HYDERABAD: Among the 1,500 participants for the 8th Global Entrepreneurship Summit to be held in the end of this month, the youngest of the lot is 13-year-old Hamish Finlayson from Townsville in Australia. The young entrepreneur had designed two websites and three applications on iOS two years ago. The whizkid living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) developed a website first putting his ICT skills to help other kids deal with the problem.
In an interview with dailymail.co.uk, he had said that he uses his experiences of living with the condition to teach other autistic children handle the disorder through the apps that he has developed. He has been coding for the last three years and he would be looking forward to finding venture capitalists to fund his innovations in Hyderabad.
His website Triple T & ASD (where T stands for Turtle) explains the spectrum of autism and ways in which it can be managed. His love for sea turtles and enthusiasm to learn and better his ICT skills has led him to become a whizkid. It is also a platform to showcase the work of other children living with ASD. The app with the same name allows people to take quizzes and tips to help deal with it.
Another app LitterbugSmash, whose website he reportedly created when he was only 10, was created to promote litter prevention and educate people about the environment. Besides this, he also raises funds through his creations to help the environment for charities in his country. Through crowdfunding, he had the opportunity to travel to the GES which was held at Silicon Valley in the US in 2016.
Women first
52.5 per cent of total 1,500 participants at
GES-2017 are women
Around 31.5 per cent of the entrepreneurs are young
Delegates from 127 countries to particpate
More than 10 countries have all-female delegation including Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Israel
These participants, including 300 investors and ecosystem supporters will be representing four key industry sectors which include Energy and Infrastructure, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Financial Technology and Digital Economy, and Media and Entertainment
Approximately one third of the participating entrepreneurs are from the United States, one third are from India, and the rest are from other countries