Review of the inspiring Startup Port Community Day 2024 of our network: Leuphana University Lüneburg was the meeting place for people interested in innovation and start-ups from the entire Hamburg metropolitan region.
Leuphana University Lüneburg provided the perfect setting for this year’s Startup Port Community Day: the university, based in Lower Saxony, is a Startup Port network partner and renowned educational institution that promotes the exchange between science and business and thus skilfully underpinned the spirit of the Community Day. Its modern central building by architect Daniel Libeskind not only served as an impressive backdrop, but also as a symbol of progressive and future-orientated thinking, which motivated the visitors.
Start-up consultants honoured
Prior to the event, the certificates of the Academy For Consultants were awarded in the afternoon, for which the participants acquired the necessary qualifications for further training and quality assurance in start-up consulting for scientific and knowledge-intensive start-up projects from 22 November 2023 to 27 March 2024.
Welcome by the Vice President of Leuphana Christian Brei
After a brief and warm introduction by Carsten Wille (Leuphana/Startup Port) and Christine Tiedemann (FH Wedel/Startup Port), the Vice President of Leuphana, Christian Brei, took the floor as host in the early evening and emphasised the importance of courage and entrepreneurial drive in today’s challenging times. He emphasised that these qualities are essential in order to overcome the upcoming crises.
Courageous action, coupled with the willingness to take risks and deal with them, is a key competence in entrepreneurial behaviour and must be encouraged, especially in the academic environment. The Vice President reflected on the development of Leuphana University Lüneburg’s mission statement, which was conceived 18 years ago as “humanistic, sustainable and entrepreneurial”. He clarified that “entrepreneurial” meant a proactive and proactive attitude beyond commercial interests. This attitude of not waiting for others to do the groundwork, but becoming active oneself, is central to today’s understanding of entrepreneurship at the university.
In conclusion, Christian Brei emphasised the need to see the university as a place of start-up orientation, where courage and initiative are encouraged in order to develop new, creative solutions and thus bring about positive changes in society.
105Viertel promoted social entrepreneurship
Birte Prinzhorn, Managing Director of 105 Viertel Hamburg gGmbH, then welcomed the audience and promoted the “105Viertel” project, which aims to make Hamburg the city with the highest quality of life in the world. To this end, it promotes social entrepreneurship in all 105 neighbourhoods and acts as a start-up, accelerator and incubator, among other things. The social project cooperates with various partners and empowers others to develop sustainable economic sources.
Ideation Challenges: where creativity meets practice
After the inspiring introductions, which set the tone for a day full of engagement and dialogue, the “Ideation Challenges” began. Here, participants had the opportunity to come together in informal teams and develop new start-up ideas on topics such as health and sustainable construction. The “Marketplace of Inspiration” offered a wealth of materials and food for thought provided by the universities and research institutions in the network.
“This session showed how fruitful collaboration can lead to innovative solutions: Despite initial uncertainties, the participants came together through active networking and intensive exchange of ideas and effectively developed innovative solutions, which made the challenges a complete success,” said moderator Tatjana Timoschenko, project manager of the BMBF joint project TransferWelten.
Startup Meetup Lüneburg
The evening continued with the “Startup Meetup Lüneburg”, where participants were able to socialise and exchange ideas over snacks, drinks and good music. The “Startup Meetup Lüneburg” is the regular meeting point for all startups, business angels, investors and startup supporters in the Lüneburg region as well as all interested parties from companies, science and society who want to network with the regional startup scene. The meeting in June was integrated into the Startup Port Community Day 2024 and thus offered all participants the opportunity to expand their network in and around Lüneburg.
Pitching arena
Another highlight and conclusion of the evening was the pitching arena, in which various startups presented a fascinating mix of innovation and business potential, which was honoured by the audience with thunderous applause.such as LightJoinSolutions and EV Metrix presented their visionary projects.
It was worth it: Visionaries successfully came together at the Startup Community Day
At our community event, we once again saw how small ideas can become big visions – and all of this at Leuphana, where innovation has always been at home. This day not only strengthened existing connections, but also created many new ones.
The Startup Port Community Day is more than just an event: the meeting of like-minded people is a movement that is dynamically shaping the regional startup landscape.
See you next time!
Whether you’re an experienced founder or just starting out on your journey, this day offers priceless insights and networking opportunities that can help you shape and drive your own entrepreneurship.
Until next time, stay innovative and network – the Startup Port Community Day awaits you and your ideas!
