Baden-Württemberg: Connected
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Objectives
Baden-Württemberg: Connected (bwcon) is the leading business initiative for technology and innovation in Baden-Württemberg. Its aim is to promote strategic technologies and applications that will enhance the quality of living in Baden-Württemberg
and its attractiveness as a business location. In addition to technology and applications in the areas of ITC, life sciences/health care and creative industries, the network focuses on finding crosscutting uses of technology for innovative products, services and processes.
Awards
bwcon has recently been awarded a price as "Best German Innovation Network".
Find out more
Members of the network
Over 400 members linking more than 4,000 experts in over 350 IT, media and high-tech companies 50 universities and research establishments
Focus of activities
Since its inception in 1997, Baden- Württemberg: Connected has been active in the field of IT and Internet, and linking ITC with practical applications. In 2005, bwcon supplemented ITC with the “vertical” areas of life sciences/health care and creative industries.
Alongside these three areas of technology and application, which amalgamate know-how and expertise in specific sectors, bwcon focuses on implementing crosscutting measures for the interdisciplinary application of technology in new products, services and processes.
The business initiative also includes a “Coach & Connect” service, offering in-depth consultation and support for innovative startup companies. The interests of bwcon are represented by a coordinating office which provides the necessary infrastructure for the entire association. The work of the separate fields of technology and application
and that of the interdisciplinary fields is actively promoted by executive committees
made up of members of the bwcon board of directors. The result is a unique forum that is unrivalled in Baden-Württemberg.
bwcon offers its members a wide range of services to promote collaboration that transcends technological boundaries and to create innovative points of contact. At the forefront of its activities are numerous projects and collaborative ventures. By offering a wide selection of programs and networking platforms directed at specific industries or topics, bwcon encourages the exchange of knowledge and experience and integrates the different fields of technology.
Projects
Consulting for enterprise startup and Expansion
bwcon: Coach & Connect
Making the right contacts is often the first step in the promotion of a business location. bwcon’s Coach & Connect project offers a wide range of consulting and support services for startups and innovative companies. The business initiative provides help and advice for startup enterprises – especially spin-offs from the universities – from financing and drawing up a business strategy, right through to corporate governance. Services offered in the framework of this project include training courses, preliminary consultations,
brokering of coaches and experts, and a range of events on the topic of networking. The project is funded by the Baden-Württemberg ministry of economic affairs under its initiative for business start-ups and business transfer (ifex), with support from the European Social Fund (Objective 3).
bwcon: Management Coaching Group
The Management Coaching Group is a network of top managers with over 250 years of management experience who make themselves available as coaches and consultants. Led by chairman Klaus-Dieter Laidig, this group of experts – most of whom are former
executives and directors in the hightech business – share their knowledge and experience with young innovativeenterprises. bwcon brokers vital contacts between the companies and the experts who can help them.
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
bwcon organises Special Interest Groups (SIGs) on various topics. The objective of these workgroups is to exchange knowledge and experience in specific areas and to promote interaction between the network’s members and the establishment of
cooperative ventures. SIGs have already been formed to deal with the topics of CRM, sales and marketing, mobile business, and information technology legislation. Other topics planned are broadband communications, medical engineering and outsourcing.
The SIG CRM focuses on investigating the potential for incorporating customer relationship management along the value chain and setting up a reference database with best practice projects for users. The members of the SIG Mobile Business develop business models and discuss solutions for the mobile environment. The SIG Sales
& Marketing has drawn up a sales guideline to help start-up companies.
The SIG IT Legislation grapples with legal issues arising from the use of information technologies in business enterprises.
bwcon: CyberOne high-tech award
CyberOne holds a prominent place amongst bwcon projects. Set up in 1998, bwcon’s high-tech award is Baden- Württemberg’s most important technology competition. The annual prizes are awarded for promising business concepts, applications and solutions
at all points along the value chain in an enterprise or institution located in Baden-Württemberg. CyberOne targets enterprises in the high-tech environment, particularly in the areas of information technology, telecommunications, life sciences, electronics and mechanical engineering. The annual prize-giving ceremony is a technology summit meeting of national importance, hosting numerous guests from industry, politics and the
scientific community. Patron of the competition is the prime minister of Baden-Württemberg.
bwcon: community as a communication platform
All the members of bwcon are part of a large network. Together, they create
the conditions in which business can thrive.
Contacts and experts
Personal contact makes that vital difference. bwcon introduces companies to the contact persons of importance in their particular sector. The bwcon network contains more than 4,000 expert contacts from science, business and politics in all spheres of innovative technology, finance and research.
Communication platforms
A monthly e-mail newsletter, bwcon: news, informs readers about trade fairs and other events, current trends and developments and the activities of bwcon itself.
Popular events such as the bwcon lunch or dialog events, each of which deal with a topical technology issue, or the bwcon seminars, have been used for years as lively communication
forums. The networking platforms are continuously developed and updated to ensure optimum protection of the members’ interests.
Innovation highlight
Innovative folding technologies
The winner of the 2005 CyberOne award, [FOLDCORE], is a particularly outstanding testimony to the successful work of the business incentive and its networking concept. The CyberOne prize money enabled four aerospace engineers to establish [FOLDCORE] as a limited company in October 2005, marking a significant milestone for the
young enterprise, states [FOLDCORE] founder Rainer Kehrle. The four engineers have developed an innovative method for the low-cost production of light, sound-proof, drainable sandwich constructions that impressed not only the CyberOne jury. The outstanding product characteristics have proved their worth particularly in aircraft and
rail vehicle construction. FOLDCORE GmbH already has enough orders from EADS, the parent company of the Airbus group, to fill its order book for 2006. Right from the beginning, the start-up enterprise has been supported and advised by an experienced manager from the Management CoachingGroup.
