Old People Loose to Young People in ACE ‘Why Not’ Contest

I was eagerly anticipating the release of the results of the ACE ‘Why Not?’ Contest.

Firstly because I thought It’s quite an interesting name for a contest.

“Why Not?” Is a favorite phrase of Borat Sagadiev

So it was cool to see the posters everywhere in Singapore. Asking “Why Not?”

The voice of Borat Sagadiev kept ringing in my head

.

Nevertheless, here are the results:

16 Year Old Wins Nationwide Why Not? Contest

But unfortunately. The entry seems to be a closely guarded secret — it was not published.

And the other entries were like erm, a bit fail. Damn sad.

I could tear the ideas apart:

a)     Renting out office space in government buildings for start-ups in related fields to create close interaction between the private and public sector – by Mr Tan Peck Cheong, a landscape architect who started a design consultancy company last year.

Isn’t this done? Go to Raeburn park, Old Police HQ in Chinatown, old CPIB HQ…. all done up, ready to rock. What supply crunch? All still empty.

b)     Set up an incubator park with low rent offices and shared facilities. Government agencies, venture capitalists and banks could also set up branch offices at the park and have regular sessions with entrepreneurs at the park – by Ms Tan Pei Shan, Assistant Director, Public Service Division.

Nearly same as above. But not bad la…But I really wonder where is there a “low rent” place in Singapore? Choa Chu Kang cemetery. Maybe we should compete with the gang that want to put up bangla housing in Serangoon that caused so much furoe. I’m sure the expats and xenophobic Serangoonites would be happy to have entrepreneurs instead. But then again.. it’s the issue of “foreign talent”.. just another kind I guess.

c)     Set up a website where consumers can post their “wish list”. Budding entrepreneurs wishing to start a business can develop business ideas from gauging consumers’ wants from this website – by Ms Sharon Eng, a Derivatives Documentation Manager at BNP Paribas.

Done: http://www.ijam.sg/

But of course this is coming not from a real entrepreneur. Real entrepreneurs gauge demand not from a website but by looking at trends and being on the ground.

d)     Organise competitions in schools where each student group is given “seed” money which they have to grow. No need for lengthy business proposals, just sharing of lessons learnt –by Mr Joseph Wan, a JC2 student at Nanyang Junior College.

Can lor. Real seed money or monopoly money? If just want to make money play masak masak with monopoly money in school can also teach entrepreneurship.

e)     Set up a “fab lab” in Singapore equipped with high-tech prototyping equipment such as 3D printers, laser cutters and digitizers and make it free, so that designers and engineers can quickly prototype new ideas – Ms Michelle Fullwood, an R&D engineer at the Ministry of Defence.

Not bad. I’d actually make my way there to this lab and start making things. I need a better chair. I want to build like a massage chair in the back of my van. Make 3D models of myself. Make some IronMan exo-skeleton. Turn my van from pussy-mobile into BatMobile.

Shiok ah!

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