The first Living Lab Event was a success!
The SE company (Syd Energi), which is one of Denmark’s largest modern energy and telecommunications companies, was the focal point on the 7th of November 2018, when Northern Connections together with Scale-Up NSR had the opportunity to welcome eight screened companies. During the Living Lab Event at Syd Energi in Esbjerg, Denmark - the eight companies had the great opportunity to present their ideas, technologies or methodologies to the SE company towards creating new partnerships. The ideas were all within the fields of Smart Home, Sensor Technology or More Green Behaviour. The presentations were made through a meet-the-partner meeting, where every company had 25 minutes to present in front of the representatives from the SE company. The representatives from the SE company was Lisbeth Valther, CEO at Syd Energi, SE Next Step and Blue Labs, Delaksan Kulasingam, Project Manager at SE and Søren Røn, Development and Program Director for SE Next Step Challenges.
Syd Energi welcomes the participating innovators
At the beginning of the day, Lisbeth Valther welcomed the companies and the several partners from the different projects. Afterwards, she introduced the SE company and talked about their business areas, the external factors that are influencing their industries and their initiatives. Additionally, her presentation was also about, how our homes have become smarter and how the SE company wants to work towards internally focused innovation with a focus on agile development.
A full programme with guest speakers, matchmaking and knowledge sharing
While the companies were presenting in front of the representatives from the SE company, the programme was filled up with guest speakers and matchmaking to add value to our Living Lab Event and the participants. Leon Aahave Uhd, Chief Project Manager at CLEAN Cluster, was the first speaker at the Living Lab Event, where he presented the Northern Connections project and CLEAN Cluster, who is a partner within the Northern Connections project.
Additional challenges were afterwards presented, where the search for new tech partners began – this was within Vejle Nord (DK), which was presented by Charlotte Darre, Project Manager at CLEAN Cluster, and within Fossil Free Energy Districts (S), presented by Lars Bern, Area Manager Innovation at Business Region Gothenburg.
Furthermore, Aija K. Azadi, International Project Consultant at Enterprise Europe Network, introduced the Enterprise Europe Network, which is the world largest support network for SME’s with international ambitions, and she also presented the H2020 – the funding possibilities and finding the solutions together. The last guest presenter was Steffen Petersen, Associate Professor at Aarhus University. His purpose was to present knowledge about smart homes of the future - barriers and possibilities and the role of the homes in the future energy system.
It's a wrap
When the day was drawing towards an end, the participants at the Living Lab Event at Syd Energi have had a day with a full programme, filled with guest speakers and presentations, but also time to network, matchmake and share knowledge with each other. After the meetings had come to an end, Lisbeth Valther wrapped up the day by thanking all the companies and project partners for attending at this important day in the search for new partnerships. On behalf of the SE company, she expressed that she was thrilled that so many innovative companies wanted to attend and additionally, that they could not have been happier with the event and that it had exceeded their expectations.
“The Living lab Event with SE created great opportunities for innovative SMEs from across Europe. It was great to see the commitment and professionalism from SE -and it was also great to see the screened companies’ commitment and enthusiasm, when pitching their projects. The selected SMEs were given a unique opportunity to present their technologies. I am excited to follow the development of the potential collaborations that were spurred during this event – and furthermore, I positive sure that this event has facilitated the start of innovative collaborations.” says Maria Skotte, who is representing Scale-Up NSR and Head of Department, Environment and Smart City at CLEAN Cluster.
Hanne Skovby, Project Director for District Heating at House of Energy stated the following about the event: "House of Energy were happy to join the Meet the buyer-event at SE and to give our two companies from our network, Neogrid Technologies and ReMoni, the possibility to pitch their product to SE. It is great that the Northern Connections-project has reached the level, where we bring in companies and give them the possibility to participate in new collaborations and innovative projects. It was a well-organized event, and I have received a lot of positive feedback from the participants”.
Northern Connections, Scale-Up NSR and Syd Energi want to thank Enterprise Europe Enterprise Network, Renewable Energy Hamburg, arbnco, ReMoni, Business Region Gothenburg, KMD, SE, Innovatum AB, Carbon Cash, Neogrid Technologies ApS, Fischer Lighting, Raybased AB, UNStudio, Scottish Enterprise, Dlaboratory Sweden AB, CLEAN Cluster, Aarhus University & House of Energy for participating in our first Living Lab Event at South Energy. We hope you had a great day!
Watch Leon Aahave Uhd presenting our Living Lab Event at Syd Energi HERE.
Our innovator testimonials are also available HERE.