For the first time in the history of EIT InnoEnergy, the annual trade fair for start-ups in sustainable energy that EIT InnoEnergy invests in is being held online. The theme of this eighth TBB, as The Business Booster is called by those in the know, is ‘Connect’. The event that would have taken place in Berlin this year cannot go ahead because of COVID-19,” says marketing manager Martijn Koerts of EIT InnoEnergy in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. So it was decided to let the participants get in contact with each other online.
The TBB will take place on November 4 and 5. The registration fee for participating in this event costs €150. Readers of Innovation Origins receive a 10% discount when they take part (see the discount code at the bottom of this article).
What can participants expect when they attend the online TBB? “The program includes 150 pitches from start-ups that we invest in,” Koerts says. These are companies that have already brought their product to the market or will do so in the near future.
Read what’s on The Business Booster 2020 agenda here.
The pitches are grouped by topic. There is a string of pitches from start-ups in sustainable mobility, such as the Hyperloop from the Delft-based company Hardt. There is a group with pitches from start-ups that specialize in converting waste into energy. Another category is start-ups that come up with solutions for municipalities that want to become greener. One example is Energy Floors, a company from Rotterdam that develops lighting floors and road surfaces with sensors for parking spaces where electric cars can also be recharged. There is a group with presentations of start-ups in energy storage, like the Brabant company Ecovat, and so on.
Meet with the CEOs of the start-ups
The great thing about the TBB is that you can speak to the CEOs of almost all companies that EIT InnoEnergy is investing in. There is time and space for that during the networking sessions. Participants can arrange an appointment in advance to speak to them,” Koerts adds.
This will be then done via a zoom-like session. This can be interesting for a digger machine manufacturer, for example, who wants to switch to electric-powered machinery. You can imagine that he wants to talk to CEO Taavi Madiberk at Skeleton, a manufacturer of ultra-capacitors that can charge and supply a huge amount of electricity in one go.”
Madiberk will also be one of the speakers. Last year he and his company won the first prize for their pitch. Not surprisingly, given that Skeleton is one of the future unicorns in EIT InnoEnergy’s investment portfolio.
Influential Americans will be speaking
Other high-flyers who are casting their eye on the rapidly changing society include Nobel Prize winners Steven Chu and Daniel Kammen. Chu was Secretary of State for Energy in the US government under Obama. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his physics research into cooling and capturing atoms with laser light. Last year at the TBB in Paris, he advocated a higher price for CO2 and a border tax for products made with high levels of CO2 emissions. This would aim to discourage emissions from industry and combat global warming. The question is what Chu’s message this year will be now that emissions of environmentally harmful substances have been drastically reduced under the global lockdown as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
Register here for The Business Booster 2020
Another hotshot that will appear on the TBB stage is the physicist Daniel Kammen. He coordinated the report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which led to the Paris Accord and he received the Nobel Prize for that. He has been tipped as the Secretary of State for Energy if Joe Biden wins the upcoming US election.
Use the discount code from Innovation Origins!
Therefore, with Kammen and Chu on stage, EIT InnoEnergy has two influential physicists presenting their views on the energy transition. The TBB is only accessible to participants who register. Readers of Innovation Origins will receive a 10% discount if they use this code: TBBVIP10off
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