Maiden ‘Coopathon’ in India to be held in Kozhikode

KOZHIKODE:
The Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIMK) will host the country’s first-ever Coopathon, a hackathon for solving the problems of the cooperative sector organisations around the world, at its campus from April 29 to 30.
The co-operative hackathon will be held on the sidelines of the International Conference on “Co-operatives in the Changing World of Work,” organised by Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society Ltd (ULCCS) in association with International Co-operative Alliance, International Labour Organization, IIMK and Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), from April 29 to May 1.
The conference is co-funded by the ICA-EU Partnership on Co-operatives in Development: People Centered Businesses in Action, and supported by the ICA Domus Trust. At the Coopathon, the first three selected ideas will be presented before the delegates from large and small cooperatives from more than 20 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
A cash prize of Rs 60,000 will be given to the winners along with the support from the KSUM for developing the ideas and solutions into startups.
Commenting on the event, Dr. Saji Gopinath, CEO, KSUM, said, “Organisations need to adopt newer technologies to continue delivering value. Industry or theme-specific hackathons like the Coopathon can help tech startups and cooperatives ideate together to create great products.”
Kishor Kumar, from the ULCCS, said, “Many cooperatives are strongly considering about investing in products and startups if they can solve the pain points being faced by various coops around the world. We have always encouraged the adoption of technology, and through this hackathon, we hope to give startups and innovators an opportunity to showcase their product ideas around the theme of the hackathon.”
The themes of the coopathon include e-Governance, Member Management and Communication Management in coops and Knowledge Management in non-tech coops. The participating teams will get the opportunity to interact with different cooperatives on the first day of the Coopathon.
For registration, one may visit bit.ly/coopathon. More details are available at https://worldofwork.coop/coopathon-registration/ or contact: Kishore—9447234346, Jithin—9744890674.