IBBT's INCA Competition is a big success

As it is as important as ever in the current economical climate to invest heavily in innovation and human talent, on March 23rd IBBT launched a new call for the development of innovative ICT applications with a societal impact: the INCA Award (INnovative and Creative Applications).
Participants had just one month to turn their ideas into working applications. A large number of people took on this challenge!

Over 40 applications were sent in, of which 35 met all the criteria. An overwhelming success as such! The winners, appointed by an independent jury, will be announced at the iMinds conference on May 12th.

No less than 35 brand new ICT applications spawned from the creative brains of the INCA participants. ThatŽs not far from the 47 received by the appsfordemocracy initiative in Washington DC (www.appsfordemocracy.org) organized by the guy who is now CIO to president Obama, which set the inspirational example for this award.

All the submitted collaborative applications, provided by citizens for other citizens, offer original and practical solutions to everyday problems such as dealing with traffic and public transport, finding childcare, protecting the environment, enjoying and producing culture or managing social relations. A full overview is available through www.inca-award.be.

An independent expert jury will assess the submitted projects over the next 2 weeks based on usefulness, appeal and originality. The top 10 applications will be presented at the iMinds conference in Ghent on May 12th. During the closing award ceremony the winners will receive a total prize money of 20.000 Euro. Patricia Ceysens, Flemish Minister of Economy, Enterprise, Science, Innovation & Foreign Trade will present the first prize.

With INCA IBBT aims to show that the current collective, social and environmental challenges need creative and collective answers rather than top-down solutions. Times of need have proven fertile ground for radical innovation in the past after all. Today we have proven at least that a limited investment into the Flemish entrepreneurship can lead to exponential economic and societal return.