Press Release 079/2013

KIT Founders Forge Is Lighted

KIT Organizes Three Events for the ”Karlsruher Gründersommer 2013“

The “Karlsruher Gründersommer” (Karlsruhe Founders Summer) will provide information and counseling for founders and entrepreneurs until June 21. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) will organize three events: The launch of the KIT Founders Forge, the event “Best Practices for Science Spinoffs”, and a presentation by the PionierGarage university group. All three events will take place on June 21 on KIT Campus South.

 

Sustainable spinoffs are a major factor of success for Germany as a location of industry. KIT therefore wishes to support responsible entrepreneurs and enterprises that commercialize innovations.
These are startups by the around 24,000 students and scientific high-tech spinoffs. As KIT won the Germany-wide EXIST competition this year, KIT can extend its activities to promote young entrepreneurs in the next five years. Based on the offers established in the past years, the KIT Founders Forge will now offer new services and actions to support young entrepreneurs.

 

The KIT Founders forge will be opened officially on Friday, June 21, 17 hrs, on the premises of the Center for Entrepreneurship on KIT Campus South (glass pavilion,
Engesserstr. 9).

 

Program:

From 16.30 hrs   Admission

17.00 hrs            Welcome Address
                           Dr. Peter Fritz,
                           KIT Vice President for Research and Innovation
                           Professor Orestis Terzidis and Dr. Jens Fahrenberg,
                           Coordinators of the KIT Founders Forge


17.15 hrs
            Keynote: Mirko Holzer, BrandMaker GmbH

17.45 hrs             “From Founders for Founders”
                            KIT founders share their experience
                            Special guest via livestream from the Silicon Valley: Pascal Finette, Mozilla Corporation

From 18.30 hrs   Opening Ceremony of the KIT Founders Forge
                            BBQ buffet

 

More information: www.kit-gruenderschmiede.de

 

SMART FRAME: Science Spinoffs

The SMART FRAME Central Europe project will organize the event “Best Practices for Science Spinoffs” on June 21, 10 hrs (KIT Campus South, Otto-Ammann-Platz 1, building 10.81, Seminarraum 219). This event is aimed at alleviating the founders’ fears of establishing spinoffs and at demonstrating the advantages of spinoffs to previous employers. In this way, SMART FRAME tries to make spinoffs more attractive and to advance them all over Europe. SMART FRAME is a network project analyzing best practices for the formation of spinoffs in European regions and deriving a model for potential founders and their former employers, which can be applied all over Europe. The model and the resulting manuals for founders and executives will be presented at the event.

 

Program:

10.00 – 10.30 hrs     Keynote: Martin Hermatschweiler, Nanoscribe GmbH

10.30 – 11.00 hrs     Keynote: Dirk Schweinberger, tech-solute GmbH

11.00 – 11.15 hrs     Presentation of SMART FRAME

11.15 – 12.30 hrs     Presentation of the Spinoff Model with subsequent discussion

 

More information: www.smart-frame.eu

 

Bridge to the Silicon Valley

Companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple have grown in the Silicon Valley – this valley in California is considered the mecca for founders. The KIT university group PionierGarage wants to strengthen the founders’ scene in Germany based on this model and visited the Silicon Valley. Based on their experience, they set up an entrepreneurship guide to motivate young people to establish an own enterprise. The students will present their Silicon Valley tour on June 21, 2013, 13.30 hrs to students and the interested public (KIT Campus South, Englerstr. 7, building 20.40, Neuer Hörsaal). In addition, videos of interviews of founders in the Silicon Valley and a presentation by Tobias Knecht from the KIT startup Abusix highlighting the German Silicon Valley Accelerator Program will be presented.

 

Program:

13.30 hrs      Admission and Welcome Address
14.00 hrs      Presentation
                      Presentation of PionierGarage
                      Review of the Silicon Valley tour
                      Tobias Knecht, Abusix, about the German Silicon Valley Accelerator

 

More information: www.pioniergarage.de

 

The three events are part of the “Karlsruher Gründersommer”, a series of events for entrepreneurs organized by the Gründerallianz Karlsruhe. From June 17 to 22, the partners of the Gründerallianz will organize various events relating to entrepreneurship.

 

More information: www.gruendersommer.de

 

 

Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,800 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.

le, 18.06.2013
Contact:


Monika Landgraf
Chief Communication Officer
Head of Corporate Communications
Chief Press Officer
Phone: +49 721 608-41150
Fax: +49 721 608-43658
presse does-not-exist.kit edu

Contact for this press release:

Margarete Lehné
Press Officer
Phone: +49 721 608-41157
Fax: +49 721 608-41157
margarete lehne does-not-exist.kit edu


The press release is available as a PDF file.