Bikeathon 2017

It was a great honour for us to be involved in the Bikeathon 2017 event alongside the British Embassy in Mexico and Jacaranda Education.

According to Michael Beckwith from Jacaranda Education, the idea behind this initiative was to promote innovation, educational, scientific and technological projects which strengthen the relationship between Mexico and Great Britain; while at the same time promoting links between schools and professional institutions to encourage interdisciplinary learning and collaboration with a focus on the real world.

This initiative, sponsored by Great Britain’s GREAT campaign, paired five student teams with five local start-ups to compete in the concept design of a product, system or service to improve urban mobility in Mexico City in a sustainable and ecologically responsible way. The program focused on new technologies, such as microprocessors and 3D printers, to explore solutions related to urban cycling.

The four founders of Neko, together with other experts in the fields of mobility, cycling and environmental education, made up the jury panel for Bikeathon. The teams had one month to develop their idea before presenting their final project to the jury. We looked for proposals which would endure even after the event, so we evaluated originality, creativity and sustainability, as well as feasibility and scalability.

We were extremely impressed by the quality of the projects presented and the scope achieved in the short time available. The winning team – with a bicycle repair community project – was announced by Neko at the World Bicycle Forum in April 2017. Read more about the projects at the UK government website here.