Bringing together what at first glance might not necessarily belong together — under this premise, Munich Startup has been organizing the event together with the Chamber of Crafts for Munich and Upper Bavaria for three years now. “Startup meets craftsmanship”Continuing in this direction — but with a more specialized focus — "Space meets Handwerk" took place for the first time, a B2B speed dating event between startups from ESA BIC Bavaria and professionals from the trades.
Dates can be awkward, especially when both parties realize after a short time that it's not a good fit. A (speed) dating event can therefore only be successful if the organizers ensure in advance that the participants at the table are at least highly likely to be compatible.
This is what happened at the beginning of November at the Munich Chamber of Crafts. Under the title "Space meets Crafts," the first B2B speed dating event between startups and professionals from the craft sector took place. The idea for this experiment came from the Munich Chamber of Crafts in cooperation with the Incubator of ESA (ESA BIC Bavaria) and the Application Center GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen, AZO for short.
On the startup side, Kewazo, Isar Aerospace Technologies, Quantum Systems, Stecnius, Tq-Systems and Vectorflow participated in the event. The skilled trades were represented by Captron Electronic, Avantgarde Technologie, Schröter Modell- und Formenbau, Peter Feckl Maschinenbau, Gewo Feinmechanik, and Hagl.
Manufacturing and development partner for startups
"Space meets Handwerk" was conceived as a workshop where the startups were not meant to be the focus of attention as problem solvers for the skilled trades. Rather, the participating skilled trades companies were able to present their services to the founders as competent manufacturing and development partners.
The six startups from the AZO and the six skilled trades companies from Upper Bavaria, each specializing in their field, were each given five minutes to present their service portfolios. The actual speed dating session then took place. Each startup spoke with each skilled trades entrepreneur for ten minutes. The intense conversations that ensued suggested anything but "bad dates."
Repetition very likely
The organizers also expressed their satisfaction. Dr. Hartwig von Bülow, Head of the Innovation Department of the Munich Chamber of Crafts and Trades, following the event:
"I particularly liked that even after the speed dating and the official part, the networking between startups and tradespeople continued long afterward. This shows that there is mutual interest."
Due to the consistently positive response from all participants, the format will most likely be repeated in 2019.
Interested startups can now contact Georg Raess, technology and innovation consultant of the Munich Chamber of Crafts.
