On March 11th, we have organized the event "Procuring the Innovation" and hosted more than 40 participants including representatives of public procurers, corporations and startups as well. During the event, inspirational speakers from Ceska sporitelna, CzechInvest, EIT Health and DEX Innovation Centre shared their experience about cooperation with startups. On the spot were also 5 promising startups who presented their innovative solutions.
After a short welcome speech, Jan Kubalik (DEX Innovation Centre) introduced the initiative Startup Europe Week and DEX Innovation Centre. Then, Marketa Havlova (CzechInvest) spoke about their project MyGateway and how CzechInvest helps Czech startups.
Martin Javnicky from Ceska sporitelna gave a catchy speech about how corporations can find valuable partners in startups or SMEs. He emphasized that while building such partnerships can be a long process, the final product or solution is often successful. Immediately after his speech, five startups presented their innovative solutions:
* **ImpromptMe** organizes 1:1 meetups during large conferences. * **Nice Visions** introduced their design solar tiles. * **Ability Concept** presented their SMART City solutions, including smart benches, kiosks, and chargers. * **HARDWARIO** showcased examples of non-invasive applications for IoT and Industry 4.0 projects. * The last presenting startup was **VisionQ**, a team of four members who designed and constructed a smart solution for monitoring electric energy consumption. This product caught the expert jury's attention, and VisionQ won a free entry to the European finale of Startup World Cup & Summit.
After the coffee break, Marketa Havlova introduced a newly created guideline on procurement opportunities for startups and highlighted the benefits of cooperating with public procurers, such as payment assurance and the possibility of long-term contracts. Our partner, Tamás Békási (EIT Health), presented programs that EIT Health offers to Czech Health startups for their acceleration and support.
The program concluded with a panel discussion featuring Marketa Havlova, Tamás Békási, Jan Hauser (Ministry of Health), and Zbynek Karban (City of Liberec). They discussed their experiences with buying from startups and SMEs, and what these companies should do to successfully sell their solutions to public procurers or corporations. During the networking session after the event, participants had the opportunity to interact with the speakers, and startups could personally engage with interested individuals.
Project co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF).
Organizers
Partners of the event