The Salvadoran young talent was demonstrated in "Joven Ingenio", held on August 17th- 18th, 2012 in San Salvador, El Salvador prior to "Juventour 2012".
Young people from all over the country registered at the second edition of 'Joven Ingenio", where six teams had the opportunity to innovate with their business ventures. "Joven Ingenio", is a business competition organized by "Asociación para el Desarrollo de la Educacion, Salud, Medio ambiente e Infraestructura de El Salvador (ALDESAI)", with support fro m the National Institute of Youth (INJUVE) and the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT).
The finals were held in conjunction to "Juventour 2012", organized by INJUVE, which brought together more than 99,000 young Salvadorans and entrepreneurs in a two-day event at CIFCO (the international convention center). During finals, the teams were able to test their prototypes with the general audience and participate in different conferences and mentoring sessions offered by PepsiCo and YABT. These activities were held in order to strengthen the participant's business models and encourage entrepreneurship among young people.
Judges from different professional fields evaluated the projects and provided feedback, in order to fast-track the incorporation of their business ventures in to the market. The award ceremony was held at CIFCO's main theater attended by Miguel Angel Pereira, National Institute of Youth Director; Gladys Rivas, ALDESAI Chief Executive Officer, and Gerardo Robinson, YABT Program Manager.
Teams were awarded as it follows:
Coding Innovation Award
First place: E-Office
Second place: BreezeDC
Social and Environmental Innovation Award
First place: Artec
Second place: Te Contrato
Youth Innovation Awards
First place: Payroll
Second place: IAM Creativos
Prizes included high-tech devices sponsored by HP El Salvador, electronics by AEON, YABT as well as 20 scholarships for the finalists. These scholarships consisted of eight business coaching sessions to help them develop their business plan and train to compete in the Talent and Innovation Competition of the Americas (TIC Americas 2013) and the Eco-Challenge Awards to be held on May 2013 in Antigua, Guatemala.
