We learn when we share. Zee TV APAC’s recent initiative, IVenture, aimed to do just that when it organised a two-day entrepreneurship development workshop bringing together dynamic entrepreneurs and mentors under one roof to share and exchange ideas and experiences.

The initiative was conceptualised on the pillars of “Connect. Learn. Grow” and that is exactly what it delivered to the 40 finalists at the lush campus of SP Jain School of Global Management, Singapore.

The IVenture Entrepreneurship Development Workshop conducted in early June started with a month-long registration campaign wherein through a 360-degree media push, entries from over 100 businesses were received. The aspirants shared their business concept, success stories, challenges, etc while an esteemed jury panel selected the top 40 businesses based on creativity and business USP, ease of scalability and sustainability, channels and operations, stories and customer segments.

These selected entrepreneurs were invited to be a part of the 2-day workshop that was exclusively curated by Zee’s Knowledge Partners that comprised the best names in the industry. The sessions by each of the partner were aimed to impart a key skill to the entrepreneur that would help them pivot.

Harish Goyal, CEO, Zee International Asia Pacific and Africa delivered the welcome note and shared how Zee lived and breathed the entrepreneurial spirit.

Later, Ninad Deshpande, Deputy High Commissioner of India in Singapore who was the Guest of Honour, rightly summed up, “These entrepreneurs are not only contributing to Singapore but also giving back to India and these two countries complement each other because India can provide the scale for their projects and Singapore can be their sandbox to run these experiments.”

Facebook took them through an intense session on using digital to achieve your objectives, while S Parthiban, Chairman – Aspiring Entrepreneurs Network, Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) talked about the role of industry bodies in helping SMEs get access to funding, Startup O conducted a session on art of persuasion, while the professors of SP Jain School of Global Management curated sessions on negotiation and leadership beyond boundaries. Not only did the participants get trained in hard business skills, a team-building activity, “Drum Circle” was also organised to energise the participants and bring the group together as a whole. The idea behind such activity was to make sure this group interacted with one another in order to enrich the learning process for these entrepreneurs not only through the sessions but also by sharing experiences.

The 2-day workshop concluded with a felicitation ceremony, which was attended by about 100 people from the entrepreneur community of Singapore.

The participants came away richer after this two-day experience. Charu Mehrotra, founder of the online magazine, www.womenlines.com said, “As entrepreneurs, our journey is lonely and such platforms like IVenture really help to work upon self mindset, reflect on where am I in the entrepreneurship journey and yes also pick up certain skills too. Kudos to Dream Catchers and Zee TV for coming up with such a wonderful platform and giving the opportunity to entrepreneurs to excel by learning and networking with the right mindset people.”

Similarly, Zafar Anjum, journalist, author, publisher and founder of Kitaab and Filmwallas added, “I would especially like to mention two keynote – the first one was on Negotiation by Dr Banu and the second was the Art of Persuasion. We also had people from different industries talking about their journeys and the opportunities start-ups can have in Singapore.”