Dear guest!
Yesterday evening, October 19, 2023, it was time for another Berg-Pitch – the 13th to be exact – and it was a blast! The wonderful Luisa Skrabic moderated this unique event, and the stage at codecentric AG in Solingen was filled with excitement, passion, innovation, drinks & food, and rap music!
Although it started raining on my arrival at the outstanding headquarters of the well-known IT company the warm welcome from the team of the organiser, Solingen.Business (the Wirtschaftsförderung of the city) and a cool drink before the start of the event in the nicely designed entrance hall put the guests in the right mood.
After introducing words by head mayor Tim Kurzbach, this time online, Frank Balkenhol (CEO of Solingen.Business) and a few information about the event by Luisa the stage was opened for the following five startups and their 6-minute pitches (and 6-minute Q&A-Sessions):
- saasmetrix,
- victorioso nutrition,
- Repair Rebels,
- MANSIO, and
- Innovative Robot Delivery.
And they all did a great job: The speakers, founders, and/or CEOs, showed their passion and commitment for their various products and services in well structured presentations.
The first speaker Marcel Banmann from saasmetrix GmbH offered a tricky and complete integration for several cloud-based Tools used by employees (like Slack), while Pablo Klüppelberg and Ben Decker from victorioso nutrition UG presented a fast performance-revovery and keeping method (so called “pouches” that you put in your mouth) for top athletes in team sports such as football and basketball – with future offerings for amateur athletes and high performance jobs as well. The third presentation did Dr. Monika Hauck from Repair Rebels GmbH, which has built an online platform to connect customers with fashion and clothing repair needs (the startup’s primary focuses at this time) with local craftspeople like tailors.
After a break for drinks and talks between guests, we saw a revolutionary system from MANSIO GmbH for saving resources in the transport of goods by trucks presetented by Maik Schürmeyer – And an equally smart solution by Innovative Robot Delivery GmbH for the sending of parcels and saving on packaging brought to us by Boris Meyer.
The event was a highly professional in every way, from the organisation to the speakers to the closing with delicious wraps and a very wide range of drinks.
And that was not just it! Even though the audience was already cheered up, Amiaz Habtu topped it with his new rap songs and the start of his singing career. The moderator of the German TV start-up Show “Die Höhle der Löwen” (The Cave of the Lions) unleashed the emotions of the audience with his singing and acting, getting right into heart of the crowd.
In his keynote and interview with Luisa, Amiaz told us about his roots and the beginning of his TV career, as well as the challenges and obstacles along the way. He also involved the audience by asking and answering some questions about his new role as a musician (which surprisingly included me too, as he wanted to know if I had understood his rap lyrics; see the the link to the video of the live stream for the whole event below).
Finally it was then time to announce the winners of the Berg-Pitch Competition, as voted for by a panel of judges and participants online or via the app. It was a difficult decision, as all the candidates made a lasting impression with their fine products and services. But since only one could win, the choice was made and Repair Rebels took the 4,000 Euro prize home.
Besides all of that I also enjoyed my talks with the interesting people I met and talked to at my seat, during the break and the get-together afterwards very much. Thank you!
A big applaus to those who made this great event possible: Phil Derichs and his team from Solingen.Business, codecentric AG for their hospitality, the judges for their work, and the support of several local sponsers – interestingly with fourtexx GmbH one from the HR Tech industry. We thank all of them deeply!
And as with the Olympics, so with this special 13th edition of the Berg-Pitch: It was important to be there. We look forward to the next Berg-Pitch, but the bar is now set pretty high.
Have a good day and all the best,
Stefan Klemens
PS: Want to exchange ideas on people analytics, digital assessment or artificial intelligence in HRM? Then network, write a message and/or make an appointment for an online meeting. Or the classic way: phone call.
And: You like my work and the content I regularly share? Then I’m happy about a Like or comment on LinkedIn. Thank you! ? ?♂️?
PS 1: Special thanks (just to name a few) to Phil Derichs & Jade Steffens and the Berg-Pitch team, Luisa Skrabic, Lars Rückemann, Frank Balkenhol, Amiaz Habtu, the eight judges: Georgis Tesamariam, Petra Mück, David Viehweger, Christian Kern, Stefanie Pies, Sebastian Oremek, Kim Armbrüster, Samy Dahmas), the startup-speakers: Marcel Banmann, Pablo Klüppelberg & Ben Decker, Dr. Monika Hauck, Maik Schürmeyer, and Boris Mayer.
PS 2: Here the link to the stream (credits to Lars Rückemann for posting it on LinkedIn): https://lnkd.in/e4T857_N