The National Movement of 1,000 Digital Startups has arrived in ten cities in Indonesia, namely Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Malang, Medan, Bali, Makassar, and Pontianak. The movement is a collaboration between government institutions, which are Ministry of Communication and Informatics Indonesia, educational and business institutions. The goal is none other than to realize Indonesia’s potential to become The Digital Energy of Asia in 2020, by establishing 1,000 digital startups, which are expected to be the solution to various problems in the country.
In Yogyakarta, the National Movement of 1,000 Digital Startups is presented by the Innovative Academy, a semi-structured incubation program developed by Universitas Gadjah Mada through the Directorate of Business Development and Incubation, and directed to create university-based digital startups with Indonesian characters. The Innovative Academy also coordinates Entrepreneur Simulation Program: Econosphere 2. There were 150 participants of the National Movement of 1,000 Digital Startups involved in the ignition stage who were invited to the event held in Grha Sabha Pramana, Saturday (5/12).
Entrepreneur Simulation Program: Econosphere 2 is a gaming simulation program for entrepreneurship development. The program has been developed since 1995 by Rahmat Hidayat, Ph.D. (Lecturer of Faculty of Psychology UGM). The program has been widely used for entrepreneurship development in universities. Rahmat explained that the Econosphere 2 graming simulation program is based on a strong market process model and macroeconomics: demand-driven market (J.M. Keynes) and entrepreneurial market (I. Kizner). He added that the game elements in the simulation equip participants with the experience of realizing, recognizing, discovering and creating business opportunities.
“Activities in the simulation involve the process of judgment, decision making, risk management, cooperation and self-control in a stressful situation,” Rahmat illustrated.
Head of Incubation sub-directorate in Directorate of Business Development and Incubation, Henry Yuliando, Ph.D., stated that this is the first time Econosphere 2 was held during the selection of Innovative Academy participants after the ignition stage. Henry added that the program is also expected to document the participants’ profile, especially their character and commitment in joining the Innovative Academy UGM program. The result of the Econosphere 2 is a grouping of participants based on their characters related to leadership, managerial, and executor/operator capacities. The program was also supported by PIJAR Psikologi, one of the startups built by Innovative Academy.
“Therefore, the Innovative Academy program can be developed more effectively to accommodate participants according to their characters or profile,” said Henry.