Are You a Young Innovator?

Young inspiring innovators that we found at MAKERFEST Surabaya.

Surabaya is a city with rich cultures, traditions, and multi-ethnic communities. The fact that it is referred to as the City of Heroes is a testament that it is the city where lots of historical events took place, particularly on the struggle of Indonesians to claim their Independence which was carried out by Arek-Arek Suroboyo (the youth of Surabaya).

The history of Surabaya might not have been talked about that much by the millennials, but it’s not un-noticeable. In fact, they understand what events have taken place in the past and use it as their guide so to not repeat the mistakes. This is one of the things that motivates them to become young creators and create innovations.

On 29th and 30th of September 2018, MAKERFEST event finally took place in Surabaya. This has become a platform for innovative creators to realize and showcase their creative ideas.

We highlighted some creators with their unique innovations:

Akutahu

Yulinar and her friend, Ilham, created an innovative crispy snack made of tofu. This creative idea was pitched by Yulinar, who was trying to find a productive solution for the housewives in her neighborhood in Mojokerto where there were only staying at home and have nothing to do.

Yulinar wasn’t content about the idea of just staying at home and not being productive, so she decided to put her creativity into work by diving into culinary business.

‘’In my opinion, women shouldn’t just follow the traditional mindset- get a job, get married, then quit and become a housewife and stay at home. If you can help people and be creative, do so.’’

Kanidream.id

Having some experiences in Designing and Sewing, Trisial Augustin started her own retail business which is known today as kanidream.id. She sells various kinds of clothing such as outerwears, blouses, and skirts that are associated with bright colors like red and blue.

‘’I really like designing clothes and I have gone for sewing classes before. I am using my experience, and hence I am able to run this business.’’

Trisial utilizes Indonesian fabric for her products such as batik, tenun, and lurik. This makes her products very unique and special.

At a young age, Trisial has become a successful creator in making use of Indonesian products and making a creative business out of it.

Pulampu

Pulampu is a brand known for the manufacture of decorative lamps with a touch of modern and traditional designs. What’s even more unique is that it were produced using waste products.

With a tagline of ‘’From the Village to the City’’, Radius and Junaedi, the founders of Pulampu, have captured the market. These two young creators saw the potential of creating such product from their community and decided to collaborate together.

‘’We can see that the local villagers are skillful enough to be able to invent such unique creations. Since they lack the knowledge and communications to the outside world, we act as a bridge that helps to educate them and inspire them to continue creating new inventions.’’

At that time, Radius and Junaedi just recently plan to sell their products at Tokopedia. They are keen with the idea of having star rating and discussion thread that can help the customers to get a wider source of information regarding the product and hence attracting buyers.

Maykani Flora

Evelyn Kalivia, owner of Maykani Flora, got a one of a kind idea on a new creation — breeding and selling insectivorous plants. The idea came from her sibling’s curiosity on how to obtain these very unique plants.

‘’At first, my sibling was curious on how exactly would you plant it and I got intrigued. After several experiments, I got the desirable result. Seeing that we actually managed to plant in significant quantity, I thought of continuing to do this and selling them.’’

From the very beginning of her business, Evelyn feels the need to engage with her buyers. She would give brief introductions regarding the plants and educate them on the after care and benefits of this insectivorous plant.

The owner of Maykani Flora highly encourages creative thinking to be put into business. She also would like to convey a message to all the millennials out there that they should be fearless and always be willing to try new things.