The 2023 J-MCP SDGs & Business Web 3.0 program started last week.This four-week intensive course is taking place in the Metaverse (Virbela) and brings together 21 students from Japan and overseas to validate business models and frame solutions to some of the most pressing challenges of our time under the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Over the course of the program, the students will go through an interactive, collaborative, and step-by-step process to build and validate startup ideas based on content from world-renowned startup accelerators and guest speakers such as leading academics, social startup founders, journalists, and macro-economists. 

During the orientation session on February 9th, the students met lead instructor Samuel Goodman and other program coordinators (Rob Kuipers and Natalie Kosh) in Zoom and Virbela to learn more about the program content and goals and to get a tour of the virtual office space and campus that will be used throughout the program.Each group was also allocated their own private office that can be used to collaborate and meet. After that, the groups played an online scavenger hunt to explore the Virbela campus. 

Day two featured interactive lecture sesions on the Sustainable Development Goals and Web 3.0.