AMCC Newsletter, Volume 1 Issue 4, 26-6-2013
A.M.C.C E Newsletter: Vol 1, Issue 4, 26TH JUNE 2013. Edited by Charles Hili & Antonio Pantalone
Malta holds first ever Start-up Weekend
Talented developers and entrepreneurs were given the opportunity to showcase their ideas during Malta’s first-ever Start-up Weekend, which was held at SmartCity Malta in early June.
Participants formed teams and worked throughout the weekend on their ideas, before presenting them in front of a panel of esteemed judges on Sunday night. The weekend was the perfect platform to test out a business idea, connect with the start-up community in Malta and share expertise and experience with like-minded people.
Start-up Weekend is a global community of leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate and empower individuals, teams and communities. There have been more than 1,000 Start-up Weekend events in more than 470 cities, creating 8,000-plus start-ups. Start-up Weekend’s global sponsors include Google, Microsoft bizSpark and Amazon web services.
Crwd Gift, whose idea is aimed at facilitating and improving gift-buying through crowd sourcing, was declared as the winning entry at the end of the Start-up Weekend. Crwd Gift will help people facing the popular dilemma of not knowing what gift they should get their friend, relative or acquaintance to get personal gift ideas with just a few clicks and connect directly with people passionate about making those ideas a reality.
The winning team will now have the opportunity to set up shop at one of SmartCity Malta’s “Plug & Play” units, which is being offered free of charge for two months. Together with a venue to launch their business, Crwd Gift will also receive an extensive consultancy session with Systemato and other prizes to support the business through its start up phase.
The first runner-up entry was Saħħa, a multipurpose app for medical doctors working in Malta providing them with the information they need to use in their everyday work and enhancing their workflow, followed by Dash Thru, a start-up company whose main focus is to offer practical solutions for today’s fast-paced lifestyle by creating convenient and practical solutions to improve existing business processes and daily life activities.
Other ideas competing for the coveted award ranged from the sustainable conservation of the Maltese chicken; creating an online platform for the organization of movie nights in peoples’ homes; building a web tool providing intelligent visual financial analytics; a non-commercial start-up that turns any smartphone in the world into a helper whenever there is an emergency situation; to a web platform allowing content owners to upload audio files, which are then transcribed and made searchable.
For more information, visit: http://malta.startupweekend.org.
Written by Jean-Claude Uhlenhaut.
Resilient Malta Stun Armenia
Malta produced a resilient performance to defy the odds after beating Armenia 1-0 for their first win in World Cup qualifying Group B.
Seeking their first point after losing their opening five qualifiers, Malta were given no chance of denying Armenia who were chasing a win to kickstart their faltering World Cup campaign but they were in for a surprise.
Leading through Michael Mifsud’s eight-minute opener, Malta weather long spells of Armenian pressure, throwing bodies in the way of shots and crosses to hold on to their advantage.
Mifsud’ is likely to grab the headlines after netting the goal that gave Malta their first competitive win away from home since the 1-0 win over Estonia in 1993 but all the players contributed to this famous, hard-earned win, not least goalkeeper Justin Haber who was imperious in goal.
Ghedin said after the game: “I am proud of the players. This is a great win for Malta against a very strong team who play one touch football.
(Source: Times of Malta)
Resource Efficiency for Small Business
The Office of Environment & Heritage (OEH) has recently released a pilot program called the Resource Efficiency for Small Business Program (RESB). The program provides advice to small businesses in the accommodation, clubs and supermarket sectors reduce costs by minimising energy and water use and improving waste management.
Businesses involved in the program will receive:
A professional resource efficiency assessment to identify the main energy, water and waste efficiency opportunities in your business.
A concise, easy to understand report detailing the main resource efficiency opportunities in your business.
In some cases, additional support to help implement energy, water and waste improvements.
Advanced Simplicity, an AMCC member, is an approved adviser on behalf of the OEH for the RESB. For further information about the program, please contact Advanced Simplicity.
AusIndustry Energy Reduction Assistance for the Manufacturing Sector
Although Australian manufacturing has been slowly disappearing over the years, AusIndustry is pushing forward to assist the sector to be more competitive. AusIndustry has several programs available, in particular the Clean Technology Investment Program and the Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment Program.
Both programs centre on making manufacturing more energy efficient, which in turn reduces costs and makes manufacturing more competitive. The program provides grant funding to manufacturers from $25,000 to in excess of $10 million on a ratio basis. The funding is competitive but very available to those manufacturers that meet the guideline criteria and put forward a viable project.
For more information, please review the AusIndustry website (www.ausindustry.gov.au) to see what is available.
Libya ‘ready to help Malta’ with Fuel Importation
While oil exploration was a matter brought on the agenda of official talks with Libya, Malta was seeking an agreement on the importation of fuel, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said.
However, he did not want to commit himself to any details, limiting himself to explaining that even though oil exploration was on the government’s mind, purchasing of oil was the priority.
“We want to reach an agreement on oil purchasing, however discussions are still in their infancy to reach a favourable agreement,” Muscat said.
The Libyan Prime Minister hinted at Malta’s interest in purchasing “petrol” from Libya. He said, that while Libya didn’t have “refined petrol”, it was “prepared to provide Malta with the needed amount”.
Both sides discussed illegal immigration and border control. Muscat argued that Libya could not face this problem alone.
Issuing of entry visas was also discussed with Muscat expressing his wish to see more Libyans, “families and businessmen alike to come to Malta for work and pleasure”. He also pointed out that Malta, as a member of the European Union, had rules and obligations to follow.
Muscat described the visit as a meeting between friends and expressed satisfaction over the “high level discussions” which took place.
(Source: maltatoday.com.mt)