‘Creationesia’ wins International Trade Centre’s Student Video Pitch Contest for Gender Equality

‘Creationesia’, a team of three students from the Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia, was on 7 March announced as the winner of the International Trade Centre’s Women’s Day video-pitch competition for ideas to empower women in business. Creationesia convinced the jury and audience with their business idea to turn plastic waste into economic opportunities for women, doing good for people and the planet.

For producing the winning video, ‘Creationesia’ will win a trip to the 2019 World Export Development Forum and a chance to refine and re-pitch the business idea to investors attending the International Trade Centre’s flagship event in the fall.

The video-pitch contest was organized in partnership with the Republic and Canton of Geneva, the University of Geneva, Campus Biotech, the Enhanced Integrated Framework, and the International Gender Champions.

Speaking on behalf of the winning team, Avrantsa Alna Qamara, said: ‘We never thought that we would win this competition. We are speechless and very grateful for winning. It’s because of support from family, friends, and especially our business school, the School of Business and Management at the Bandung Institute of Technology.

Thank you so much! We’re hoping that with our idea we will be able to help a lot of people in Indonesia.’

Congratulating the team on the win, ITC Executive Director Arancha González said: ‘An incredible amount of thinking has gone into the idea presented by these three students from the Bandung Institute of Technology. Creationesia’s idea to use waste to create job opportunities from women is not only an idea that will help women, but is also good for societies and the planet.’

Creationesia, which was developed by Avrantsa Alna Aulanniswah, Al Fadhilah and Tiara Rahartono of the Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia, staved off competition from four other entries that had made it to the contest jury’s top five selections.

Runner-up in the pitch contest was a multicultural team from Switzerland’s the Graduate Institute-Cassandra Bragdon, Dhwani Nagpal, Boroka Godley, and Kaoru Inoue. Their idea - the Wage Gap Meter - was a colour-coded label to include on items indicating the pay gap between men and women.

Rawia Chaouali of Tunis Business School, Tunisia, was awarded third place for a pitch entitled the Women Entrepreneurship Institute - L’Ellethom, focusing on training and economic empowerment of women in rural Tunisia.

The other shortlisted entries were Developing Female-led businesses through Communal Economy by Olubusola Mada of Lagos Business School, Nigeria and Women’s Leadership Trips by Kaleigh Carlson and Karun Gopinath, from the Geneva-based Graduate Institute.

The second and third place winners will receive training, capacity building and expert advice from the International Trade Centre’s Innovation Lab, the SME Trade Academy and the SheTrades team.

The contest was open to students from universities across the world. Pitches came in from universities in Cameroon, China, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria, Russian Federation, Senegal, South Africa, Switzerland, Tunisia, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America.

Jury members for the Women’s Day video pitch competition were: Ambassador Mikael Anzén, Permanent Representative of Sweden to the World Trade Organization; Yemi Babington-Ashaye, President, United People Global; Alexandra ‘Santu’ Boethius, Co-Founder, Impact Hub Geneva and Lausanne; Gabriele Lechner Cherubini, Financial Consultant, Banque Pictet and Cie SA Wealth Management; ITC Executive Director Arancha González; Anne Hornung-Soukup, Chair of the Board of Directors, TPG Public Transport of Geneva; Annette Ssemuwemba, Deputy Executive Director, Enhanced Integrated Framework, World Trade Organization; Estefania Tapias, Co-founder and CEO, WeSpace; and Laure Ognois-Zaugg, Director of Research Services, University of Geneva.