In the inaugural edition of the River Hongbao 2019 Hackathon (RHBHacks), three teams from Nanyang Technological University, Republic Polytechnic and Singapore Polytechnic emerged winners in the entrepreneurship competition which was held today. They will prepare to set up stalls at the River Hongbao Bicentennial Edition in a month’s time.
SINGAPORE – What are the products and services that would compel people to part with their money at River Hongbao 2019?
According to the proposals by tertiary students who won the River Hongbao 2019 Hackathon (RHBHacks) entrepreneurship competition sponsored by Mapletree Investments, they are the special balloons with LED lights, terrariums and denim apparel with customized designs.
Chairman of Mapletree Investments, Mr Edmund Cheng said, “Mapletree is proud to be the sole sponsor of RHBHacks. Since November last year, students have been coming down to Mapletree Business City to immerse themselves in fruitful sharing sessions. We were thoroughly impressed by the diversity of ideas presented at the Hackathon.”
They will road-test their ideas by setting up stalls with $4,800 seed money at River Hongbao Bicentennial Edition, which will run from 3rd to 10th February 2019 at The Float @ Marina Bay. Apart from the seed money, the winning teams will also receive $2,000 prize money.
The nationwide event, introduced in 1986 to usher in the Chinese New Year, has drawn more than 1 million visitors annually.
Said Mr Ang Wei Neng, Chairman of River Hongbao 2019 and MP for Jurong GRC, “River Hongbao is a well-loved nation-wide platform drawing huge crowds, and this provides the perfect opportunity for our youths to test their entrepreneurship mettle. Through RHB Hacks, we also want to attract more youths to visit River Hongbao.”
From amongst a pool of 28 teams comprising students from tertiary institutions, the teams from Nanyang Technological University, Republic Polytechnic and Singapore Polytechnic emerged tops in the RHB Hacks Challenge which was held on 4th January at Mapletree Business City’s Town Hall.
Another two teams, which will not set up stalls at River Hongbao, were given special awards for their ideas. The Most Innovative Award was presented to a team from Singapore Polytechnic which came up with the idea of selling customized hologram pictures, while the Most Technovative Award was presented to a team from Temasek Polytechnic which wanted to connect like-minded strangers through a variety of ways.
In the first round of judging, each team presented their proposal to Ms Gwen Au, Vice President, Marketing Communications, Mapletree Commercial Property Management; Ms Heng Sue Yuan, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Mapletree Investments; and Mr Allan Tan, Director of Dragon Brand Bird’s Nest Pte Ltd.
In the second and final round of judging, the students were again assessed by Ms Au, Ms Heng and Mr Tan, as well as Mr Ang Wei Neng, Chairman of the River Hongbao 2019 Committee, Mr Yeo Hiang Meng, President of the Federation of Merchants’ Association Singapore, and Ms Grace Tan, Director of the ToTT Store.
All the teams were mentored by Mapletree’s Director of Retail Management Systems Ms Joanna Lee.
Added Mr Cheng: “To ensure these business ideas can take flight, a Mapletree retail expert will mentor the 3 winning teams and conduct retail workshop clinics for them. We want to impart our business knowledge to the youths, who may go on to blaze the retail trail or become business leaders of tomorrow.”
The winning teams will be amongst the 26 food and retail stalls to set up at River Hongbao. They will contribute 70 percent of their earnings to appointed non-profit organisations, and keep the remaining 30 percent.
Inaugural River Hongbao Hackathon 2019 at Mapletree Business City Town Hall
The top 3 winning teams with the Guest of Honour, SMS Chee Hong Tat, River Hongbao Committee Chairman, Mr Ang Wei Neng and Mapletree Chairman, Mr Edmund Cheng.
Winners from Republic Polytechnic
Winners from Singapore Polytechnic
Winners from Nanyang Technological University
