lot X Impact Week Colombia 2025
This challenge is in phase: Incubate business
lot X Impact Week Colombia 2025 – What is it all about?
The lab of tomorrow X Impact Week Colombia 2025 is a transformative, intercultural Design Thinking experience organized by the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente and the German non-profit organization Impact Week gUG, the AHK, and GIZ's lab of tomorrow which took place from 11th-19th of June at the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente in Cali. The Impact Week focuses on empowering young people, enterprises and start-ups in developing sustainable solutions to real-world challenges.
Companies have the chance to take part in the initiative by sending their employees to become trained as ‘Junior Design Thinking Coaches’ by internationally renowned Design Thinking experts, benefitting from the unique structure of the 3-day Train-the Coach (11th-13th of June) and the direct application with a team of young minds during the Innovation Challenge (16th-19th of June) for a training fee that is reinvested into the event. Moreover, we are still looking for like-minded sponsors who are willing to support our mission and want to drive change in the region!
Co-Initiators
Partners
01
Understand
Benefits of participating:
Be part of an initiative which aims to create new insights, ideas, and solutions for problems in Colombia and explore new ways to innovation.
Access to validated business opportunities, access to new markets, and product and business development.
Access to business incubation and market piloting services for winning ideas.
Networking opportunities with innovative companies, public sector actors and academia.
Become part of a global community that is practicing the Design Thinking methodology, alongside certified mentors and international experts.
Learn how to understand any challenge in a user-centric manner and create design-based solutions with rapid prototyping.
What are the focus areas and challenge scenarios?
Energy Efficiency
Waste Management
Renewable Energies
Water Scarcity/Water Efficiency
Sustainable Logistics
02
Ideate Solutions
During the first phase - a 3-day Train-the-Coach workshop - 29 Junior Coaches were trained.
In the following 4-day Design Thinking Challenge, these Junior Coaches guided 46 participants, organized into 11 teams, through a series of innovation challenges. The goal: to foster the creation of business solutions in Cali through a structured innovation process followed by a mentoring phase.
Using Design Thinking and user-centered design toolkits, the teams developed impactful, market-oriented solutions and strategies.
This initiative offered a unique opportunity for bright minds and motivated companies to access new markets in collaboration with relevant partners — co-creating solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing Cali today.
Winning ideas are now being supported through tailored mentorship to help bring these solutions to life in the local economy and society.
This incubation phase is where the teams are now.
Date: June 16–19
03
Incubate business
During the incubation phase of Impact Week Cali 2025, the teams have the opportunity to take their first steps toward implementation - supported by experienced mentors from the industry.
Through the Impact Week community platform, they can access virtual learning content to help them develop a business plan and refine their product ideas.In addition, the incubation phase offers further opportunities for exchange through locally organized events and guest sessions led by experienced entrepreneurs.
With a total of 41 company representatives ready to support the teams, ventures from previous Impact Weeks have also been brought in to maximize the available mentoring capacity.
In total, 15 ventures are currently participating in the incubation phase.
