Manufacturing Days – the First Start-up Festival for the Manufacturing Industry

From 10-12 May 2021, EIT Manufacturing CLC East hosted the Manufacturing Days as part of the ViennaUP’21 – the largest decentral start-up festival in Europe, organized by CLC East’s network partner, the Vienna Business Agency. During the three-day event, interested participants could join a diverse and rich program with keynote speeches, presentations, fireside chats, panel discussions and much more. The Manufacturing Days also hosted the first virtual Infineon Hackathon and the BoostUp! RIS – the annual Business Creation competition of EIT Manufacturing.

 As “one of the highlights of the ViennaUP’21” described the Executive City Councillor of Finance, Business, Labour, International Affairs and Vienna Public Utilities, Peter Hanke, the Manufacturing Days powered by EIT Manufacturing in the video message he sent to the audience of the Manufacturing Days. Two more video messages for the new Manufacturing festival were sent by the Austrian Federal Minister for Digital and Economic Affairs, Magarete Schramböck and the Austrian Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, Leonore Gewessler, pointing out the importance of the European manufacturing industry for both, economic growth and prosperity and sustainability and climate protection.

These days for and with start-ups in the manufacturing industry provided the audience with the latest insights and impulses in the European production sector. One of the highlights of the program was the first virtual hackathon Infineon and EIT Manufacturing CLC East had organized together. For 48 hours, the ten participating teams from nine countries hacked the latest Infineon technologies in four software and hardware tracks: Sound, 3D, Biosensing, and Circuit Design.

The Manufacturing Days also hosted this year’s EIT Manufacturing Business Creation competition – the BoostUp! RIS 2021. This edition was especially designed for participating teams from the so-called EIT RIS-eligible countries. Out of 57 application from 15 countries, eleven teams in the category ACCELERATE and five teams in the category CREATE were invited to pitch. The winning teams were awarded with dedicated growth packages provided by the EIT Manufacturing Business Creation team as well as cash prizes.

The three-day program was complemented by various sessions comprising keynote speeches, presentations, fireside chats, panel discussions and much more. Keynote speaker and author Tim Cole opened the Manufacturing Days, giving food for thought on the topic of “The future of making – making the future”. More than this, big corporates in the manufacturing industry “pitched” their start-up support programs to the entrepreneurial audience in the Reverse Corporate Pitches, representatives from Advantage Austria in London talked about doing business in the UK after the Brexit and experts discussed topics such as Intellectual Property, Life-long Learning & Continuous Education, Open Innovation, Additive Manufacturing, how to develop and scale advanced manufacturing technologies and how Makerspaces can help foster innovation.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Manufacturing Days were held fully virtual, being streamed out of the WEKA Industriemedien Studio in Vienna. More than 460 registered participants from 44 countries followed the event on the platform B2Match and demonstrated the importance of the manufacturing industry in Europe. With 85 confirmed 1:1 meetings, the participants used the opportunity to network and connect with other attendees.

The whole ViennaUP’21 in numbers:

  • 25.000 participants
  • 5.000 one-on-one meetings
  • Participants from 60 nations

Source: Vienna Business Agency

Watch the sessions of the Manufacturing Days again here

Watch the BoostUp! RIS again here