Sandbox

3 Girls in search of the best Generation Y Ideas

July 16th, 2010 by Nirav Devnani

Thirteen cities. Forty-Three days. One mission: to connect and highlight young innovators and go-getters across the US. The ladies at GenJuice have made it their goal to encourage, mobilize and connect over 1,300 young people across the nation to start projects and companies.

Co-founder and Sandboxer Arielle Scott was all set to write her senior thesis at Berkeley on Gen-Y innovation and entrepreneurship. For anecdotal evidence, she decided to bring all her entrepreneurial friends together…and voila! Her friends were able to connect and consequently get a lot of value out of one another. After the fruitful attempt Arielle and Virgilia, also a Sandboxer, decided to spread the innovative spirit beyond the Bay area. The tour has been put together since February.

At a conference, one can expect anywhere between 30 to 40 people physically present. However, thanks to a partnership with JustIn TV, anywhere between 2000-3000 people are able to participate through an online feed that streams live video.

What participants discuss is entirely up to them. It is the level of individual participation that sets GenJuice apart from other conferences.  Instead of being passive listeners, addressed by a speaker, everyone involved gets to be a keynote.

It does not matter what industry one works in. You do not have to own your own company to participate. After all, being an innovator is not the same thing as being an entrepreneur. It is the idea, or the desire to have an idea that is important.

The objective of this event is to achieve a free flow of ideas, and to get creative juices flowing in earnest. Ultimately, this ‘unconference’ is about the physical connection. GenJuice wants to leave each participant with a potential partner or co-founder, one who shares an appetite for innovation.

Come October 1^st 2010, when the whirlwind tour comes to an end, GenJuice has no plans of slowing down. The girls have dreams to become the “TechCrunch” for Gen-Y innovation. On this date, they will release the online destination to hear the stories of incredible young artists, creators, designers, programmers, innovators and entrepreneurs who participated throughout the tour.

If you are interested in taking part, or following GenJuice across the nation, you can find them on Twitter @meetgenjuice, and watch their weekly episodes on JustIn TV. Lastly, meet the lovely ladies who started this movement: @ariellescott, @virgiliasingh and @danielleleslie. The next stop is Austin, Texas, on the 22nd of July. Go ahead, get involved!