MDX Innovation Hub Welcome Pearl Initiative for Youth Impact Lab Competition
- Wednesday, 8 November 2023
Middlesex University Dubai was honoured to welcome the Pearl Initiative to campus on Tuesday 24 October to launch the innovative Youth Impact Lab competition in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation.
During the event on the Dubai Knowledge Park campus in the newly opened Study District, students took part in key briefings by industry leaders including Mark Walshaw and Ivy Akinyi from corporate insurance brokers Marsh, alongside Vineetha Matthew from the Pearl Initiative. The day's activities were hosted by Professor Fehmida Hussain, Stephen King and Sheen Gurrib.
The session was designed to prepare students for the bigger Youth Impact Lab competition on 18 and 19 November 2023 that will take place during the MDX Innovation Lab’s upcoming Global Entrepreneurship Week event and was organised by the Middlesex Innovation Hub, with support from the Institute of Sustainable Development and Club Impact.
The Youth Impact Lab 2023 competition provides a platform for students to connect, brainstorm, collaborate, and learn from mentors offering an invaluable opportunity for networking and knowledge sharing, and promising a showcase of innovative solutions and creative thinking.
In teams of 4-5, participants will be challenged to find sustainable solutions for challenges that are affecting the general population in their everyday lives. Each team has a mentor to support them to provide some information and guidance, with each team presenting their solution to a panel of judges. The team that presents a solution that aligns with most of the judges’ requirements – such as scalability, potential impact, logistics, originality and overall quality of pitch – will be crowned the winner.
Launched in 2010, in cooperation with the United Nations Office for Partnerships, the Pearl Initiative (PI) is the Gulf region’s leading business-led, non-profit organisation working to promote the business case for a corporate culture of accountability and transparency. The Pearl Initiative is the only private, non-profit Gulf business network to receive special consultative status from the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
