The Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) collaborated with the National Innovation Agency (NIA), Chiang Mai University’s School of Public Policy, the Chiang Mai Municipality Office, the Suandok Medical Innovation District (SMID), the Program Management Unit on Area Based Development (PMU-A) and Techsauce Media Company Limited, to launch an onsite “Pitching Day” campaign as part of the 2023 “Hack for GOOD Well-Being Creation” program with good innovations leveraged to develop a good city and improve quality of life of people in Chiang Mai. The “Pitching Day” was held to find the best, creative problem-solving innovations, smart solutions, and effective applications pitched by the 15 finalists with the goal of efficiently leveling up the quality of life of people in Chiang Mai. The “Smile Migraine” that developed an application for migraine patients is the winner and they received a cash prize of 400,000 baht as well as opportunities to further develop their innovative ideas for creating a smarter future. The announcement and prize presentation occurred at NSP Rice Grain Auditorium, Chiang Mai University’s Science and Technology Park (CMU STeP).
Mr. Chaichana Mitrpant, Director of the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), said “Chiang Mai province” is an iconic landmark with high tourism potential, which is fundamental to driving the local economy in the province as well as steering the national economy. Many studies found that Chiang Mai is still struggling with problems associated with public health, especially the air pollution problem in public spaces and food contamination. The ETDA, as an agency that is committed to enhancing the potential and competitiveness of the country, has growing confidence in electronic transactions under a more stable and greater secure ecosystem. The ETDA is accelerating national development in line with the national strategy, aiming to achieve the 30:30 goal to drive up the value of the Thai economy to 30% and raise the level of Thailand’s digital competitiveness to stay at no lower than 30th place in the World Digital Competitiveness Ranking. Therefore, the ETDA teamed up with local partners in areas where the development framework needed to be localized and adjusted in order to realistically enhance a strategic implementation. It will eventually lead to maximizing the adoption of digital technologies and innovations to improve the quality of life of local people. This year, the ETDA has improved the country’s digital competitiveness and accelerated national development through the launch of the “Hack for GOOD Well-Being Creation: Good Innovation, Good City, Good Life”. It is a mechanism that is not only playing a key role in finding practical innovations, solutions and applications to help solve social problems, and elevate the quality of life of local people in urban areas and travelers in Chiang Mai. However, it also helps enhance the potential of both existing and new innovation and solution providers and developers. Digital innovation and solution providers and developers participating in the program will have a good opportunity to further develop their innovative ideas for practicality in real-world problem- solving. All participating innovation developers were asked to come up with innovative solutions related to developing and promoting “Good Home”, “Good Healthcare” and “Good Food for Health” that can help local people to have better health and wellbeing. They are the three core development dimensions of smart living and the development models formulated during the “Hack for GOOD Well-Being Creation” program can be further developed and implemented in other areas and regions. The program will lead to innovative solutions that are properly localized to better meet the needs of local people in particular areas.
The “Hack for GOOD” program kicked off in February 2023 with a total of 90 teams applying for the program. They were narrowed down to 15 finalists, comprising the Blockchain-based Wellness PHR & Health Data Management Platform, Daywork Smart Escort, Dietz Telemedicine Station, Fitsloth, Happo – Your Mental Test Kit, Kaset Market, OmegaAI, ProWam (Pro-Active Precision Water Management), S.T. Care, Smile Migraine, Talk to PEACH, Trident Intelligence Management System, We Chef Food Truck Platform, Chiang Mai Lodpao Lodfoon (Reduce burning, Reduce dust), Clinic Management Program, and Miracle Clinic System. All teams took part in an intensive workshop to level up digital innovation development skills with experts from agencies and organizations in the public and private sectors prior to reaching the final ideation stage “Pitching Day” on April 29 when all teams pitched their innovative solutions and applications to a panel of expert judges within the provided timing of presentations. They also provided answers to the judges’ questions about business models and the next phase of development of their innovations and solutions to continue solving social problems in particular areas, including solutions and measures to work in collaboration with partners, how to tackle, and reduce the impact on society, and people in particular areas. All challenging questions from the judging panel were related to crucial issues in society so that judges can acknowledge the potential and capabilities of each participating team. The Pitching Day is a magnificent ideation stage that provided a great opportunity for all teams to demonstrate their innovative ideas that were also beneficial to local people who were watching the competition onsite and people who watched the live streaming online on Zoom.
After the end of the Pitching Day, the final ideation stage when the 15 finalists pitched their innovative solutions and applications to the judging panel, the judges made a final decision and named the Smile Migraine Team, which developed an application for helping migraine patients as the winner of the Hack for GOOD competition. The Smile Migraine Team also developed a migraine community and related features, including the Tele-Migraine service. They received a cash prize of 400,000 baht, a trophy and a certificate. The first runner-up is the Dietz Telemedicine Station Team which developed an online integrated telemedicine platform to enable all patients to access medical treatment from anywhere despite living in remote and underserved areas where there is no internet network. They receive 300,000 baht in cash prize, a trophy and a certificate. The second runner-up is the We Chef Food Truck Platform Team which developed the food truck ecosystem to facilitate sales and management of the foot truck business in order to efficiently generate revenue. They received a cash prize of 150,000 baht, a trophy and a certificate. Two teams that received popular awards are the Talk to PEACH Team which developed an application for sexual health consultation privately with experts without making personal identification, and the Kaset Market Team which developed a platform to help connect food suppliers with restaurants to enable restaurant business operators to purchase organic ingredients and recipes at value prices and identify the origin of all ingredients, helping to achieve the Zero Waste goal in the food industry. Talk to PEACH and Kaset Market received a cash prize of 75,000 baht and a certificate each. Moreover, all five winning teams also received AWS Credits and an opportunity to test out their innovative solutions and applications with the target audience as well as support from partners of the ETDA. Exclusively, all the winning teams are entitled to participate in Techsauce Global Summit 2023 which is scheduled to take place in the third quarter of this year.
“Hack for GOOD is a vital step forward and a magnificent milestone of the ETDA to leveling up the digital life of people living in local areas, to collaborate with partners in the public and private sectors, including local agencies and organizations in particular areas. They worked collaboratively to develop innovations, solutions and applications that have potential, all of them will as part of the Hack for GOOD program will be further developed for a real-world problem-solving experiment at the Suandok Medical Innovation District, which is set to become an Innovation Sandbox that would be driven by all stakeholders in society in the future. The ETDA hopes that all the winning teams will use the cash prizes that gain from this program to further the business to develop their innovations, solutions, and applications as well as create a potential impact on the long-term growth and development of society and the country so that all Thais can step forward a more quality and sustainable digital lifestyle at the same time,” added Mr. Chaichana Mitrpant.