Surabaya City Government through the Board of Regional Planning and Research Development (Bappedalitbang) is once again holding the 2024 Surabaya Innovation Competition (Inovboyo).

The Head of the Board of Regional Planning and Research Development, Irvan Wahyudrajad, said that this competition aimed to encourage all levels of society as well as Local Government Department (Perangkat Daerah) in Surabaya to contribute their ideas of innovations for the advancement of the city. Bappedalitbang initiates this competition at the first place and organizes it every year to create an atmosphere encouraging people in Surabaya to think in creative ways and in the long term it is expected that innovation could be a culture for the city and a shared character of the society. Therefore, innovation is going to be an integral part of the city’s development and eventually, Surabaya will escalate as a barometer of innovation in Indonesia.

Therefore, Irvan gave the message and invited the entire community and local government working units to actively participate in this innovation battle since it could create an exceptional impact for Surabaya as well as for Indonesia. "Innovation is not only about a new application, innovation can be concrete solutions to problems that are now arising in society. Innovation can be a product, a service, a business model or strategy that allows the city’s issues to be solved better and faster. It doesn't have to be an application because there are too many applications already," said Irvan, on Saturday (20/1/2023).

The 2024 Inovboyo competition consists of three categories. The first is technological innovation based on websites, mobile apps, big data, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Virtual Reality (VR). Second, innovation and invention in the economic sector. While the third category is non-economic technological innovation and invention.

Irvan further elaborated that there were some criteria for the innovations that could be registered for the 2024 Inovboyo competition. Primarily, the innovations have to introduce novelties in all or some elements. Apart from that, the innovations have to provide benefits to the city and society. Additionally, the innovations must not lead to inappropriate impositions or restrictions in the society as well as law violations. "The innovations also have to be relevant to the present concerns of Surabaya City Government and must be replicable," explained Irvan.

He continued that the Mayor of Surabaya, Eri Cahyadi, wanted the new innovations could relate and be applied to the recent prioritized programs of the City Government, specifically, environmental management, public street lighting system, education, flood management and digitalization.

Regarding the procedure of the 2024 Inovboyo competition, once the innovations are submitted, they will be selected by a team of judges from academics from Universities, the East Java Provincial Government, and the Indonesian Ministry of Home Affairs. Afterwards, 6 (six) winners of the best innovations will be selected and will receive coaching money, trophies and certificates from the Surabaya City Mayor.

For Surabaya populaces who would like to participate in contributing their innovations for the City’s development, please kindly register via the website merdeka.surabaya.go.id starting from January, 2024. Inovboyo previously broke the national record as the most participants in innovation competitions and therefore, was listed in the Museum of Indonesian Records (MURI) in 2022.

"Bappedalitbang encourages and accommodates all innovations, both external and internal," Irvan concluded.