16 August 2017 – A Bioentrepreneurship Workshop 2017: Cultivating Bio-enterprise was jointly organised by Applied Biomedical Science and Biotechnology Division (ABSB), School of Health Sciences, International Medical University (IMU) and Malaysian Bioeconomy Corporation Sdn Bhd. The workshop was held at the University’s campus in Bukit Jalil. 
There were 32 participants, from a mixture of academicians and researchers from IMU and other institutions, government agency and also undergraduate students. Objectives of this workshop were to provide an overview of the start-up process and also to inspire start-up among budding entrepreneurs. This workshop is hoped to encourage students, research fellows to pursue entrepreneurship. 
Faiez Othman (Head of Entreprise Division, IIUM Advanced Technologies Sdn. Bhd.), Hafizudin Ishak (Marketing Director, Meas-tech Solutions Sdn Bhd) and Maisarah Shariff (Investment Manager, CIP Catalyst, Cradle Fund Sdn. Bhd) were among the prestigious speakers at this workshop.The topics covered by the speakers are:
| (1) Defining a potential product; which is the first step of start-up, to select a problem area, analyse the context and how to define potential products; |
| (2) Create products and validation; in which participants will be ready to dive into the ideation process, we kick off with a quick overview of the latest technology trends before beginning the exciting creative process, in the validation stage, it is all about testing ideas before the product is built to ensure whether there is a real user need for the product in mind to avoid spending time and money building something no one cares about; |
| (3) How to Build and Pitch? in which participants transform ideas into a viable business by creating a complete business model of the idea and learn about the art of the pitch. |
| At the end of the workshop, there is a (4) Pitch Activity, which participants learn to pitch their ideas and what matters to inventors of venture capitalist. We hope that this workshop will improve the participants’ pitching skilsl in their search for R&D funding or building their first startup. |
We received very good feedback from all participants who commented that this workshop is very informative and an excellent precursor for participants to conceptually apply scientific knowledge attractively for entrepreneurship purposes. The participants commented that all the hand-on stimulatory exercises were very useful and enjoyed the sharing experiences from investors and people from the industry which helps to see problems from different aspects with solutions.
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