World's young talents to unleash innovation in SZ

The UNLEASH Lab 2019, which will be held in Shenzhen from Nov. 6 to 13, is focused on eight topics of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. Courtesy of the organizers

UNLEASH, a global innovation lab, will kick off its weeklong event running from Nov.6 to 13 at Shenzhen Bay Eco-Technology Park by bringing together 1,000 carefully selected young talents from across the world to collaborate on ideas and solutions for the 2030 U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The program, in partnership with China Association for Science and Technology and the Shenzhen government, will split the talents into 240 teams, which will go through a five-day innovation process around this year’s themes, such as health and well-being, quality education, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, industry and infrastructure, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, and climate action.

A total of 16 teams selected from presentations and roadshows will compete at Dragons’ Den with their solutions being questioned by a range of experts. The top solutions will be showcased at the closing ceremony.

“This is the first time that such an event is being held in China. It has the support of 200 enterprises and institutions and will attract 1,000 talents from 160 countries and regions,” said Deng Xiaojun, vice director of Shenzhen’s science and technology innovation commission, at a news conference Thursday.

The activity will bring Shenzhen’s location, adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, strong innovation and entrepreneurship, solid industrial infrastructure, and first-class business environment into full play, Deng said.

Kristian Kampmann, partnership director of UNLEASH, thinks that Shenzhen is the ideal place to host this event, because it is inspirational, technologically innovative and developing fast.

“Shenzhen has done well in sustainable development and creating a complete innovation ecosystem. It has tech giants and startups. It is a fantastic city to partner with,” Kampmann said.

“Shenzhen is advantageous in talents, innovation and technologies, which are essential for creating solutions for sustainable development. I think governments, institutions and enterprises can learn from Shenzhen’s example,” said Kampmann.

Denmark kick-started the initiative in 2017, and Singapore took over for the second year. In two years, 2,000 talents from 143 countries and regions put forward 370 solutions created under themes related to the SDGs. They are supported by the UNLEASH ecosystem of investors, experts, mentors and more than 200 partner organizations from all over the world.