Trinity College Dublin MBA

Author : Jack Brophy

How Trinity’s MBA programme used Anytime Creativity to turn the final session of their Integrity & Sustainability module into a high-energy, real-world innovation hackathon.

🎓
55
MBA students — full-time & executive tracks
💡
14
ESG prototypes developed & pitched
⭐
92%
Positive student rating
⏱️
2.5
Hours of high-intensity innovation

“We partnered with the Anytime Creativity team and platform to design an end-of-module ESG hackathon, giving our MBA students a hands-on opportunity to translate the theoretical and conceptual content of the Integrity and Sustainability module into innovative, impactful ideas that could shape the future of ESG. The students engaged actively with the platform, produced high quality solutions and were excited to showcase their creative problem-solving skills in a real-world innovation setting.”

Daniel Malan — Director, Trinity Corporate Governance Lab

Bridging the gap between ESG theory and real-world application

Daniel Malan, Director of the Trinity Corporate Governance Lab, set out to design an immersive, end-of-module experience for his MBA students—one that would move beyond theory and into action.

The hackathon was built around one central question:

“How might we redesign the future of ESG?”

The Solution

We worked closely with Daniel to design a hackathon challenge that aligned with his module content and learning outcomes.

Students worked in teams and were guided through a stage-gated, immersive learning experience. Students self-selected into one of six ESG challenge areas facing businesses, governments, consumers and investors today:

🌐 Corruption

Empowering organisations and forging partnerships with governments and civil society to reduce corruption in a measurable way.

♻️ Circular Economy

Helping companies and consumers reduce waste, optimise resources, and lower environmental impact through innovative tech or behaviours.

🛒 Consumer Engagement

Making ESG tangible and actionable so consumers can make choices that positively impact society and the environment.

💡 Innovation & Impact

Sparking new products, services, or business models that drive measurable ESG improvements.

📊 Data & Transparency

Making ESG measurement faster, more accurate, and actionable for businesses and investors.

🏛️ Corporate Integrity

Breaking down silos in organisations to ensure that corporate integrity is advanced in an effective and holistic way.

Each team moved through a defined set of stages on the platform:

1
Problem – Students selected a focus area, gathered insights, clustered their insights and used these findings to frame a narrow problem-to-be-solved.
2
Solution – Each student brainstormed multiple solutions to their identified problem. As a team, they aligned on one idea to bring forward, received feedback from our AI Idea Assistant, and landed on a working solution. Despite tight time constraints, the AI Idea Assistant ensured each team received targeted feedback that challenged their thinking and encouraged iteration.
3
Prototype – Each team uploaded a prototype to the platform, leaning on AI image generation given the time constraints of the session.
4
Pitch & Reflect – Teams were given 2 minutes to present their problem, solution and prototype. Students then engaged in cross-collaboration by leaving comments on each team’s work and voting for their favourite idea.

The Impact

  • 55 MBA students across 14 teams participated across the full-time and executive tracks.
  • 69 solutions explored and 14 prototypes developed and presented.
  • 76 peer feedback comments exchanged across teams.
  • 92% positive student rating — Excellent or Good.
  • Key skills developed: critical thinking, creative problem-solving, collaboration, adaptability and AI literacy.
  • All 55 students awarded digital badges recognising their participation and achievement.

The Voice of the Educator and Student

“We partnered with the Anytime Creativity team and platform to design an end-of-module ESG hackathon, giving our MBA students a hands-on opportunity to translate the theoretical and conceptual content of the Integrity and Sustainability module into innovative, impactful ideas that could shape the future of ESG. The students engaged actively with the platform, produced high quality solutions and were excited to showcase their creative problem-solving skills in a real-world innovation setting.”

Daniel Malan — Director, Trinity Corporate Governance Lab

“It was a great experience — enjoyed the process, the intuitive platform and would recommend to others.”

Student — Anonymous Survey Response

Trinity MBA Exec class

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