While other case competitions purely involve hacking into business cases presented by companies, our ESG Innovation Challenge goes one step further in making the entire experience several times more impactful. We look at existing ESG (environment, social, & governance) issues and encourage all the participants to take ownership of them, empathize with those affected by the issues and most importantly, collaborate in teams to come up with trailblazing solutions to tackle them. With the provision of the design thinking bootcamp, rigorous training, cutting-edge workshops and inspiring keynotes, the event is far more than just a case competition, as it is an all-round, enriching and comprehensive experience of developing innovative ideas to drive progress for our society.
There are cash prizes of 15000 HKD, 10000 HKD and 5000 HKD for the Winner, 1st Runner-Up and 2nd Runner-Up teams respectively.
Due to COVID-19, Outlier has been conducted virtually for the past 2 years. However, this year, we are breaking walls and meeting everyone physically. The Design Thinking Bootcamp will still be held virtually on 14-15 January, while the Grand Finale will be held on 21 January physically.
Yes. As long as you are an undergraduate studying in a university in Hong Kong, you can join the ESG Innovation Challenge, regardless of your major, academic curriculum, nationality and background. The event will be conducted entirely in English, so there will be no language barriers for non-local students to join.
Of course! Our ESG Innovation Challenge is not a typical case competition; it is a platform to hack solutions that can tackle pressing social issues in Hong Kong. It doesn’t matter which faculty you are from and what academic curriculum you are enrolled in, as long as you have the passion to participate inside the event and drive meaningful change. The event is definitely NOT exclusive to business students; so if you are from other faculties or studying other subjects, you are more than welcome to join!
We recommend you to join the Challenge in a team of 4-5, as you will need a sufficient number of people in your team to have the capacity to brainstorm and execute your business model. The absolute minimum is 3 per team.
With regards to the team composition, there are no restrictions. It is not a must to have all participants in the team from the same university or the same discipline or the same year of study.
As you know, we have three case tracks. While registering, you can indicate your top 2 preferences in terms of the case tracks, and we will accordingly allocate you to the right track, in line with your preference. You are suggested to choose a case track that aligns with a theme that you and your team are passionate about. That would make your entire ideation and collaboration process meaningful!
We require all participants to stay committed and be fully present during the event, unless there are special reasons or unforeseen circumstances. You can inform our organising committee in advance about your availability, in case you need to leave early or join late on a certain day.
Once you submit the form and your application is valid, you will receive a confirmation email. We will wait until the application deadline to process all applications. Once that’s done, you will receive an email notifying you about the success of your application. More details regarding your case track and the agenda of the event will be communicated through you by emails further down the line.
In this case, we will review the quality of applications and shortlist the best ones. Our maximum target number of participants is 250 in total.