Sprout E-course Alumnus Story: Quoc Anh Nguyen

Tech Tuesdays is a youth-created event that strengthens the technology foundation in Vietnam by bringing young innovators together to talk about tech, solve problems and share resources. Its organizers hope that Tech Tuesdays will spread throughout other developing countries and around the world.

This year, Tech Tuesday events have been organized five times in Ho Chi Min City, with more than 200 participants: more Tech Tuesdays are set to launch in Hanoi. Guest speakers and topics are chosen by participants to meet their needs and help their projects grow. Businesspeople, students and startups are among the attendees.

In Ho Chi Mihn City, the group has partnered with Saigon Hub (a co-working space for tech startups and freelancers) as its official sponsor. Saigon Hub provides free space for Tech Tuesdays. With no fees for meeting space, Tech Tuesdays is virtually no-cost, a model that can be replicated in other cities and towns.

Organizer Quoc Anh Nguyen Manh explains: “Tech Tuesdays is an open source for tech people to meet up, an open source for anyone who wants to organize tech events in other cities and countries.”

Quoc Anh is 24 years old, a 5-time Microsoft Student Partner leader whose team won the first round of Microsoft Imagine cup in 2010 and first prize in the Blackberry Jam in Vietnam. Their creation is LifeBox, a popular life logging app (“Create a backup of everything you hear, see and do. Never forget anything again”).

He began Tech Tuesdays after attending a Microsoft YouthSpark event in Singapore. “I had the chance to meet a lot of highly passionate people who want to use technology to make people’s lives better in education, employment, charity, the environment. [This program] helps connect young talented people all around the world. And we share our passions and contacts, help each other and advice each other on our ideas.”

Quoc Ahn then enrolled in TakingITGlobal’s Sprout e-course, which provided useful tools and “essential knowledge” for growing the LifeBox company as well as developing Tech Tuesdays.

The connections Quoc Ahn has made through Microsoft and TakingITGlobal continue to be an integral part of his business as LifeBox moves to a Singapore office and expands globally. These experiences also inform his team’s projects that give back to the community, such as Tech Tuesdays, helping other young social innovators to strengthen their projects, together.