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Northern Connections, Living Lab Event

The Living lab Event with SE created great opportunities for innovative SMEs from across Europe.

It was great to see the commitment and professionalism from SE -and it was also great to see the screened companies’ commitment and enthusiasm, when pitching their projects. The selected SMEs were given a unique opportunity to present their technologies.

I am excited to follow the development of the potential collaborations that were spurred during this event – and furthermore, I am positively sure that this event has facilitated the start of innovative collaborations,” says Maria Skotte, who is representing Scale-Up NSR and Head of Department, Environment and Smart City at CLEAN Cluster.

The first Living Lab Event was a success!

On the 7th of November 2018, Northern Connections together with Scale-Up NSR had the pleasure of welcoming eight screened companies at Syd Energi in Esbjerg, Denmark. This was the first of the eight Living Lab Events in Northern Connections project period.

The SE company (Syd Energi), which is one of Denmark’s largest modern energy and telecommunications companies, was the focus point on 7 November 2018, when Northern Connections together with Scale-Up NSR had the opportunity to welcome eight screened companies.

During the Living Lab Event at Syd Energi in Esbjerg, Denmark – the eight companies had the great opportunity to present their ideas, technologies or methodologies to the SE company towards creating new partnerships. The ideas were all within the fields of Smart Home, Sensor Technology or More Green Behaviour. The presentations were made through a meet-the-partner meeting, where every company had 25 minutes to present in front of the representatives from the SE company.

The representatives from the SE company was Lisbeth Valther, CEO at Syd Energi, SE Next Step, Delaksan Kulasingam, Project Manager at SE and Søren Røn, Development and Program Director for SE Next Step Challenges.

Syd Energi welcomes the participating innovators

At the beginning of the day, Lisbeth Valther welcomed the companies and the several partners from the different projects. Afterwards, she introduced the SE company and talked about their business areas, the external factors that are influencing their industries and their initiatives. Additionally, her presentation was also about, how our homes have become smarter and how the SE company wants to work towards internally focused innovation with a focus on agile development.

A full programme with guest speakers, matchmaking and knowledge sharing

While the companies were presenting in front of the representatives from the SE company, the programme was filled up with guest speakers and matchmaking to add value to our Living Lab Event and the participants. Leon Aahave Uhd, Chief Project Manager at CLEAN Cluster, was the first speaker at the Living Lab Event, where he presented the Northern Connections project and CLEAN Cluster, who is a partner within the Northern Connections project.

Additional challenges were afterwards presented, where the search for new tech partners began – this was within Vejle Nord (DK), which was presented by Charlotte Darre, Project Manager at CLEAN Cluster, and within Fossil Free Energy Districts (S), presented by Lars Bern, Area Manager Innovation at Business Region Gothenburg.

Furthermore, Aija K. Azadi, International Project Consultant at Enterprise Europe Network, introduced the Enterprise Europe Network, which is the world largest support network for SME’s with international ambitions, and she also presented the H2020 – the funding possibilities and finding the solutions together. The last guest presenter was Steffen Petersen, Associate Professor at Aarhus University. His purpose was to present knowledge about smart homes of the future – barriers and possibilities and the role of the homes in the future energy system.

It’s a wrap

When the day was drawing towards an end, the participants at the Living Lab Event at Syd Energi have had a day with a full programme, filled with guest speakers and presentations, but also time to network, matchmake and share knowledge with each other. After the meetings had come to an end, Lisbeth Valther wrapped up the day by thanking all the companies and project partners for attending at this important day in the search for new partnerships. On behalf of the SE company, she expressed that she was thrilled that so many innovative companies wanted to attend and additionally, that they could not have been happier with the event and that it had exceeded their expectations.

“The Living lab Event with SE created great opportunities for innovative SMEs from across Europe. It was great to see the commitment and professionalism from SE -and it was also great to see the screened companies’ commitment and enthusiasm, when pitching their projects. The selected SMEs were given a unique opportunity to present their technologies. I am excited to follow the development of the potential collaborations that were spurred during this event – and furthermore, I am positively sure that this event has facilitated the start of innovative collaborations,” says Maria Skotte, who is representing Scale-Up NSR and Head of Department, Environment and Smart City at CLEAN Cluster.

Northern Connections, Scale-Up NSR and Syd Energi want to thank Enterprise Europe Enterprise Network, Renewable Energy Hamburg, arbnco, ReMoni, Business Region Gothenburg, KMD, SE, Innovatum AB, Carbon Cash, Neogrid Technologies ApS, Fischer Lighting, Raybased AB, UNStudio, Scottish Enterprise, Dlaboratory Sweden AB, CLEAN Cluster, Aarhus University & House of Energy for participating in our first Living Lab Event at South Energy. We hope you had a great day!

 

Read more about developments within Energy Efficient Technologies →

Innovator Video Testimonials

At the Living Lab Event at Syd Energi, Northern Connections and Scale-Up NSR had selected eight companies, which could potentially form new partnerships with Syd Energi. All the participating innovators was exciting to meet and pitch in front of the representatives from Syd Energi.

At the Living Lab Event at Syd Energi in Esbjerg, Denmark – Northern Connections and Scale-Up NSR had to opportunity to interview several of the participating innovators in order to get their take on the meet-the-buyer meeting and the Living Lab concept.

Interviews 
Our first interview was with Marisa Cortright, who was from UNStudio in the Netherlands. The UNStudio is an architecture company that is based on strategic research design and working with methodologies of outcome-based buildings. The UNStudio and Marisa Courtright states this about coming to visit Syd Energi with their solutions – Watch video HERE.

Our second interview was with Parag Rastogi, who was representing Carbon Cash and arbnco. Carbon Cash and arbnco is based in Scotland. They develop human centric technology. Hear more about the company and their outputs of the day at Syd Energi – Watch video HERE.

Our third and last interview was with Jens Kirkegaard and Fischer Lighting. Fischer Lighting is a Danish company that works with lighting units. Hear more about their meet-the-buyer meeting with Syd Energi and their outputs of the day  – Watch video HERE.

Watch Leon Aahave Uhd presenting our Living Lab Event at Syd Energi HERE.