by Anna Szlendak (Aych Communication Team)
Hello, my young creative friend with a head full of ideas. If someone will guide you, one day those ideas can change the world. Don´t you know where to look? Let me take you to the world of incubation of AYCH, specifically to our Spanish partner – Lug Open Factory.
Everything starts with contacting young people, give them a space where they can freely express their ideas. For that purpose Lug Open Factory decided to create 4 Hubs: Lug, Ferrol, USC (with Santiago University) and Monterrei. In that first phase we use Bright Mirror tool, an ice-breaker game created by EDNA, to build a real team which can work together. It´s really important to listen to young people, to get know them, their ideas and the possibilities they have. Profiles of young people vary a lot and depends of the Hub. Hub Lug has the sharpest structure, because all participants are connected with entertainment world and have already some projects and ideas defined. In Hub Ferrol there are people who are from out of Spain, some of them have clear concepts, others not. In USC they have very clear picture of what they want to do, they just need methodologies, mostly to energise their ideas. The last one, Monterrei is the most inconstant and it needed to start from zero, so from the moment of creating an idea. An incubation process starts with a Youth Session, where young people work in teams on developing their ideas using informal education methodology.
The next step serves to analyse needs of participants and it´s made through AYCH Quest, a game created by L’Ecole de Design Nantes-Atlantique. Young people with that game create an ideal path of their incubation. They create also avatars, who will be their companions during this adventure.
Often, young people don´t have very precise ideas, then the next step, Design Thinking is dedicated to help them find and structure them. Trying to find solutions to a particular problem and using their skills and imagination impact so positively in their incubation process. It helps them also find their own idea to develop. It starts with brainstorming and clearing out topics and ideas. Then they identify potential users of their solution, what problems those users have and how we can approach them. Later they create a technical diagram of a global vision of our prototype. The next step serves to validate those ideas.
When the idea is already clarified, what young people needs is an analysis of reality. That means that we analyse possibilities of the prototype, sector in which we focus and our zone of influence. It helps to clarify needs that young people have to develop those ideas, e.g. education, contact with experts, participation in concrete events, etc.
One of the most important parts of whole incubation process is not only work on the idea, but also to know how to build a network of contacts and establish a work network between young people. Other needed step is to make a research about market, means to find possibilities to make our idea different and more attractive of what already the market offers.
When idea is clear and we have everything ready, there is a moment to go deeper in developing our prototypes. We start to create a name of our company and our own brand, which means creating logotypes, colours which identify our company, etc. With experts help young people discover also the world of digital marketing and learn how to move in it. If an idea requires, we help them also discover possible sales channels. They also have classes with an expert about the art of negotiation and sales, which help them in contacts with clients and with future projects.
Comes the moment to present prototypes to potential investors. In this phase young people work on presentation, create a video, visit cards and posters presenting their ideas. They also create their web pages and learn how to use SEO for make their brands more visible in Internet. Moreover, they analyse use of apps, if it can be useful for their ideas, how they can use it, etc. It can be very useful to be able to present those prototypes in physical form, by creating it in 3d printer or by laser cutter. Other form of presenting their ideas is to use podcasts and audiovisual resources.
Last touches are transmitted by classes related with financial recourses that can be use, intellectual property law, business planning and customer management, working in network and circular economy.
AYCH incubation offers also tools that help to create networks of cooperation. By using local and international jams, residencies and internship programmes, young people obtain fresh vision, new solutions and contacts which will help them to develop their ideas.
