Knowledge and technology transfer are not exactly the kinds of topics that get the emotions going – all those complex technical drawings, barely comprehensible formulae, and labyrinthine industrial machinery. But without the enthusiasm and passion of the people behind transfer – without the employees and entrepreneurs – transfer would not be possible in the first place. Steinbeis has dared to take a new angle on this aspect in a short film called Early Birds.
The 2-minute movie revolves around the ideas, visions, and entrepreneurial spirit of the younger generations in a lighthearted depiction of everything that Steinbeis stands for: turning imagination and ideas into a reality, transferring knowledge into actual products and services, helping people and companies. The fact that this model works is underscored everyday by more than 1,000 Steinbeis Enterprises.
The movie premiered at this year’s Steinbeis Evening in the Liederhalle convention center in Stuttgart. Early Birds has also already made it into social media and can be viewed on the Steinbeis website.
Ende Juni luden das Steinbeis-Transfer-Institut Akademie für Mediation, Soziales und Recht der Steinbeis-Hochschule Berlin und das Steinbeis-Beratungszentrum Wirtschaftsmediation zum „Leipziger Mediationsforum – Die Steinbeis-Tage“ nach Leipzig ein. Im Mittelpunkt der Veranstaltung stand Mediation als Grundlage einer jeden gelungenen zwischenmenschlichen Interaktion.
The Academy for Mediation, Social Aspects, and Law, a Steinbeis Transfer Institute at Steinbeis University Berlin, joined forces with Mediation for Business, the Steinbeis Consulting Center, to organize the Leipzig Mediation Forum – Steinbeis Days. The event took place in Leipzig at the end of June and the main focus lay in mediation as a foundation for all successful interpersonal interaction.
The day included a variety of talks, seminars, and workshops to allow around 400 participants to discuss topics such as expressing personal opinions as a mediator, the special demands of individual groups undergoing mediation, sexual harassment at the workplace, and mediation in public areas. Two courses, one on dealing with conflict within organizations and the other on conflict management and systems design, proved to be particularly popular with participants.
Dr. Gernot Barth, director of the Academy of Mediation, Social Aspects, and Law (STI), is quite pleased with how the event went: “I’m delighted that so many mediators and such a large number of conflict management experts made their way to us. This made an important difference in the variety of the discussion. Our aim for next year is to expand on the number of participants and establish ourselves as a regular event in Germany for exchanging opinions on conflict management.”
A particular highlight at the event was a discussion about soccer at the traditional Leipzig restaurant Bayerischer Bahnhof. Speaking before an enthusiastic audience, Frank Aehlig (sports coordinator of second division club RB Leipzig) joined Guido Schäfer (chief reporter of the newspaper Leipziger Volkszeitung and former player for 1 FSV Mainz 05), the attorney Friedbert Striewe (the insolvency administrator of VfB Leipzig) and the host for the day Dr. Gernot Barth to talk about conflict in the world of soccer. The day finished in a congenial atmosphere with a summer party.
The MuT Business Award was bestowed in southern Thuringia for the eleventh time in 2015. The award honors individuals and companies that help secure the future of the southern Thuringian economy. The Ilmenau-based enterprise Steinbeis Qualitätssicherung und Bildverarbeitung GmbH (Steinbeis quality assurance and image processing) was one of the 10 finalists.
The MuT Business Award is an initiative coordinated by the South Thuringia Chamber of Crafts, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in southern Thuringia, three local newspapers – Freies Wort, Südthüringer Zeitung, and FW Meininger Tageblatt – and the Thüringer Wald regional marketing association. The aim of the award is to reward exceptional instances of entrepreneurship. The assessment criteria for the award include financial success in combination with a discernible focus on local interests, the implementation of innovation while preserving local traditions, creating employment opportunities whilst also offering fair working conditions, a particular focus on training and employee development, and improvements in raw material and resource efficiency.
The Ilmenau-based Steinbeis enterprise for quality assurance and image processing was nominated by last year’s winner Goldbeck and finished in the top 10. Work at the enterprise focuses on contractual research and development, production, and consulting in the field of quality management. This includes the development and production of innovative measurement and checking systems used in contactless precision measurement and visual inspection, the development of user-based programs, and software components for individual or universal applications. The enterprise is also involved in continuing professional development and collaborates with three other companies in the region as co-sponsor of the professorial chair for Industrial Image Processing at Ilmenau University of Technology.
The fourth Products Seek Producers concept utilization trade show took place at Aalen University on October 16, 2015. This time the emphasis lay on products, processes, and services with a bearing on surface technology and new materials.
Products seek Producers (PsP) is an innovative event that provides a platform for new products and processes in various fields of technology, which are all presented under one roof. The format of the event allows developers to bring patented ideas into direct contact with possible collaboration partners, producers, and sales partners. It is also a vehicle for rapid technology transfer revolving around business practice. Suppliers and producers can be introduced directly to one another and visitors to the show gain insights into current technological developments in a specific field.
As in the past, the event in Aalen was a complete success. “PsP is the ideal platform for sharing ideas, marketing, and forging networks with inventors. What I find special about the show is the particular way exhibitors network amongst one another. Only minutes after the exhibition has started people are already engaged in excited conversation at the booths. I’m pleased that the brand and the format of PsP has established itself so well,” says Claus Paal, member of the regional state parliament and one of the trade show initiators. Exhibitors also described the event as a success: “Once again, PsP was extremely interesting and I was particularly pleased to find a former customer, to whom I provided my consulting services, appearing here as an exhibitor,” says Konrad Roth, director of the Steinbeis Consulting Center for Corporate Development and Social Space Planning. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Ehrhardt MBA, managing director of the innovation center and operating company at the University of Applied Sciences in Aalen (Innovationszentrum an der Hochschule Aalen Betreibergesellschaft GmbH) says that he felt, as a trade show for inventors and people using technology, it was an important addition and enrichment to existing trade shows. He also finds it a unique chance to get in touch with lots of other inventors and business founders, and that this is extremely helpful and useful. Preparations are already underway for further PsP shows in 2016.
The Steinbeis app was introduced in September for iOs (through the App Store) and Android users (Google Play Store). The app is free.
The idea for the new Steinbeis app is to offer users a way to access the current Steinbeis website from anywhere and at any time, in a format that matches their mobile end device. Now it is possible to search for a Steinbeis Enterprise or information on head office events, read articles from many past editions of TRANSFER, or stream the many excerpts in our Steinbeis media library while on the go.