The SE Forum team was asked by its friends at Swedish Institute to join them in hosting 17 winners of the Smart Energy Challenge for two days in Stockholm. We were of course happy to and have enjoyed exploring smart energy and practising how to pitch your idea.

The Swedish Institute’s Smart Energy Challenge targets its wide alumni and student network and asks for ideas or solutions that can make an impact on a local or global problem related to sustainable energy. This year 17 people from almost as many countries have been successful and were invited to Stockholm last week.

On the topic of sustainable energy, we had the pleasure of hearing from Swedish energy business Watty, helping to fix the climate by allowing people to know more about the energy they use in their homes. We also visited Solvatten, providing rural areas in developing countries with innovative solutions to clean water through solar power.

Making the most of your idea

The Smart Energy Challenge winners have all got great ambitions and ideas to make the world better by implementing better and more sustainable energy solutions. What SE Forum was able to help with was how to communicate and pitch the idea to make it a reality. Our Programme Director Fiona Hazell delivered pitch training with top tips such as making sure you know what you want to say and how to say it. The participants practised their pitches and at the end of the two days, presented truly inspiring pitches at Swedish Institute’s offices in Stockholm’s Old Town.

Ideas showing how we can use the energy we produce whilst doing exercise in the gym, or how we could encourage energy efficiency and environmentally-friendly behaviour through social app incentives.

All presented ideas come from specific issues in the participants’ communities, showing widespread and difficult-to-solve global issues. But hearing the 17 impressive and ambitious solutions gave us hope for the future. We wish the participants the best of luck and hope to see these ideas a reality in the not too distant future!