Creative writing and drawing contest: Konica Minolta inspires young Kenyans to give shape to their ideas

| 31 October 2016

Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe GmbH (Konica Minolta) assists children with their education and growth by helping shape their ideas together with the Kenyan Ministry of Education in conjunction with Nairobi County. The creative story writing and drawing contest is designed to inspire young talent and provide room for their creativity. From September 2016 to January 2017 Konica Minolta encourages all eligible children to participate in the contest and giving them the chance to win great prizes.


As a company aware of its social responsibility, Konica Minolta strives to assist with creating a brighter tomorrow for everybody. In particular in growth areas, such as Africa, Konica Minolta aims to facilitate identifying young talent and allow them to shape their own future. “Because Africa is one of the strategic growth areas for Konica Minolta, we feel we need to make a difference by supporting the future of the country”, said Mark Oldfield, Senior Area Manager CAMEA region at Konica Minolta. “What better way than by supporting the children and trying to give shape to their ideas and visions?”

 

“Space” as a creative challenge

Konica Minolta and the Kenyan Ministry of Education have launched a “Space” themed story writing and drawing contest for school children from 205 schools in Nairobi County.

To ensure that all pupils who want to express their creativity and ideas are able to enter the contest, Konica Minolta helps nurture talent by providing paper and coloured pencils for all participants. By supplying the necessary equipment, this ensures that every inspirational idea has the opportunity to become a winning entry.

 

Enabling ideas with potential

A judging panel will compile a shortlist from the entries of 10,000 pupils from the sixth grade and then choose the winners. All shortlisted entries will be published in a book and distributed to the schools’ libraries.

The three finalists in each category (poetry, story writing and drawing) will attend an award ceremony where the winners will be announced. Besides giving all shortlisted entries a book, the three top entries of each category will also be rewarded with a great prize. In addition, all participants will receive a bookmark.

Furthermore, themes within the book will be brought to life by embedding augmented reality (AR) experiences and making the invisible, visible. “This is an excellent opportunity for Konica Minolta to demonstrate our growing focus on digital innovation, and to showcase AR experiences for education, whilst supporting participants in their learning experience”, said Milan Lakhani, Client Principal & Strategist, Konica Minolta Business Innovation Centre, Europe.

 

Read more about the Kenyan School Book Project: storycontest.konicaminolta.eu

 



About Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe

Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe GmbH, based in Langenhagen, Germany, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Konica Minolta Inc., Tokyo, Japan, forming part of its Business Technologies business area. As a leading global services provider in the field of IT- and document processes as well as digital production printing solutions the company excels in services-led business consulting, implementation and management and provides a range of world-leading printing systems and solutions. In this context, Konica Minolta’s Optimized Print Services concept (OPS) combines consultancy, hardware, software implementation, and operation in order to enhance business process efficiency and cost-effectiveness. To support customers optimally with powerful and sustainable solutions, technology leader Konica Minolta continuously invests in research and development work and regularly sets new standards.

Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe is represented by subsidiaries and distributors in more than 80 countries in Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. With over 35,000 employees around the world (as of March 2016), Konica Minolta’s Business Technologies business area earned net sales of over EUR 6.2 billion in financial year 2015/16.

For further information about the company, please visit: www.konicaminolta.eu.

Product images are available at: www.konicaminolta-images.eu.

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