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Startup Incubator and Frankfurt Forward joined the forces to offer digital matchmaking for startups

From October 20th to 22nd, Tehnopol Startup Incubator together with the German organisation Frankfurt Forward will bring together startups, companies, investors and politicians for the amazing digital matchmaking event, all around the topics of Gov Tech.

The goal of the three-day program is to give participants insights into the respective ecosystem of the partner country, to showcase best practices, network key players, initiate cooperation and promote innovation across borders. To ensure a truly authentic program, we run it together with our German cooperation partner Frankfurt Forward and work closely with local experts and organisations. An exclusive VC/CEO lunch and pitch contest awaits the 10 selected startups, but many events are open for the others to join!

AGENDA (Estonian time):

20 October

10.00-11.00 Official Welcome Session

  • Markus Frank, Deputy Mayor and Head of Economic Affairs, Personnel and Sport for the City of Frankfurt am Main.
  • Oliver Schwebel, Managing Director at Frankfurt Economic Development Agency.
  • Kadri Tammai, the Head of Tehnopol Startup Incubator.
  • Christian W. Jakob, Head of Frankfurt Forward.

The event will be moderated by Carolin Wagner, Head of Station Frankfurt.

Facebook event here.

Register here.

12.00-13.00 KOMPASS: How to build and scale a company in Germany

Mustafa Tahir and Alexander Heckner (both Kompass) will provide an overview on how to found and scale a business in Germany as well as on the main challenges and lessons learned. Practical insights will be shared by the Frankfurt startup “have it back”.

The event is semi-public. Please contact to Frankfurt Forward team at info@frankfurtforward.com in case you would like to join the session.

13.00-14.00 How to pitch to a German/European customer but also focusing on your brand, not branding

Oftentimes the sales people, mostly CEOs of startups, sell their products/services focusing too much on their product and not the requirements of a customer. Swen Wegner (Mainstage Incubator) will walk you through his personal “TOP10 mistakes as a sales person” and will give you tricks on how to overcome those Mistakes.

On top, Alexander Wipf (Clear Deutschland) will walk you through some key aspects on how to build the perfect brand so that you can go ahead with your sales pitch in a much-structured way.

The event is semi-public. Please contact to Frankfurt Forward team at info@frankfurtforward.com in case you would like to join the session

15.00-17.00 Tech Quartier visit & Funding and Financial Center Frankfurt

TechQuartier serves as a creative arena and melting pot for entrepreneurs and innovators from the financial industry and beyond 

The event is semi-public. Please contact to Frankfurt Forward team at info@frankfurtforward.com in case you would like to join the session.

17.30-18.30 Estonian Startup Community insights

On the 20th of October, the Estonian startup community comes together to have a discussion panel together to talk about the current situation in the startup community, recent trends, good and bad experiences, cool initiatives and many more. We will dive deep into the interconnected network and why and how it is also beneficial for the startups (or why it is not).

We will have Zane from Startup Wise Guys, Marili from sTARTUp Day, Kärt from Lift99 and Maarja from Latitude59. The moderator for this panel is Triin Ilves, the Community Manager in Tehnopol Startup Incubator.

Facebook event here.

Register here.

20.00-21.00 Politicians’ pitch: Visions of the future of Frankfurt & Estonia

Politicians from Frankfurt and Tartu will reverse pitch their GovTech ideas (e.g. e-government, digitalization of administrative sessions) in 5 minutes. Once all concepts have been presented, both startups from FrankfurtRhineMain and Estonia provide feedback and use cases in a 30-minutes discussion.

The event will be moderated by the journalist Falk Heunemann:

  • Opening by Oliver Schwebel, Managing Director, Economic Development Agency Frankfurt
  • Philipp Nimmermann, State Secretary in the Hessian Ministry of Economics, Energy, Transport & Housing
  • Urmas Klaas, Mayor of Tartu
  • Uwe Becker, Mayor and City Treasurer, Head of Department of Finance, Investments and Churches
  • Keit Pentus-Rosimannus, Deputy Chair of Reform Party Fraction (pending)
  • Feedback and Q&A from the 10 participating startups, moderated by Falk Heunemann 

Register here.

Facebook event here.

21 October

10.00-11.30 European Space Agency & cesah visit

Space pioneers welcome! We have some exclusive insights for you, live transmitted from the ESA press centre and the INTEGRAL control room.  In a joined session by the European Space Agency (ESA) and its Startup Incubation Center cesah, we will learn how their missions come alive and how startups can make a huge impact through SpaceTech. Furthermore, there will be a short introduction of the many possibilities for startups to join ESA activities through its different programs.

And spoiler alert, it’s gonna be huge! The first German astronaut in space, Thomas Reiter, will share his fascination with manned space flights.

The event is semi-public. Please contact to Frankfurt Forward team at info@frankfurtforward.com in case you would like to join the session.

13.00-14.00 CEO & VC 1-1 meetings

EXCLUSIVE.

18.00-19.00 GovTech Startup Pitches

We’ve asked our 10 participating B2B or B2G startups from Tallinn and FrankfurtRhineMain to pitch their GovTech solutions. Feedback will be provided by top-level decision makers from both cities. The event will be moderated by Carolin Wagner, Station Frankfurt.

Come and listen!

Register here.

Facebook event here.

19.30-20.30 Virtual Cider

Building bridges between the ecosystems of FrankfurtRhineMain and Talinn.

Grab yourself a cider and mingle with top talents, entrepreneurs and key players of the FrankfurtRhineMain and the Estonian tech ecosystems. We also kindly invite you to network with our 10 particicpating startups from Tallinn and FrankfurtRheinMain.

  • The virtual cider will be opened by Lauri Karp, serial entrepreneur and wayfarer between Estonia and Germany.
  • Thereafter, all 10 participating startups from Frankfurt and Tallinn will present themselves in 1-2 sentences;
  • followed by a networking session with all participants of the virtual cider.

Facebook event.

Register here.

22 October

11.00-12.30 Digital Estonia by e-Estonia briefing centre and Invest in Estonia

EXCLUSIVE.

13.00-14.00 Scaling in Estonia through the cooperation between corporations and startups

Growing the competitiveness of Estonian companies through innovation is of critical importance. Those companies, who are able to look beyond their current business logic in the search for new and more efficient solutions will prove to be truly successful. On the other hand we have startups, who have nothing to lose, it gives them the courage to make risky decisions, experiment, and move forward quickly. As a result, more accessible, convenient and valuable products can reach customers and large companies should adapt to this tempo and working model, in order to be successful.

But how to put corporations and startups working together? At the beginning of this summer, Science and Business Park Tehnopol together with SEB, second largest bank in Estonia, started the Innovation Leaders Club, which aims to unite innovators within companies into a single community, to support the transplanting of open innovation and to increase the capacity to manage change within Estonian companies. In this event, Kadi Villers, the Innovation Manager at the Science and Business Park Tehnopol will dive deep into, why the cooperation between startups and corporations is important and how this cooperation can be successful.

Register here.

Facebook event here.

16.00-17.00 Tallinn as a Smart City

We would all love to live in a good environment, where smart solutions make our everyday life more efficient. That is why last year Science and Business Park Tehnopol together with the City of Tallinn announced the innovation competition called Tallinnovation to find and implement smart city solutions in Tallinn. The goals of the Tallinnovation competition were:

  • to support cooperation between the City of Tallinn and technology companies by enabling the use of innovative software or hardware products in the City of Tallinn;
  • to support the City of Tallinn’s ambition to make the city environment more modern, sustainable, citizen-friendly, and open;
  • to introduce innovative smart city solutions, products, and services to the City of Tallinn;
  • to raise the awareness of Tallinn City employees and officials about new possible innovative developments in the urban environment.

Which were the results of this project, which smart city solutions we have already implemented in Estonia and what we see should happen in the future regarding of the transportation, bicycle traffic, recycling etc. Discussion on that and many more is brought to us by Ragmar Saksing, the Green Technology Manager in Science and Business Park Tehnopol and Einari Kisel, Head of Partnerships and Strategy at FinEst Twins – Smart City Center of Excellence.

Register here.

Facebook event here.

18.00-19.00 The Future of Government – A GovTech Event

Jointly, we’ll identify the drivers of governmental innovation; discuss how technology transforms public services and have a closer look on GovTech best practices that support companies growth and competition internationally.

On top of that, we’ll gain deep insights into AccelerateEstonia project, a startup minded agile innovation project initiated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and powered by the Tehnopol Startup Incubator and Startup Estonia.

Insights will be given by:

  • Oliver Schwebel, Managing Director, Economic Development Agency Frankfurt
  • Kalle Palling, COO, Cachet and former member of the Estonian parliament
  • Taavi Einaste, CEO, Nortal Germany
  • Astrid von der Malsburg, Honorary Consul of Estonia in Germany
  • Uwe Paulsen, Chairman of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Women, Die GRÜNEN
  • Mikk Vainik, the Head of Accelerate Estonia

Facebook event.

Register here.

Conclusion

You know someone who knows someone who might want to join our semi-exclusive or public events? Just invite them!

Join the program!