STARTUP FESTIVAL (ANNUAL MEETING)
Experience a unique international short course with ISUL. Meet likeminded students from all over the world with an interest in entrepreneurship. Our startup festival offers a great opportunity to deep-dive into different startup ecosystem, to learn more about how to become a great entrepreneur and to connect with international students and professors. At the startup festival you become part of a great team right from day one. Through interactive elements and team challenges you can actively contribute to innovative ideas and learn invaluable skills for your future business endeavours.
The startup festival takes place annually at a different location
STARTUP FESTIVAL 2023
As part of the DAAD project “International Startup League”, the Startup Festival took place for the first time at Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences (HNU) from May 1 to 6. Among the participants were 77 students and 23 professors and staff members from various universities around the world.
“The idea that Jens Pätzmann, Klaus Lang and I had some time ago has finally become a reality – true to the motto “come as strangers and leave as friends”, we all got to experience internationalization together,” says Professor Dr. Daniel Schallmo.
In addition to networking, the professors gave guest lectures on the local startup ecosystems in their home countries, as well as on topics such as law, project management, team building, circular economy and social innovation.
HNU also introduced itself. After the official welcome by the International Startup League project team (Prof. Dr. Daniel Schallmo, Prof. Dr. Jens Pätzmann, Prof. Dr. Klaus Lang, Sarah Leible, Verena Mattes), as well as by Vice President Prof. Dr. Elmar Steurer, the presentation of the university by the International Office, a guided tour of the campus and a visit to HNU’s startup center, Founders Space, followed.
On Wednesday, various city tours of downtown Ulm with different focuses took place, planned and conducted by students of the HNU master’s program “Digital Transformation and Global Entrepreneurship”.
In the afternoon, participants had the chance to talk to numerous startups represented at the Startup Süd Summit at HNU. At more than 40 booths, regional and national startups introduced themselves and presented their business idea.
On the last two days, the students were allowed to get creative themselves.
Organized by the company PineBerry (founded by HNU alumni, among others), a hackathon took place in which students worked together in teams of 5-7 people to come up with solutions for two challenges. The first challenge dealt with the topic “Creation of a sustainability concept & B2B marketing strategy for European businesses”. For the second challenge the students had the task to develop a concept for a user interface. The task in this challenge was to use Artificial Intelligence like ChatGPT to support and partially automate time-consuming after-sales processes.
On the final day, students presented their solutions to their peers and the jury, which consisted of PineBerry co-founders Rebecca Bregant & Danny Friedrich, as well as professors in attendance.
One winning team was chosen per challenge and they received a great gift basket with gifts from PineBerry and the International Startup League. The final group photo shows the enthusiasm of everyone involved.
“All in all, the week was a great success for the International Startup League, and the goal – networking the international partner universities – worked out perfectly,” said Sarah Leible, who was responsible for the organization.
Startup Festival - Entrepreneurial Intensive Course May 2023 - Key Facts
Target group
International and local students, entrepreneurs, start-ups, professors and researchers in the field of entrepreneurship.
Date
01. – 06. May 2023 at University of Applied Sciences Neu-Ulm, Germany (Arrival on 1st May, departure on 6th May). Usual hours: 9.30am through 5pm. In advance, a Zoom meeting will be held on April 17, 2023 from 2 – 5 pm CET. In this meeting the participating students will get to know each other and receive a briefing for presentations to be prepared.
Concept
One week intensive course, incoming students have to apply and will be enrolled at HNU for the week.
ECTS
Students receive 3 ECTS for taking part, which can be used towards their degree
Educational units
One mandatory online meeting in advance (17th April), one week of teaching in Neu-Ulm in presence
Application
Deadline for internationals: 15th March 2023
Costs
Enrollment Fee: 94€. The HNU international office will contact all international participants in March with details about how to pay the enrollment fee.
Included
Lunch, drinks and materials used. The event budget comes from the Project ‘International Startup League’ (sponsored by DAAD).
Accommodation
You are responsible to organise and pay for your own travels and accommodation. We recommend to book a room at the B&B Hotel Neu-Ulm(opens in a new window) since it is located within a 10 minute walking distance of HNU and within a 4 minute walking distance of Neu-Ulm Central Station. You are however free to book any other hotel or accommodation as well.
Airports
The closest airports to Ulm are Memmingen (1 hour by bus and train), Stuttgart (80 minutes by train), Frankfurt (2 hours by train) and Munich (2 hours by train). From Ulm Central Station you can take a train to Neu-Ulm Central Station (3 minutes) or a bus (9 minutes). You can check train times and book train tickets here: https://www.bahn.com/en. The train station is Neu-Ulm is called “Neu-Ulm” and the bus stop at HNU is called “Hochschule Neu-Ulm”.
Health Insurance
Anyone attending from abroad has to prove their health insurance that covers their stay in Germany for the duration of the Startup Festival. The HNU International Office will contact international participants with further information on this topic in March 2023.
Participating Countries
Participants were from the following countries:
Shenkar College, Israel
Tel-Hai College, Israel
UCLL Leuven, Belgium
EPHEC Brussels, Belgium
Seneca College Toronto, Canada
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Kajaani University of Applied Sciences, Finland
University of West Attica Athens, Greece
FH Joanneum Graz, Austria
Comenius University Bratislava, Slovakia
University of Applied Sciences Neu-Ulm, Germany
Planned Activities for the Start-up Festival
Monday, 17th April
Kick-Off Meeting on Zoom from 2pm – 5pm CET. All the participants of the startup Festival will get to know each other and receive a briefing for a presentation they have to prepare. This date is a compulsory date. Zoom-Link for the meeting: https://hs-neu-ulm.zoom.us/j/7625728748
Monday, 1st May
- Arrival and check-in at your accommodation
- 18:00: Optional: Initial Meeting of all partners and get-together in the evening at the Innovation Space (John-F.-Kennedy-Straße 7, 89231 Neu-Ulm) with Pizza. Please note that this is a bank holiday in Germany so all shops will be closed.
Tuesday, 2nd May
Location: Innovation Space, John-F.-Kennedy-Straße 7, 89231 Neu-Ulm
- 08:30: Walk-In and Coffee/Tea
- 08:45 – 09:00: Welcome by the ISUL Team (Daniel Schallmo, Jens Pätzmann, Klaus Lang, Verena Mattes and Sarah Leible)
- 09:00 – 09:15: Welcome by Dr. Elmar Steurer, Vice President for Internationalisation at HNU
- 09:20 – 10:00: Welcome Games (Introduction and getting to know each other)
- 10:00 – 10:30: Presentation by the HNU International Office about our university
- 10:30 – 11:00: Welcome Games
- 11:10 – 12:00: Lecture about the “Start-up entrepreneurship and the ecosystem in Oamk and Finland” by Katta Siltavirta (OAMK, Finland)
- 12:00 – 13:00: Lunchbreak
- 13:00 – 13:30: Lecture on “Israel as a Startup Nation” by Dr. Eran Kaufman and Dr. Yigal Hoffner (Shenkar College, Israel)
- 13:45 – 14:30: Workshop “How to support teambuilding in projects” by Tanja Hatzl-Schönbacher (FH Joanneum, Austria)
- 14:30 – 15:15: Tour of the HNU Founders Space
- 15:30 – 17:00: Workshop on “Circular Economy” by Caroline Lovens and Charlotte Mikolajczak (EPHEC, Belgium)
Optional in the Evening:
- Evening program for the students in Ulm (organised by HNU students, dinner will be self-paid by everyone)
- Joint dinner for the lecturers, professors and staff members at Restaurant Buonissimo in Neu-Ulm
Wednesday, 3rd May
- 09:00: Meet at Tourist Information Ulm at Münsterplatz 50, 89073 Ulm
- 09:00 – 11:00: City Game/Tour in Ulm in internationally mixed teams (organised by HNU students), after that bus ride or walk to HNU
- Location: Main Building HNU, Wileystraße 1, 89231 Neu-Ulm:
- (13:00 – 19:00: Start-up Süd Summit @ HNU (local conference of Start-ups, investors, companies, students and researchers))
- 12:00 – 13:30: Time to explore Startup Süd Summit and have Lunch
- Location: Lecture Hall C, Main Building HNU, Wileystraße 1, 89231 Neu-Ulm:
- 13:30 – 14:00: Lecture on “Canada’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem” by Judy Wong (Seneca College Toronto, Canada)
- 14:00 – 14:30: Lecture on “The entrepreneurial legal ecosystem” by Dr. Hila Nevo (Tel-Hai College, Israel)
- 14:30 – 15:00: Lecture “Contemporary Business Ecosystems. Strategy, Innovation and Sustainability” by Faidon Komisopoulos (UniWA, Greece)
- 15:10 – 16:00: Lecture on “Aspects of self-management / self-leadership” by Tanja Hatzl-Schönbacher (FH Joanneum, Austria)
- 16:15 – 17:00: Lecture on “Social Innovation and Social Startups” by professor Roman Grinblat (DHBW Heidenheim (Cooperative State University)
Thursday, 4th May
Location: Innovation Space, John-F.-Kennedy-Straße 7, 89231 Neu-Ulm
- 08:30 – 09:00: Walk-In and Coffee/Tea
- 09:00 – 09:45: Lecture on “Archetypical Roles in Startups” by Vanessa Miller (HNU)
- 10:00 – 17:00: International Hackathon on sustainable entrepreneurship hosted by local Startup ‘PineBerry’
- Student Teams will be mixed internationally and will work on a chosen topic for 1.5 days
- 14:00 – 16:00: For the professors: round table on “Teaching entrepreneurship” to share teaching formats, best practices and new ideas (in Room E5.1.09, Edisonallee 5
Friday, 5th May
Location: Innovation Space, John-F.-Kennedy-Straße 7, 89231 Neu-Ulm
- 09:00 – 12:00: Continuation of the Hackathon on sustainable entrepreneurship
- 13:00 – 16:00: Presentation of the results of the Hackathon (counts as the examination for this week) in Lecture Hall A (main building HNU)
- 17:00 – 21:00: Farewell Party at Innovation Space
Saturday, 6th May
- International Breakfast and Farewell (Optional, will be self-paid by everyone)
- Departure
Please note that this is the provisional program. Programming subject to change.
Contact & Registration
The application deadline for internationals was on 15th March 2023.
The internal deadline for students from HNU is 15th April 2023.
For questions and further information please contact Sarah Leible at sarah[dot]leible[at]hnu[dot]de