AVPN 2017 Conference. 7-9 June 2017. Bangkok
The AVPN Annual Conference is the must-attend event that brings together VP and SI leaders and active supporters from Asia, North America and Europe. The Conference promotes shared learning, best practices and active networking across diverse sectors to build a vibrant and high impact venture philanthropy community in Asia. All partners will have a chance to meet leading venture philanthropy practitioners, promote their brand/organisation at the event and more broadly across AVPN’s 4,000+ contact database.
AVPN 2016 Conference. 23-25 May 2016. Hong Kong
The AVPN Annual Conference is the must-attend event that brings together VP and SI leaders and active supporters from Asia, North America and Europe. The Conference promotes shared learning, best practices and active networking across diverse sectors to build a vibrant and high impact venture philanthropy community in Asia. All partners will have a chance to meet leading venture philanthropy practitioners, promote their brand/organisation at the event and more broadly across AVPN’s 4,000+ contact database.
GoGlobal Mentoring: Accelerating Startups Into Southeast Asia. JFDI.Asia / Singapore, 2-23 December 2016
The ISIF Asia secretariat engaged JFDI to provide a 3-week GoGlobal Program for the two scale-up grant recipients Khushi Baby (India) and the the Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation, Myanmar.
JFDI briefed the two teams remotely before they came to Singapore for three weeks from 2-23 December 2016. Rather than following a fixed curriculum, the program began by capturing the goals for both teams and then scheduling a customised series of meetings, introductions and mentoring sessions.
Both teams left Singapore with concrete, specific sustainable business models that they could implement and, through JFDI, direct contact to people and organizations who could help them achieve commercial sustainability.
JFDI.Asia online courses. Aug 2015.
JFDI was founded in Singapore in 2010 by Hugh Mason and Wong Meng Weng. The community has since helped thousands of people in Asia to engineer innovative businesses around their ideas. They can do this because innovation is evolving from an art into a science, and because we have built a community who share their expertise and experience turning ideas into reality. JFDI.Asia received generous financial support from the Information Society Innovation Fund (ISIF) allowed 60 additional startup business teams to join the JFDI Discover pre-accelerator program. The 60 teams are all ISIF Asia funding winners seeking to accelerate their learning and thereby scale and grow the impact of their ideas.
ICTD 2015 15-18 May 2015 to 18 May 2015. Singapore
The Seventh International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development 2015 (ICTD2015) maintained the commitment to a multidisciplinary, research-focused conference. Over four days, from May 15 to May 18, 2015 hosted by the Singapore Internet Research Centre, Nanyang Technological University, the conference programme included 22 papers, 49 Notes, 31 Open Sessions and 24 Demonstrations from scholars, and practitioners. ICTD2015 was a highly international and diverse event; with 243 participants from 47 nationalities across six continents.
AVPN 2015 Conference. 20-23 Apr 2015, Singapore
The AVPN Annual Conference is the must-attend event that brings together VP and SI leaders and active supporters from Asia, North America and Europe. The Conference promotes shared learning, best practices and active networking across diverse sectors to build a vibrant and high impact venture philanthropy community in Asia. All partners will have a chance to meet leading venture philanthropy practitioners, promote their brand/organisation at the event and more broadly across AVPN’s 4,000+ contact database.
Mentoring workshop on evaluation and research communications for grant recipient Operation ASHA for project Linking TB with technology. 23-26 Mar 2015 to 26 Mar 2015. Cambodia
Sonal Zaveri and Vira Ramelan provided mentoring to Jacqueline Chen and Vin “Charlie” Samnang for the eDetection app project to provide training on U-FE and ResCom concepts, refine key evaluation questions and draft plans for communications strategy.
Mentoring on evaluation and research communications / Australia, 19-20 September 2014
ISIF Asia conducted a pilot mentoring program for the 2014 grant recipients on Evaluation and Communications, for which 3 grant recipients were selected from Cambodia, Cook Island and India. The mentoring provided was valued at around 15,000 AUD per project, on top of the grant allocated for their projects to support the mentors fees, travel, communications products, etc. Organizations supported commit resources from their own budget to cover the their expenses. The mentoring was by 2 very experienced professionals part of the DECI project, Sonal Zaveri (on evaluation) and Vira Ramelan (on communications). The mentoring was offered on a combination webminar, on-line tutoring and one-on-one sessions during site visits conducted by the mentors. This face-to-face event in Brisbane, allowed the 3 organizations receiving mentoring to work together with the mentors to finalize their frameworks and strategies. Their work was incorporated as part of the ISIF Asia grant reports and will be available when their grants conclude (mid 2015).
Pre-IGF workshop for 2013 ISIF Asia Award winners and fellows on proactive networking / Indonesia, October 21 2013
ISIF Asia organized, as part of the Seed Alliance activities, a workshop to support award winners from the 3 regional programs and ISIF Asia supported fellows to improve their understanding of different mechanisms available for resource mobilization to secure funding needed to conduct new research and/or scale-up successful projects, according to their needs. The workshop was faclitated by the coordinators of the program and Mr. Ihab Osman worked with the group to identify the obstacles to financing in ICT sector.
Pre-IGF workshop for 2013 ISIF Asia Award winners and fellows on proactive networking / Indonesia, October 21 2013
ISIF Asia organized, as part of the Seed Alliance activities, a workshop to support award winners from the 3 regional programs and ISIF Asia supported fellows to make strategic use of networking opportunities provided. The workshop was facilitated by Inveneo, an international not-for-profit social enterprise that operates in several developing economies around the world delivering the tools of technology to developing communities who need it most, to transform lives through better education, health care, economic opportunities, and faster relief. Inveneo partners with local ICT entrepreneurs to help build sustainable projects and local capacity. During the workshop, the participants worked to create an effective “Elevator Pitch” and discussed how to better manage public relations for their projects/organizations, making use of low cost solutions, such as social media. The facilitator also provided practical advice about how to use social media during the IGF, how to make better use of the booth space available for them.
The main purpose of the workshop was to explore how organizations used to operate through projct grants can develop entrepreneurial skills for an environment where funding is scarse but needs are growing.
As a preIGF event, a private workshop for Seed Alliance recipients of the FIRE, FRIDA and ISIF Asia programs was facilitated by Bruce Baikie from Inveneo, to strength their capacities on:
- How to identify and foster innovation in their organization. How to keep innovating.
- Improve their understanding of evaluation and the benefits an evaluation approach can bring to a project/organization.
- Get the latest updates on how to communicate the findings of their research, how to share project updates, project outcomes and impact assessments.
- Improve their understanding of different mechanisms available for resource mobilization to secure funding needed to conduct new research and/or scale-up successful projects, according to their needs.
- Networking for success: Tips to be able to expand their network of contacts at the IGF to make the most out of the networking opportunity.
Slides / Networking for success
The session was structured through brief inputs about the different topics followed by a series of questions, exercises and group discussions. Photos available.
Partial video recording available at the Friends of the IGF website.
The Seed Alliance regional programs also organized an Open Forum where the award winners where able to share their projects and experiences with the IGF delegates.
Partial video recording available at the Friends of the IGF website.
Pacific Islands Workshop on Grant Proposals Development / Vanuatu, June 27-28 2013
Writing effective grant proposals is a critical skill needed by any team wishing to bring their initiative to the next level. The Pacific Island communities have been selected to receive additional support for capacity development to improve the quality of project proposals presented to potential donors, sponsors, or investors. The attendees for this workshop were nominated by Pacific organizations that are aligned with the goals of ISIF Asia and APNIC, to enhance skills for individuals and teams in core areas where initiatives for infrastructure development are generated. The workshop was held in partnership with the Vanuatu Internet Exchange (VIX) and facilitated by Inveneo, an international not-for-profit social enterprise that operates in several developing economies around the world delivering the tools of technology to developing communities who need it most, to transform lives through better education, health care, economic opportunities, and faster relief. Inveneo partners with local ICT entrepreneurs to help build sustainable projects and local capacity.
The goal of the workshop was to provide participants with the skills required to seek funding from potential donors with effective grant proposals. The two-day workshop covered a range of topics relevant to grant proposal writing as well as how to apply for ISIF Asia grants and awards. Here is the agenda that was covered during the event. The workshop materials are available online to benefit anyone looking to enhance their grant proposal writing skills.
Video Day 1 / Morning session: Understanding the Problem; Defining Specific Activities & Building a Good Budget
Video Day 1 / Afternoon session: Building a good budget; project outcomes (coming soon)
Video Day 2 / Morning session: 8 reasons, formulate the methods (coming soon)
Video Day 2 / Afternoon session: Craft a persuasive credibility statement, define the problem you intent to address (coming soon)
Slides Day 1 / Morning session: Understanding the Problem; Defining Specific Activities & Building a Good Budget
Slides Day 1 / Afternoon session: Building a good budget; project outcomes
Slides Day 2 / Morning session: 8 reasons, formulate the methods
Slides Day 2 / Afternoon session: Craft a persuasive credibility statement, define the problem you intent to address
The individuals chosen to participate represent a wide range of organizations in the Pacific Islands: Etuate Cocker, University of Auckland (New Zealand); Emani Fakaotimanava-Lui, Rocket Systems (Niue); Christine P. Francis, National Information and Communications Technology Authority (Papua New Guinea); Ian Kalsuak, Chairman of Ecolifelyhood Development Associates (Vanuatu); Hendrik Keitner, Island Media Ltd (Vanuatu); Robert James Makin, Vanuatu Daily News Digest (Vanuatu); Jackson Miake OGCIO Office (Vanuatu); Louise Nasak, Vanuatu Telecom Regulator (Vanuatu); Steve Noorderbroe, Telsat Broadband Limited (Vanuatu); Cathy Nunn, Media Association Vanuatu (Vanuatu); Anne Pakoa, Vanuatu Education Policy Advocacy Coalition (Vanuatu); Thomas Rodgers, Telecom Fiji Ltd (Fiji); Opetaia Simati, Department of ICT, Ministry of Communications and Transport (Tuvalu); Matt Temar, Pacific Institute of Public Policy (Vanuatu); Bauro Tewareka, Kiribati Computer and Internet Society Inc (Kiribati) and Ano Tisam, Cook Islands Internet Action Group (Cook Islands).
Photos from the events are available on Flickr.
