: https://yourecosystem.com/tangent/register

EIT Health: iDays

Tangent in Trinity College is one of 31 universities across Europe hosting the annual EIT Health 'I-Day' (Innovation Day-long)  sprint challenge on the 12th November. This year's theme is "Fostering Healthy Lives in the new Covid-normal".
 
Building on the great success of last year’s event and again hosted by David Pollard and Colin Keogh of Sapien Innovation,  “I-Day’s” will deliver design thinking training, pitch coaching, ideation workshops and other practical tools and skills sessions for innovative and entrepreneurial development in making lives healthier.
 
We're looking for 3rd level students, graduates, academics and members of the public to join us online in coming up with innovative digital health solutions to help citizens stay healthy in these uncertain times.
 
Register via the portal below and choose Trinity College Dublin, November 12th as your preferred location:
 
https://alumni.eithealth.eu/events/40566
 

LaunchBox 2021: Information Session

LaunchBox, Tangent’s Student Accelerator, is a summer programme open to early-stage startups. We provide student entrepreneurs with funding, access to networks of investors and mentors, an elite structured programme that aims to progress their idea, and a transformative experience for them and their company.

 
Students who are interested in applying to this year’s LaunchBox programme, to receive €10K in equity-free funding for their idea, should come along to our online Information Sessions. Programme Manager, Alison Treacy, along with LaunchBox alumni will be chatting through the programme, application tips, and how to work on your idea.

Sign up now: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/launchbox-2021-information-session-online-tickets-120504471117

Tangent Snapshot: Some Interesting Data to Consider!

Over the last 2 years, we've collected data from over 225 students. In 2017/18 27% of students went on to establish self-employment in their first six months after completing the course compared to 50% who went on to secure employment. These numbers levelled out at 36% each in 2018/19. Those still actively seeking employment remained constant at around 20%. 

Our Postgraduate Certificate in Creative Thinking, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CTIE/Returners) was created as a course to get people back into employment. Following its first cohort in 17/18, 45% of students went on to secure employment compared to 24% who established self-employment. This began to reverse from the second cohort on and by cohort two of the second year (18/19) 31% of students secured employment and 42% of students went on to establish self-employment!

 

2 Metre Compliant Space Available at Tangent

Tangent has implemented 78 Government recommended actions to ensure the safety of staff, students and visitors. Social distancing, hand hygiene, contact logs and many other interventions to ensure our space is safe are part of our COVID19 response policy. We have extensive 2 Metre Compliant Space available for meeting and event hire.

For more information contact Aine Phelan: Aine.Phelan@tcd.ie

Tangent's Top 15: Concise Zoom Tips 

1. Sessions should be held in Zoom meeting, not webinars – this enables poll and breakout rooms
2. When using google docs ensure all docs open on screen closed – only presentation that shouldd be open is current one being presented
3. Breakout rooms – tricky to do in advance – random assignment preferred – if not a person will have to set this up manually after all the meeting participants are present –  suggesting need tech specific support at meeting to deliver this
4. Timing needs to be managed by someone other than presenter
5. Ask for questions to be put in the chat
6. All camera should be on to ensure better engagement
7. Mechanism for presenter and other running the call to chat outside of the participants needed
8. Presenter needs to be one sharing music
9. Google Sheets should be used (rather than a ppt in google folder) for collaborative presentation in groups.. doc permissions "anyone with link" + editor
10. 1st page of doc should have instructions for the task so teams can refer back
11. messaging/broadcast to groups - important to allocate link, communicate and give time warnings (groups won't receive a message sent to everyone in main room)
12. in group/room facilitation may be useful - difficult to get around to all rooms in the allocated time
13. Leaving a room is a risky procedure as host - take care not to close the meeting!
14. Consider using a virtual backdrop.
15. Recording should be pre-agreed with consent from all given in advance. Sharing of any recordings requires consent.