The #CoCreate2Accelerate programme has come to an inspiring end, with the launch of our first international project and a Makers-in-Residence programme!
Our challenge to ourselves and Dutch entrepreneur Jabbo Smulders was to position Polymorph as the ideal mobile product development partner for Dutch companies developing products in the IoT sector. Jabbo immediately identified our first hurdle: If our innovation and awesome work is not visible, we won’t connect to innovative people that want to work with us – in Holland or elsewhere.
Thus, our solution lay in telling our story as an innovative company in development and design, with a unique work environment. The next step was to create a project to attract innovative people: A community-driven digital maker space. This way, we foster innovation in our own community and solve real problems through hackathons.
Creating an open space for co-creation and sharing of knowledge is a way we could invite people to join in.
We have the privilege to live and work in one of the most beautiful parts of one of the most beautiful countries in the world. We have amazing people with very challenging problems to solve. Why not use that to bring brilliant minds from outside South Africa to come and work with us? After speaking with Martijn Aslander, we were encouraged to take our solution one step further and named our program; Maker-in-Residence.
We want to encourage innovative makers worldwide to come and work with us for a month to solve real problems, and effect real change. We want to learn about the innovation in Europe and for Europeans to learn problem solving on multiple levels within not only a digital and technological format but within a diverse landscape. With co-creation and innovation, a melding of minds and new eyes, we believe the Maker-in-Residence program could bring about remarkable growth and change for all involved.
Lastly, we are happy to announce that we have our first success in the challenge of working on an IoT project with a Dutch company. Through #cocreate2Accelerate, we were connected with T-Mobile’s Ewout Karel. We will be working with T-Mobile on a project to help farmers monitor their Alpacas and other livestock to prevent stock theft.
For Polymorph CEO Richard Barry, taking part in the #CoCreate2Accelerate proramme was a fantastic opportunity. In his own words: “Working with Jabbo and the other Dutch entrepreneurs gave us renewed energy and as a result of the 2 weeks together we have some very ambitious and exciting goals we have set ourselves.
We didn’t know what to expect from the programme, and the results are far more than we ever could have dreamed of. One thing I certainly didn’t expect was to make such good friends. Jabbo, Anke, Esther, Jan-Henk and Kevin: thank you for your energy, your passion for life, and your insights. To the Consulate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Consul General of the Netherlands Bonnie Horbach’s @cocreateSA team and everyone involved in organising #CoCreate2Accelerate: thank you for the opportunity and congratulations on the results of a very well organised programme.”
Read more about the CoCreate celebration event. Photo © CoCreate2Accelerate
