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YSEALI Agribusiness Incubator Workshop Pakse, Lao PDR | March 2 - 6, 2020

The YSEALI Agribusiness incubator workshops is an integrated 5-day incubator program for 50 young innovators focused on identifying and developing sustainable Agribusiness opportunities in the 10 ASEAN member countries, plus Timor-Leste. The incubator style workshop, in partnership with Arizona State University, will teach participants how to apply Design Thinking and Lean Startup methodologies and disciplined entrepreneurship through rigorous evidenced-based, action-oriented learning to help recognize opportunities and build a sustainable enterprise that can deliver innovative value in the Agribusiness sector.

Through classwork, site visits, and round table discussions, participants will actively learn how to identify Agribusiness opportunities, interact with potential customers, and develop sustainable and environmentally sound ventures. The coursework will be delivered by subject matter experts, trade professionals, industry leaders, and practitioners. The 5-day incubator will culminate with attendees presenting investor-style pitches which document their understanding of the Agri-business opportunity, their proposed solutions and the funding required to advance the development of their Agri-business innovation.

Welcoming all 49 participants from all over ASEAN and Timor-Leste at the 2020 YSEALI Agribusiness Incubator Workshop! As a welcoming activity, on March 1, participants went on a Champasak province tour and learned about the local culuture.

The Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) in partnership with Arizona State University (ASU) hosted the regional Agribusiness Incubator Workshop in Pakse city of Champasak province, Laos on March 2.

The workshop guides participants how to apply design thinking, lean startup methodologies and disciplined entrepreneurship through rigorous evidenced-based, action-oriented learning to help recognize opportunities and build a sustainable enterprise that can deliver innovative value in the agribusiness sector.

Besides technical training, teamwork, networking and problem-solving skills are what the participants will bring home after the workshop.

Baci is a long-standing traditional ceremony handed down from generation to generation in Laos. Lao people get together to tie cotton strings to wish each other good luck, health and happiness. YSEALI participants got a chance to attend a Baci ceremony and blended in the local culture.

During the 2nd and 3rd training days, participants had a chance to meet and learn from the inspiring stories shared by local and foreign entrepreneurs who have successfully begun their journey.

I lost. I failed. Learn from your failure and keep moving!

_Ken Pitsapeng_ Founder & Manager, House of Dreams, Laos Director, Green Organic Fam_

The participants had comprehensive days learning about how to develop responsible, sustainable and environmentally-sound small and medium enterprises (SMEs). They also explored opportunities and risks in developing a successful agricultural business model and how to create attractive businesses to the investors.

The Agribusiness Incubator Workshop concluded in March 06, 2020, with a investor-style pitch competition where attendees showed their understanding of the Agri-business opportunity, proposed solutions and the funding required to advance the development of their Agri-business innovation.

The eight finalists demonstrated the lessons learned in the prior four days of lectures, discussions and experiential learning with Lean Startup Methodology, Design Thinking and ways to make a better pitch.
Each individual did an outstanding job in showing clearly the problem they were solving and the solution they proposed.
The winners were decided based on the business models that had the best opportunity to scale and the entrepreneurial spirit of the individual.
Four outstanding attendees from Cambodia, the Philippines, Laos, and Timor Leste took home top awards worth $10,000 each for their ventures in organic mushroom plantation, portable canning facility powered by solar, natural fertilizer and real time demand data to connect farmers and buyers.
In addition to the grant, they will receive 3 years of business mentoring from men and women who have successfully built companies from the ground up.

The training series wrapped up with a gala dinner where participants introduced their traditional costume and culture, enjoying their time together before coming back to their home countries and bring the entrepreneurship spirit to others.

Created By
Jose Quiroga
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Credits:

Created with images by Alex Wigan - "untitled image" • Erwan Hesry - "untitled image" • Mojtaba Hoseini - "Rice field, Mazandaran, IRAN" • Utsman Media - "untitled image" • Graphic Node - "untitled image" • Sebastien Gabriel - "Light blue sky" • Bence Balla-Schottner - "untitled image" • Markus Spiske - "untitled image" • no one cares - "Maisernte" • Francesco Gallarotti - "untitled image" • Johny Goerend - "I had this shot in mind already long before I took it. And as it often happens, I wasn’t planning on being able to take it on that day, but then I saw both tractors on their field from 1km away, and so I started up the drone. Although I had to work against strong winds, I was able to capture what I had imagined before. Buy awesome, limited edtition, photo prints: handpictphoto.com"