Thinking caps on: IT students to battle it out at the Throw-a-thon

100 students will get a chance to present tech-based products at the competition

LAHORE:

Throw-a-thon, a three-day competition looking to promote entrepreneurship among young IT students and professionals, will kick off at the Lahore University of Management Sciences on Friday (today).

The competition has been organised by NetSol in collaboration with Plan 9, a technology incubator initiative of the Punjab Information Technology Board, and the LUMS Centre for Entrepreneurship. Organisers say more than 50 teams and 250 people had registered for the challenge and around 100 people were shortlisted for the competition. The event will be held at the LUMS School of Science and Engineering.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, NetSol Business Analyst Muhammad Umar says the competition will bring IT professionals and students together to work in an environment where they will be offered mentorship.

Participants are required to present a working demonstration of their technology-based ideas and teams will develop a business plan for their product launch.

Umar says a panel of judges had shortlisted the participants based on the pitches they had made for their products.

The competition will continue during the weekend. The participating teams will get a chance to engage with other industry professionals and tech gurus to improve upon their products.

“Our aim is to reach out to upcoming IT professionals and encourage a culture of entrepreneurship – which has been the focus all over the world.”

Umar says there was no registration fee. Apart from IT professionals, teams of students from educational institutions including the LUMS, the FAST, the COMSATS and the University of Gujrat will be participating in the challenge.

Umar says the organisers had wanted to entertain more participants but had to limit it to 100 due to space constraints.

“We’re looking at a diverse mix of students,” he says.

The tech-products presented during the challenge will be evaluated by a panel of three professionals from the IT industry, including Zubin Davar, product marketing manager at Google.

The winning idea will be rewarded with $3,500. The runners up will receive $1,000 and $500. Winning teams will also have the opportunity to register in NetSol’s incubator called Nspire, expected to launch in August.

The competition will begin on Friday at 5pm at the LUMS.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2015.