Alberta-Germany Matchmaking Symposia 2014

In preparation for the fourth Call for Proposals to the Alberta-Germany Collaboration Fund, Mr. Bernd Reuscher (President) and Dr. Katelyn Petersen (Manager) accompanied 12 Alberta SMEs to Germany for a series of matchmaking symposia in Munich, Stuttgart, and Düsseldorf from November 24 – 28, 2014. The goal of the Alberta-Germany Collaboration Fund is to promote bilateral entrepreneurial and research cooperation in joint technology and product development projects. Previous calls and currently funded projects continue to prove very successful.

Each individual event featured presentations on the Province of Alberta, the Alberta-Germany Collaboration Fund, and the funding available through the GCCIR’s German counterpart, the federal government’s Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (ZIM), which is managed by AiF Projekt GmbH. Keynote speeches were delivered by Dr. Wolfgang Hübschle (Executive Director, Invest in Bavaria), Dr. Jürgen Jähnert (CEO of Bw-Con GmbH), and Dr. Oliver Lehmkühler (Clustermanager, MedizinTechnik NRW) in Munich, Stuttgart, and Düsseldorf, respectively.

After the official program and company introductions, Albertan and German companies had the opportunity in each city to network with others in their sector in order to create new connections and strengthen existing ones through one-to-one discussions. The Albertan company representatives also had the opportunity to visit the Ayinger Brewery outside of Munich, the Daimler Museum in Stuttgart, and the Christmas markets in Stuttgart and Düsseldorf.

We would like to express our gratitude to our partner organizations in Germany that made it possible to bring everyone together. In Munich, we worked together with Dr. Christian Hackl (CEO of TUMTech) and the Alberta-Germany Office, in Stuttgart with Mr. Theo Schweiker and BW-International, the IHK, and the Steinbeis Europa Zentrum, and in Düsseldorf with Ms. Yvonne Denz and Ms. Cornelia Sarwas at the Canadian German Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

We are looking forward to receiving numerous applications following this series of matchmaking symposia and to working together with the Albertan companies and their German partners in the future.