A six month journey of pilots, people and acceleration
Six months ago, we all gathered in Bengaluru to kick off the AI Accelerator with 34 NGOs. Six months later, the same city witnessed the close out meeting, but the stories were very different this time. I think Bengaluru was a little lucky to be a part of both these moments.
Kick-off blog: refer to this if you want to revisit the beginning
From summer heat to cool breezes
Just like the weather in April was a little harsh, with the summer making things difficult, the beginning of the accelerator was not easy for the organisations either. They all came in with problems and use cases they wanted to explore, but figuring out the implementation and actually making the changes was something everyone was still trying to understand.
For the close out meeting, though, the weather was completely different. Cool, gentle breezes and tinted skies welcomed everyone. It almost felt like the difficulties we faced during the kick off were behind us.
The NGOs were now here after running their pilots, with reflections, learnings, challenges and ideas for what comes next. They were no longer asking, “How can we do this?” Instead, the question had shifted to, “How can we apply these learnings and scale them?”
It felt like the weather itself was reflecting the journey we had been through.
Mentoring and seeing the impact together
This was the biggest accelerator Glific has run in terms of both size and duration, 34 NGOs over six months, with end to end mentoring support throughout the programme.
Each organisation had an assigned mentor, and I got the chance to mentor 11 NGOs. Managing and supporting 11 organisations over six months was definitely a roller coaster ride. There were conversations, troubleshooting, iterations, follow ups, experiments and, of course, a lot of learning along the way.
But seeing everything come together at the close out was special.
Watching the organisations take their pilots to the ground, reflect on what worked and what didn’t, and then start thinking about how to improve and scale their work made all those conversations feel worth it. And getting to sit together and hear those reflections at the close-out meeting made it even more special.
NGO Check-ins, welcomed by orange skies
The NGOs started checking in on the evening of 23rd September. Everyone started with a cup of coffee or tea on the terrace(I preferred black tea, though)
The atmosphere was just perfect. Everyone was welcomed by tinted red and orange skies, and the evening quickly turned into unofficial sharing of stories.
It was lovely to meet everyone, have those small conversations, hear how their pilots had gone and simply catch up outside the usual calls and meetings.
Getting ready for the Lightning Talks
After the quick tea and chats, the Glific team rushed to the conference rooms to prepare for the Lightning Talks the next day.
There were three conference rooms(Royale, Regency and Ritz), with the NGOs divided across the three. The Lightning Talks would happen in parallel, which meant there was quite a bit to prepare.
The Glific team was busy making sure all the necessary arrangements were in place in each room, from logistics to coordinating responsibilities with the room owners, me, Tejas and Tanu, and the supporters, Akansha, Amisha and Priyanshu.
Before calling it a day and wishing all of us good luck for the next day, we didn’t forget to yell our favourite word: “Accelerate!”
Lightning Talks and sharing the stories
The close-out meeting was majorly about the Lightning Talks. Each organisation had seven minutes to present, followed by eight minutes for Q&A and feedback from the judges.
The talks happened in parallel across the three rooms, with two judges(Thomas, Rishi, Pradeep, Namrata, Devi, Sreechand/Erica) in each room. The audience also had a chance to ask questions and participate in the discussions.
These talks were not just about presenting what each organisation had done. They also gave the other NGOs a chance to understand different approaches to similar problems.
It was especially interesting to see organisations with similar use cases taking different approaches to using chatbots. And, of course, these presentations gave everyone plenty to talk about during the next tea break.
Pilot Stories
I was in the Royale room, where most of the NGOs were organisations I wasn’t mentoring. It was really interesting to see how everyone had moved from discussing use case documents at the beginning of the accelerator to now sharing their pilot stories, challenges, problems faced, strategies, wins, learnings and, most importantly, what they wanted to do next.
I wanted to step into the other rooms and see how things were going there as well, but I couldn’t. I was completely engaged in the Royale room.
The pilot stories were fascinating, but the seven minute time limit definitely kept everyone on their toes. The red card raised by the support team in the room was the universal cue that they had one minute left!
It was a small reminder that there was still plenty more to share, and thankfully, the tea breaks were there for exactly that.
And the award goes to…
There were also prizes for the best performing organisations. But the awards were not based only on the Lightning Talk presentations. The overall performance during the six month accelerator, mentor ratings and judges’ ratings were all taken into consideration.
Selecting the winners was not easy. Everyone was almost neck and neck, which eventually led to two honorary mentions and a tie for the third prize.
Everyone, including the Glific team, was curious to know who was going to win. When Erica walked in with the envelope containing the winners’ names, I could almost see the heartbeats going up like a trampoline for a few people!
And finally, the results were announced:
- Honorary Mentions: ATREE and Mukkamaar
- Third Prize: ResGov and Youth Dreamers Foundation
- Second Prize: Samyak (Collective Good Foundation)
- First Prize: Protsahan
I felt especially happy here because four of the organisations I mentored received recognition. ATREE, ResGov, Youth Dreamers Foundation and Samyak were among the organisations I mentored, and seeing them being recognised was a really proud moment.
Later, I was thinking about how the awards also represented such a diverse range of domains: Environment & Agriculture, Climate, Women’s Rights, Child Welfare, Education, Governance and more.
The End?
As we started closing the event, it was almost sunset. The same skies that had welcomed us on the first evening were now getting ready to say goodbye, with the same shades of red and orange, before making way for the Glific Connect event the next day.
The conversations continued over chai and coffee. The city seemed almost ready for rain, but it never came.
So, while enjoying the weather, we continued sharing our learnings, stories and reflections from the six-month journey.
After a group picture, the Glific team came together to reflect on the day. And how could we forget our ritual?
“Accelerate!”
It wasn’t the excitement of starting something new. It was the feeling of successfully completing a six month journey, one filled with experiments, challenges, learnings, pilots, failures, wins and, most importantly, people.
But this isn’t really the end.
The accelerator may have closed, but the journey continues.
Let’s ‘Accelerate’.