The Challenge Your World Blog

Empowering traditional artisans to manufacture eco-friendly products has long been a dream for Shilpa Muralidharan. She’s now poised to make it a reality.

Shilpa’s plan is simple: she aims to provide textile producers in rural communities basic resources to tweak their ancient production techniques – which are already eco-friendly for the most part – so they can be certified under the Organic Exchange.

Minor shift, major impact

With the Organic Exchange certification, artisans can form co-operatives, and Shilpa can help sell their products to a growing network of eco-friendly retail outlets in developed nations. It’s a minor shift that [...]

Hi everybody. Here's some pictures from our Rendez-Vous 09 event. The Imperial Theater entrance, just before doors open. That organic popcorn was amazing. Chris starting the evening with his introduction speech. It was the outcome of two long months of hard work to bring this event to life.   The Imperial Theater was packed. Around 700 people attended the event.  Guy Kawasaki started his conference by reliving his encounter with the very famous Youpi, the Canadien's hockey mascot. We have some other visuals, including videos, which our team will post soon. [...]

Here are the two winners of the Video Challenge, as announced last night during our live event "Rendez-Vous 09": JURY'S CHOICE
"A Better Tomorrow"
by Nicholas Bentley from London. PEOPLE'S CHOICE
"Natural Re-sasters"
by Aaron Becker from Chicago. The third place runner-up, as chosen by our Jury Panel, was "Love for Donation" by h.joon,Kim / h.kyung,Jung / j.won, Park / k.sun,Lee / j.sung,Kim from Seoul. Congratulations to Nicholas and Aaron, and thank you to all the VideoMakers who submitted videos! [...]

Here are the Top 3 ideas from our Idea Challenge, as selected by our Judging Panel. The results were announced last night during our live event Rendez-Vous 09: 1st
"Eco Friendly Stores"
by Shilpa Muralidharan from Bangalore. 2nd
"Engaging Values for Action"
by Aaron Wood from Seattle. 3rd
"Les Jardiniers à bicyclettes"
by Ian Christopher Goodman from Montréal. A big thanks to all the IdeaMakers who submitted ideas and to everyone for attending Rendez-Vous 09! [...]

Last night's event was a success! Thanks! The attendance at Challenge Your World Rendez-Vous was over 600 persons at the Imperial Theater downtown Montreal. Designed to provide an imaginative and innovative look at sustainability and the future of business, Rendez-Vous 09 was meant to be a truly unique evening for innovators, aspiring entrepreneurs and anyone who believes “A Better World is Everyone’s Business”. And we acheived our goal: here are some links and tweets gathered from the web that show how well the event was appreciated. «Great night» Maya Meyouhas «Technology isn't the answer to every problem (My favourite video from last [...]

 Empowering traditional artisans to manufacture eco-friendly textiles is all in a day’s work for Shilpa Muralidharan, winner of our Idea Challenge. At least, that’s what she’d like it to be. Shilpa plans to provide textile producers in rural communities with simple resources to tweak their ancient production techniques – which are already eco-friendly for the most part – so they can be certified under the Organic Exchange (www.organicexchange.org). Her mission is not only to reduce the environmental impact of manufacturing, but also to improve the livelihoods of rural populations and to avoid migration to urban centres. The Bangalore, India native [...]

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So you're already registered for Challenge Your World Rendez-Vous 09 but are looking for more ways to participate in Global Entrepreneurship Week? Here is a list of great events happening in Montreal and Toronto this week (November 16-22):    Monday, November 16:

Successful start - Brought to you by: McGill Graduate Enterpreneurship Society
4:30 pm - 6:00pm - 3rd floor lounge, 1001 Sherbrooke West, Montreal

 

Tuesday, November 17^th:

Successful Financing - Brought to you by: McGill Graduate Enterpreneurship Society
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm - 3rd floor lounge, 1001 Sherbrooke West, Montreal

  

Wednesday, [...]

C'est la Semaine mondiale de l'entrepreneuriat et le Rendez-vous 09 de Challenge Your World en est l'événement clef à Montréal !   Conçu pour offrir une vision novatrice et imaginative à la durabilité et l'avenir des entreprises, notre Rendez-vous 09 (jeudi 19 novembre 2009) sera une soirée unique pour les innovateurs, les entrepreneurs et tous ceux qui croient qu'un monde meilleur est l'affaire de tous. Durant la soirée seront annoncés les vidéos novateurs qui se mériteront un prix et la grande idée gagnante. Il y aura aussi des exemples à suivre d'éco-entrepreneurs, et la soirée se terminera par une la présentation d'honneur de l'entrepreneur, [...]

Our Video Challenge "Inspiration for a Better World" officially ended last night, and we've received some wonderful entries. Thanks to everyone who participated! The Motionographer's Choice Award and the People's Choice Award will be announced on November 19th during our Rendez-Vous 09 event. Due to some technical problems with our video uploading module, we decided (in the spirit of kindness and making the world a better place) we would accept entries that were created up until November 10th but were unable to upload their video until today. Through their creativity, artists can envision the future and affect positive change by raising awareness [...]