See, hear, experience, touch innovation - Enabling Innovation Festival provides impetus

Robots, drones, e-scooters, aha experiences and many impulses and ideas for their own work were given to around 250 people interested in innovation yesterday at the Enabling Innovation Festival at the Skaters Palace in Münster. The participants were able to network and see, hear, experience and touch everything about innovation.

"We brought together entrepreneurs, founders and everyone who deals with the topic of innovation, because innovations are important for business success and secure the future of the region," emphasised Klaus Ehling, Chairman of Münsterland e.V. at the event. The support project "Enabling Innovation Münsterland" at Münsterland e.V., the Regional Agency Mün sterland and the Digital Hub münsterLAND had joined forces with the festival to inspire the region in matters of innovation and to convey the fun of new things. Numerous keynotes, impulses and workshops offered information and added value for one's own work.

Among others, Friedrich Große Dunker from Dark Horse Innovation in Berlin gave an important impulse. The agency has already helped numerous clients with innovation projects to recognise and profit from the opportunities of the digital revolution. At the festival, under the title "Of Tankers & Speedboats: Innovation in the Digital Age", he emphasised how important it is to understand digitalisation as a cultural revolution and not only as a technical one. Everyone is actively shaping the digital world.

In addition, regional entrepreneurs shared their personal innovation topics on stage. On the side stage and in the workshops, entrepreneurs, universities and other partners from Münsterland gave input on topics such as "Future-oriented and disruptive business models", "Design thinking", "Creative innovation promotion" and "Digital working world". Among others, the Verrocchio Institute, Münster University of Applied Sciences, WWU Münster, EUCON and elemente designagentur were represented. At the same time, there were innovations to touch and taste. 14 exhibitors showed this with exhibits and demonstrations.

With the festival, the project partners of the regional joint project "Enabling Innovation Münsterland" celebrated the end of the funding phase and showed what has been created through their initiative. Over three years, the project had brought together entrepreneurs, scientists and business promoters in the region, provided contacts, identified megatrends and qualified them with specialist events, workshops and new innovation tools.

"Over the past three years, we have primarily worked on jointly tackling larger innovation projects in Münsterland. To this end, we have identified the special regional innovation competences and supported them with events and workshops," explained Bernd Büdding, project manager at Münsterland e.V. "To ensure that progress remains sustainable, we will probably start another project with our nine project partners after the summer, which will focus on involving companies even more strongly in regional decision-making processes. Especially when it comes to creating innovation infrastructures in Münsterland. This can be large projects, new courses of study or the establishment of research and development capacities."

Julia Roesler, head of the Münsterland Regional Agency, added: "Innovative capacity and strong companies are what make a region interesting for skilled workers and investors. Only those who offer interesting jobs and a strong location can hold their own in the competition between regions."

The project and the Innovation Festival are funded by the Ministry of Economics of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and through the European Fund for Regional Development and the Ministry of Labour of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. The festival is the implementation of a regional idea from the NRW Ministry of Labour's Dialogue Process 4.0.

The Enabling Innovation project is coordinated by Münsterland e.V.. The project partners are Technologieförderung Münster GmbH, TAFH Münster GmbH, Westfälische Hochschule, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität and the district economic development agencies of the districts of Borken, Coesfeld, Steinfurt and Warendorf.