YES (Youth Entrepreneurs Sprint) Challenge Pitch Day 2026

Activity title
YES Challenge 2026 · Youth Entrepreneurs Sprint, Schools Edition

Event Brief

A schools entrepreneurship competition in rural Lebanon. Grade 10, 11, and 12 students across the Chouf and Iqleem form teams, find a real problem in their school or community, build a business idea around it, and pitch it to a panel at Park Innovation.

Full description

The YES Challenge invites high school students across the Chouf and Iqleem, two rural areas of Mount Lebanon, to become young entrepreneurs.

Teams of three to four students choose one of five themes, investigate a problem their own school or community actually struggles with, and design an original business idea around solving it: a customer, a value, a way it runs, and a way it keeps running. Each team maps the idea on an A3 business canvas.

The challenge begins with a one-hour info session in every participating school, which this year includes a crash course in prompt engineering so students can use AI tools to sharpen their own thinking rather than replace it.

Twenty teams are selected to pitch at Park Innovation on Pitch Day, three minutes each before a judging panel, scored on innovation, clarity of the problem, feasibility, presentation and teamwork. Winners are announced two evenings later at a public celebration open to families and the wider community.

The 2025 edition reached more than 350 students across thirteen schools. Entry is free for schools and students.

Format In person
Audience High school students, Grades 10, 11, and 12
Dates Pitch Day, Wednesday 18 November 2026 from 10 AM till 2 PM
Location Park Innovation, Shouf Development Hub, Kahlounieh El Chouf, Aatrin Crossroad, Mount Lebanon