Watch the Living Progress Challenge Finals Live August 3 -- and See Who Wins!

by Chris Wellise, Director of Strategic Initiatives for HPE Living Progress
Aug 2, 2016 2:50 PM ET

Inspiring Progress

We’re all looking forward to the Living Progress Challenge Finals! On August 3, the 10 finalists of the first Living Progress Challenge, will pitch their solutions in hopes of being selected as a winner. Winners will receive HPE support to build and deploy their digital solutions for social impact.

You can join us from around the world to watch the Living Progress Challenge Finals via live stream beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. The event will take place at the New Lab at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York. Fittingly, the New Lab is where designers, engineers and entrepreneurs can take their ideas from concept to prototype to production all under one roof—making this the perfect venue for us to showcase the innovative concepts of the Living Progress Challenge.

In December 2015, we asked the global community to submit their concepts to use technology, like software applications and digital services, to improve people's lives. We received over 400 ideas and proposals, which tackled a wide range of issues from human rights and financial inclusion, to governance and agriculture. (Over the past few months, I’ve been sharing an overview of each of the Challenge finalists on this Inspiring Progress blog.)

On Wednesday, the top 10 finalists will pitch their ideas to a five-judge panel, consisting of HPE executives and special guest judge Scarlett Sieber, Senior Vice President, Global Business Development under the New Digital Business team at BBVA. Each finalist team will have five minutes to pitch and demo their solution, followed by 10 minutes of questions from the judges.

What3Words founder, Chris Sheldrick, will kick-off the day with a morning keynote reflecting on his experience creating and implementing a digital solution for social impact. And Sabeen Ali, CEO of AngelHack, will celebrate all of our visionary participants in her afternoon remarks. Matt Lieber, cofounder and president of Gimlet Media, will serve as host of the event.

At 5:30 p.m. ET, Living Progress Chief Sustainability Officer, Lara Birkes, will announce up to five winners of the Living Progress Challenge.

Here’s a look at the full day. Join us for all or pick the times that work for you.

10:00 a.m. ET: Event kicks off with keynote speaker Chris Sheldrick

10:30-11:30 a.m. PT: Pitches 1-3 (World Food Programme, Stanford, HPE Employees)

11:50 a.m.-12:50 p.m. ET: Pitches 4-6 (Business Disability Forum, Points of Light, Pact)

2:00-2:40 p.m. ET: Pitches 7-8 (Samasource, Jacaranda Health)

3:00-3:40 p.m. ET: Pitches 9-10 (Global Disaster Preparedness Center, World Wildlife Fund)

5:00 p.m. ET: Keynote speaker Sabeen Ali

5:30 p.m. ET Living Progress Challenge winners announced

Good luck to all the participants who have worked so hard these past few months to develop their ideas into prototypes with the help of HPE and our partners.

Who do you think should win? Tell us in the comments below.

Watch the live stream starting at 10 a.m. ET August 3.