Purple Prize Marks Official Start Of Competition With Kickoff Day

Local indigenous and place-based innovation competition the Purple Prize is back in 2019. They have accepted a cohort of 60+ competitors and will officially start their competition on February 2, 2019 at their Kickoff Day event taking place at KEY Project in K ne ohe and at Paepae o He eia.

Previously running in 2016 and 2017, the Purple Prize has given away nearly $75k in prizes to teams building technology products and startups that are grounded in Native Hawaiian culture and focused on positive social impact.

The start of the 2019 competition is always marked with a Kickoff event. Panelists, community, and keynote speaker State Senator Jarrett Keohokalole will gather to discuss Indigenous innovation in the morning, followed by a visit to Paepae o He eia, a restored Hawaiian fishpond, in the afternoon. The event is open to the public and community participation is encouraged. Sign up at https://purpleprizekickoff2019.eventbrite.com

We hope Kickoff Day will be a space for people to come together and define how innovation aligns with their identities and what we want our local tech sector to serve. We hope the Purple Prize will foster a movement, said Kelsey Amos, part of the team that first created the Purple Prize.

The competition is broken into two phases. The Connections Phase, which lasts from Feb. to June 2019, is a series of workshops and immersive experiences where participants co-learn about culture, social impact opportunities, design thinking, technological innovation, and business fundamentals. Ultimately, participants will form teams and will ideate and present a fully baked-out technology concept.

In the second half of the year the Purple Prize runs a more focused Building Phase competition, in which teams create a business plan and a functioning prototype and pitch to a panel of judges and the public. Applications for the Building Phase will be released in April.

Visit www.purpleprize.com to learn more about the Purple Prize.

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