From 18 to 24 November 2019, the university took part in Germany’s Start-up Week with ten events. Over 300 students took the opportunity to participate in the country’s largest initiative aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and the start-up spirit.
The university’s participation was organised by the Centre for Research, Innovation and Transfer (ZFIT) as part of the Lower Rhine Innovation and Start-up Initiative (IGNI) project, in collaboration with research staff and professors. Participants were offered a comprehensive programme of interactive workshops and events on the topics of start-ups, entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity.
As part of the ‘Business Idea Pitch & Poster Session’ event, twelve student teams from the International Business Administration degree programme had the opportunity to present their business ideas to a jury of experts – comprising representatives from regional banks, universities and start-ups – and subsequently receive feedback. International students on the Sustainable Development Management programme also sought expert opinions, presenting their social start-up ideas during the ‘Social Ventures from Around the World’ event. At the ‘Business Model Creation for Lean Start-ups’ workshop, the student participants learnt from a tech start-up founder and business coach what to look out for when developing a business model and which modern tools can be used for this purpose. The seminar “Social Media for Start-ups” gave all interested participants an insight into various marketing strategies for young entrepreneurs. The online seminar ‘How to Build a Responsible Business’ was also part of this year’s programme. During this session, a former student on the Sustainable Tourism degree programme from Indonesia joined via the internet to talk about his successful start-up, which incorporates many sustainable aspects. As part of the “Start-up Movie Night”, a documentary offered a behind-the-scenes look at successful companies from Silicon Valley. Afterwards, the audience had the opportunity to take part in a discussion with the winners of this year’s Best Idea Cup.
However, the highlight of this year’s Start-up Week was once again ‘Pressure Cooker Day’, which took place at the Kleve Technology Centre (TZK). Three teams of students tackled the challenges set by the regional companies tel-inform customer services GmbH, RBK Automation GmbH and Pose Automation GmbH. Supported by research assistants and a creativity coach, they developed potential solutions which were presented to the companies in a pitch. In addition, several start-up coaching sessions and a workshop on analysing entrepreneurial personality took place.
