On June 20, the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam successfully organized the Final Round of the IC Innovator 2026 International Media Startup Competition at the Hanoi Youth Palace.
The contest is accompanied by the National Innovation Center (NIC), the National Creative Startup Support Center (NSSC), the Hanoi Innovation Center (HiHUB), the Start-up Vietnam Foundation (SVF), the Vietnam Impact Startup Incubator and Accelerator (VISIA), Hub Network and many specialized partners in the fields of media, culture, and innovation.
With the theme "The Culture SourceCode - Vietnamese Cultural Source Code", the competition aims to find startup projects in the field of media and cultural industry, prioritizing technology application models, developing on digital platforms and capable of creating practical value.
Speaking at the program, Mr. Do Tien Thinh - Deputy Director of the National Innovation Center (NIC) - highly appreciated the professional quality of the contest right in the first season of organization.
Although it is the first season, IC Innovator has shown professionalism in operation and attracted many quality projects. The ideas participating not only show the spirit of creativity but also show the potential to develop into products with practical value, contributing to the Vietnamese cultural industry," Mr. Thinh shared.
Mr. Do Tien Thinh said that in the context of strong digital transformation, culture can completely become a resource for creative economic development if exploited by new methods. This is also a suitable direction to improve the competitiveness of Vietnam's cultural industry in the future.
Sharing the same view, Mr. Tran Quang Hung - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hanoi Innovation Center Joint Stock Company - said that many projects in the competition have long-term development potential.
Mr. Hung proposed to implement a 6-month incubation program for excellent teams to support product completion, human resource training and connection with the creative startup ecosystem. This is considered an opportunity for projects to step out of the competition framework and continue to develop into practical business models.
Organized for the first time, IC Innovator 2026 attracted more than 30 teams from more than 20 universities nationwide. After the qualifying rounds, the 6 best teams including Dau Viet Du Ky, TenTen, Con Rong Chau Tien, Quy Co Thanh Lich, HeriStage and Vistara4D won the right to participate in the Final round.
The common point of the teams is to exploit Vietnamese cultural materials through modern approaches such as interactive games, virtual reality (VR), WebAR, 4D projection technology or digital education platforms.
In the end, the TenTen project won the Champion title with the Polaxis cultural - tourism game application. The project builds an interactive experience platform to help domestic and international tourists explore Vietnamese landmarks, history and cultural identity through digital games.
The runner-up prize belonged to the Dau Viet Du Ky project with an educational board game product that takes players to learn about Vietnamese history, culture and heritage in the form of direct experience. Meanwhile, HeriStage won the Quy Quan prize with a digitalized education - entertainment platform, aimed at promoting traditional performing arts to a large audience.
According to the Organizing Committee, the projects participating in the Final Round not only reflect the creative thinking of the young generation but also show the potential for forming cultural products with market access. In the context of artificial intelligence and digital technology increasingly developing, cultural identity is considered a factor creating differentiation and sustainable value.
Through IC Innovator 2026, the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam hopes to contribute to promoting the spirit of creative entrepreneurship among young people, and at the same time open up new approaches to preserve, promote and commercialize Vietnamese cultural values in the period of international integration.
