Review of the innovation:now Meetup at Stellwerk18

On September 21st, innFactory welcomed all innovation enthusiasts to the Rosenheim startup center for the first time. The young startup was able to welcome almost 40 guests from the region: from other founders to students and professors to established companies, the participants had taken time.

Not surprising given the exciting presentations on the topic of innovation. First, Ralf Exler, Head of Innovation Management at Kathrein Werke KG, gave an insight into the everyday life of an innovation manager and his work in an internationally active company. In constant dialogue with the listeners, he addressed various terminologies and explained the path from the actual idea generation through development to the market entry of innovative products. After the approximately 30-minute presentation, it was Dr. Gerd Beneken, Professor at the Faculty of Computer Science at Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences and head of the university’s Innovation Lab, who informed the audience about the possibilities of cooperation with the university. According to him, there is an opportunity for both companies and private individuals to submit project proposals and realize their ideas. “With innFactory, we were able to design a project last semester and successfully realize it in collaboration with a group of students. We can recommend anyone looking for contact with highly qualified young people or just wanting to tinker with an idea to approach the university and collaborate,” said Toni Spoeck, co-founder of innFactory. As the last speaker of the evening, Sebastian Bayerl, currently a master’s graduate in computer science and freelance software engineer, was allowed to present his Innovation Assessment. It was about creating a framework for evaluating the innovation capability of small and medium-sized enterprises. “The difficulty lies in making innovation measurable and presenting the result meaningfully,” said Sebastian Bayerl about the evaluation model.

Following the three presentations, there was of course still an opportunity for extensive networking with small treats and drinks. “The whole evening was really fun! We’re already looking forward to the next meetup,” said Tobias Jonas from innFactory. “Next time we want to focus on a more technical area. Machine learning or cloud computing would be exciting topics.” Whatever it will be, the three young entrepreneurs look forward to numerous guests and interesting discussions.

Slides from Prof. Dr. Gerd Beneken – Slides from Sebastian Bayerl