Sweet success planned at University of Exeter Business School Jam

In a spirit of experimentation, co-operation and friendly competition, teams will have 48 hours to develop brand new services inspired by a shared theme. On Sunday at 3pm, they will publish them to the world.

Working in teams, with people who haven’t previously met, the various groups should turn ideas into concrete designs, prototypes and plans of action which they or somebody else might want to make real. The challenge will be to prototype and present it in a way that someone could go out and make it real, knowing what resources they would need, what they should do, and who they should talk to. That's the challenge of the Jam.

Kyle Alves, project leader at the Business School explained “The way businesses work and the way new opportunities are created has changed. New technologies are putting the power to enact change in the hands of different groups of people. The UK aspires to be a leader in this kind of sweeping innovation, and it is our responsibility at the Business School to help to facilitate this.

"Support for the event is coming from a Research Councils UK (RCUK) Digital Economy grant, led by EPSRC, to better understand new economic models in the digital economy. These types of innovations are contributing to future growth in the UK economy, and keeping the UK at the leading edge of entrepreneurship in the new digital age."

Locations as far flung as Argentina and Viet Nam are holding Jams, with Exeter the only location in the UK south of London.

The weekend will be launched on Friday March 1 at 5.00pm in Oddfellows, Exeter. From Saturday March 2 the Jam will move to the Business School. For the rest of the weekend the groups work independently, supported by Mentors and Specialist Providers. Research or observations are performed virtually, or through short excursions. The teams develop their service design and prototype it using whatever methods they choose.

At exactly 3pm local time on Sunday March 3 the teams deliver documentation of a working prototype. This can be a film of human interaction, photos of a mock-up, a dummy website, a business plan, or anything else that provides a permanent, publishable record of their idea and work. These are uploaded and published for the world under Creative Commons licensing.
Xjam would like to offer 10 free tickets to students and 6 free tickets to staff (on a first come first serve basis)

To redeem free tickets, visit registration and add TEAMXJAM in promo box.