Recap: SmartX Regional Event Germany
Welcome Note at the virtual German-language SmartX event by moderator Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Dipl.-Ing. Meike Tilebein (DITF)
The German SmartX Dissemination Event was held on March 22nd, 2022 as a half-day online session that was moderated by Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Dipl.-Ing. Meike Tilebein, leading the Management Research Center at the German Institutes for Textile and Fibre Research Denkendorf (DITF).
During the event, seven successful smart textile projects from the German-speaking region, funded and coached by SmartX, presented their results to an audience of 38 participants.
Project Coordinator Lutz Walter (Textile ETP) gave an overview of the project’s goals and future steps
Lutz Walter, Secretary General at the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles & Clothing and Project Coordinator of SmartX, gave a welcome speech and presented the past and future activities of SmartX – European Smart Textilex Accelerator.
Mr. Walter’s speech was followed by selected Expert Talks on the topics of investment, medicine and market uptake that were specifically directed to the participating SMEs of the event, giving them further support, guidance, and market insights.
Investment Readiness expert Erdinç Koç (MediaTech Hub Accelerator) presenting a Keynote on his Startup Masterclasses about ‘Venture Capital Fundraising’
First up was the expert talk on Investment Readiness by guest speaker Erdinç Koç, Head of the MediaTech Hub Accelerator at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute Potsdam. From the different fundraising stages to the fundraising process, Mr. Erdinç highlighted the need for one’s own investors database with a minimum of 50-100 investors listed, which should be prioritised by relevance to one’s business needs. These investors should be approached in waives and, if possible, by personal introductions from i.e. current investors, angels, friends, or other entrepreneurs.
E-Textiles Specialist Carsten Linti (DITF) presenting a Keynote on ‘Smart Textiles 4 Medical Application’
Afterwards, insights about E-Textiles in the Medical Health Sector were given by Carsten Linti, Head of Technology Centre Biomedical Engineering at the DITF. He showed that smart textiles are a valuable choice for the development of medical, health, as well as protection and sports applications, because of the tradition that nearly 100% of the human body is covert 24 hours a day by people for all societies. In addition, Mr. Linti gave several examples of smart textile solutions using textile electrodes and fiber-based sensors in the fields of health, protection, and sports.
Smart Medical Textiles Specialist Joana Schiller (KOB GmbH) presenting a Keynote on ‘KOB’s activities & research projects on Smart textiles’
Following Mr. Linti’s presentation, Joana Schiller, Smart Medical Textiles Specialist at KOB GmbH, gave an overview of KOB’s activities, research projects, and general trends in the Smart Medical Textiles sector. A definition of wearables in general and one specifically on medical wearables – which have to be categorized as a medical device, if the data collected by the medical wearable is used for the investigation of physiological processes – were shared by Ms. Schiller. Interestingly, the end consumer spending for (medical) wearables has experienced a great growth since the beginning of the pandemic.
Senior Project Manager Matthieu Grosjean (Steinbeis Europa Zentrum) presenting a Keynote on ‘Market Uptake’
The last of the Expert Talks focused on Market Uptakes and was held by SmartX project partner Matthieu Grosjean, who is Senior Project Manager at Steinbeis Europa Zentrum. After reviewing the different elements related to market uptake in the Business Model Canvas, Mr. Grosjean gave an overview of the different usual market uptake tools (Marketing Mix 4Ps/7Ps, which are the main questions to be answered). Then he stressed the importance of developing a sound roadmap concerning the planning of market uptake and the importance of monitoring product cycles to start early enough with the next product development and maintain liquidity.
During the second part of this event, we saw excellent presentations of the seven SmartX-supported projects, led by or developed with partners from Germany.
Presentation overview of the 7 German-speaking SmartX-funded projects
Project presentations of the seven German-speaking projects:
- Smart Bandage MoCa-Ba presented by Maximilian Maier from Kinfinity UG, Germany
- ECG Textile Carrier presented by José Näf from Nahtlos AG, Switzerland
- SenseGloveNova presented by Jörg Bunselmeyer from Select Fashion, Germany
- MatScale -Sensor system for smart mattresses presented by Alexander Kirch from Incoretex GmbH, Germany
- SmartCare Textile presented by Katrin Fröis from Texible Gmbh, Austria
- RVheat: Hands-free Heating System for RVs presented by Markus Flechsing from Embro GmbH, Germany
- Integrated EAP Sensor presented by Kay Ullrich from imbut GmbH, Germany.
Further Information about the funded projects can be found in the Showcase Rroom on our website.
Overview of the wonder.me set-up of the networking space for the 7 German-speaking SmartX-funded projects and experts
The event closed with a joint matchmaking session on a virtual platform, where the participants took the opportunity to get in direct contact with SmartX partners, SmartX projects, and experts from the Expert Talks.
Join SmartX to connect with the SmartX Community (over 800 European smart textile professionals) and stay up to date on future events.
This event was organised by Sqetch by Sourcebook GmbH, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum and the German Institutes for Textile and Fibre Research Denkendorf (DITF) in collaboration with SmartX and Textile ETP.