History

Brightest Young Minds™ (BYM) started out in 2000 with the vision “to create a platform that showcases the Brightest Young Minds’ potential and fast track their development for the benefit of South Africa.”
It started out just as a conference aiming to bridge the gap between students and the outside world and giving students a platform to share their ideas amongst inspiring peers. For partnering companies it provided the opportunity to listen to the ideas of the students and pose them specific challenges. Moreover the companies got very good exposure through BYM’s national media coverage and interaction during the week.

The first two years, the conference was fairly structured along the lines of case studies or specific challenges. One of the main things remarked by outsiders (people such as Mr. KK Combi and Ms. Gill Marcus) in those early years was that BYM was one of the few opportunities allowing complete interracial, interdisciplinary and intercampus engagement for students. In later years, this was considered common place, but the value of diversity remained a core tenet of the organization.

The conference content gradually became more open-ended specifically allowing the BYM delegates to discuss the things they were passionate about. The focus was on fast tracking, and a big part of that is discovering your passion. The conferences itself was also a constant example of innovation, exposing the delegates to different facilitation techniques such as appreciative inquiry, open-space technology and scenario planning.

From 2002 onwards, an increasing focus was placed on opportunities and activities after the conference. Various mentoring opportunities, training and development seminars and bi-annual regional meetings were organized by BYM. Some of the most significant of these opportunities were:
• 1-year access to a Harvard University online course in Business Management
• participation in compiling the book ‘South Africa’s Most Promising Companies (2005)’
• participation in Learning to Lead workshops
• 3-day workshops with Cambridge Programme for Industry.
• Networking event hosted with First Tuesday

Through the years BYM’s recognition and influence grew with the number of application for the programme growing to more than 2000 per year. The BYM philosophy also took root internationally when BYM 2003 delegate David Price approached the organization to start BYM Australia in 2005. BYM agreed to license the brand to him and helped with setting up the organization and the first BYM Australia Summit was held in Sidney in January 2007. The second Summit took place in July 2008.