It has been a while that I took part as a participant in any of the camp. Being involved fully in my own venture has actually made me think that I have enough of learning.
Back in July, while having a coffee with Abhishek, he told me to take part in this camp that is happening in October. I happily accepted his invite. I met Mahesh around August and he invited me for the same. This gave me super confidence that this is something I have to.
On the first day of the camp I was late by 3mins, the auditorium’s door was closed, I was shock to see that these guys are super punctual. Later I found out that it is happening next day only. I reached super early, a day before.
Day 1: Saturday (Oct 6, 2018)
I could see 95% of the participants were new faces to me. The first day of the camp was all about identifying a problem. This was the best thing about this camp. The other camps that I attended were solution driven while this let us think only about problem for whole day. We went for market research and ask about “Attention span issue in Teenagers”. I acted bit lazy, I went to one of the cafe, met a guy who can give me best survey result for it. I made phone call to a teacher and a student. That whole day we discussed about the problem and when I reached home, that was the first thing to research on.
Day 2: Sunday (Oct 7, 2018)
The first thing that we had to do this day was to give a presentation on the problem statement. We were given 1 hour for preparation and 3mins for the presentation. Gate 1 Presentation: Out of 8 groups, 2 groups would be eliminated for their presentation. And we become one of them. Eliminated.
We then had to look for a new team and Me & Utsah got a new common team “Finlay: Financial Literacy in Teenager”.
The switching of team was the best thing that happened to us. One day our mind was fully focused on one issue and another day its totally different. From here on, we had to work on the solution, and for us as we switched the team and topic it was not easy. We spend a day on identifying problem on one issue and from this day we had to work on the solution of another issue. We had to unlearn. It took us almost a day to understand the new team and topic.
The very first thing that new team member, Manish told me was “Your presentation was not good today, so tomorrow you and me will work together on it”. This is something I needed, someone to tell that I need to work hard on my presentation skills. After reaching home I got a new topic to research on again.
The best thing that I find on Day 2 was the honest feedback circle, it seriously pinches you. We all were suppose to give honest feedback to each other about the presentation and many more.
Day 3: Monday (Oct 8, 2018)
We had to go for market research to validate our idea to the solutions on the issue we were trying to address/solve. While Manish, Bijay and Utsah was out for market research; Me and Mallika were brainstorming on our idea and presentation. The idea pivoted from a “Training programs on Financial Literacy” to a website, then mobile app, a workshop, sports competition and many more. The best thing that I liked about this group was the acceptance and respect on each-others idea. Almost everybody gave alteast one great solution. I will never forget our team running around looking for A3 sheet paper and turn it into a prototype brochure in just 20mins.
Our presentation and prototype was liked by all. We got through it and got selected for demo day/Bucsbin Symposium.
The next day was Bucsbin Symposium and 3 winning teams from Kings College and 3 winning teams from KUSOM were suppose to present at Himalaya Hotel in-front of delegates from Finland, students, teachers and government officials.
My Learnings
I always follow Finland education system and there is no doubt that they are one of the best education providers in the world. The whole 3 days of camp was all about teaching process rather than result. It actually teaches us how to think, how to learn & unlearn. Analysing a problem using 5 Whys is possibly the best way to identify a problem. I learned to accept humility, time management, pressure handling and not to be perfect but good.
Most important, Being with a right team can make anything possible, and here is my team, FinLay.
Thank you Kings College and Bucsbin Team for giving me one of the best experiences of life. I promise that I will be taking this session back to others colleges and organisations that I am involved with.