North Rhine-Westphalia goes Innovation: Israel

15TA developed a new way of selling and buying a used car hassle frew within minutes nationwide.

Aptiv is a global technology company that develops safer, greener and more connected solutions that enable the future of mobility. Aptiv is serving a diverse array of global customers, including automotive customers, as well as a growing list of technology customers and emerging new mobility players.

Aptiv's advanced technology solutions continue to help the world get closer to zero fatalities, zero emissions and seamless connectivity. Aptiv’s engineering teams continue to develop new market-relevant technologies that enable new mobility solutions, while at the same time, aggressively expanding the capabilities in software development, system integration and data analytics.

In Germany, Aptiv’s German headquarter and one of its major Customer Technology Center are based in the heart of the Federal State North Rhine-Westphalia at Wuppertal, where several global, European and national management and engineering and advanced engineering functions are located as well.

Visit aptiv.com.

The ASW North Rhine-Westphalia - Association for Security in Industry and Commerce North Rhine-Westphalia e.V. provides a cross-industry platform for an exchange of information on security-related challenges of the private sector. Through a comprehensive portfolio of services, the association promotes crime prevention. Its members include large corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises as well as companies in the security industry. The association is a member of the public-private partnership "security partnership NRW against industrial espionage and economic crime" together with the state ministries of the interior and the economy as well as the IHK NRW.

The region Wuppertal-Solingen-Remscheid - represented by Bergische Struktur- und Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft mbH - has become a hotspot for Germany's automotive sector, thanks to the region`s unique cluster of automotive companies, start-ups and R&D departments. Companies based in – so called – “Bergisch Triangle” are the driving force behind the transformation towards a concept of new mobility.

Christine Volkmann is head of the Chair of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development and the UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship and Intercultural Management at University of Wuppertal. Since 2008 she is also director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovations Research and chairwoman of the interdisciplinary Jackstädt Research Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation whose foundation she initiated in 2011. From 1999 to 2008 she was Professor at Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, where she was awarded the “UNESCO Chair of Entrepreneurship and Intercultural Management” in 2005. She is a renowned member of the national and international scientific entrepreneurship community, e.g. as a former member of the EFER scientific advisory board and currently as a jury member of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award. She has worked as an advisor for various EU-organisations and is committed to several foundations, including the German Academic Scholarship Foundation.

The German Startups Association was founded in 2012 and is the representative of startups in Germany. Our unique bottom up approach is reflected in all that we do. Headquartered in Berlin with fourteen regional representations, we are constantly growing. Bringing together more than 1000 startups from various sectors and in all stages and over 50 corporate members and business angels to create synergies between old and new economy. It is our aim to advise on legislation, connect founders, startups, and investors to create a broad network within an entrepreneurial friendly environment. By fostering these relationships, the German Startups Association builds bridges between global startup hubs, nations and continents. We undertake research both on a national and international level to create much needed evidence for the importance of startups and foster active international exchange with startup tours to New York, Tel Aviv and the Silicon Valley.

The Business Metropole Ruhr GmbH (BMR) develops and markets the Ruhr metropolitan area as an economic region. It bundles the economic interests of the 53 towns and cities in the area. The goal is to enhance the competitiveness of the Ruhr region. This includes implementing and continuously evolving an overall economic strategy for the Ruhr metropolitan area as well as promoting the image of the area as a high-performing and innovative region, both nationally and internationally.

CECONOMY AG is the leading European platform for companies, concepts and brands in the field of consumer electronics. As the world is becoming steadily more digital, CECONOMY with it' s multi-channel approach offers solutions that make everyday life easier for customers.

Since 2014 Christian Vogt is responsible for Corporate Security and Group Privacy within the CLAAS Group.

After graduating he worked for a Federal Security Authority, both nationally and internationally with high professional qualification. He was involved also in projects for European Security Authorities.

He was participant of the educational maincourse of the Central European Police Academy (MEPA).

Since his change to the private sector he exclusively has been working for Family Owned Companies in managing the "Corporate Security".

In voluntary commitment he works for many years within the Association "Allianz für die Sicherheit der Wirtschaft ASW".

Currently he is committed as Chairman of the board of ASW NRW and member of the board of ASW in the federal structure.

Dialego AG is an accelerator for global market success. We help companies to involve customers and thus to have more market success. Blue chips like Bayer and medium-sized companies such as Ritter Sport value the company for its expertise in innovation, branding and digitalization. Using proprietary methods of artificial intelligence, many years of market research expertise, 8,000 benchmarks and our own panels, we ensure an in-depth understanding of data, customer needs and the connection between market and company.

Additional services include Urban Design Thinking. We help municipalities to involve their citizens and thus make cities more liveable. The company developed the planning table revrt.ai, which allows to co-create cities on animated maps. The company has two patents (one granted, one pending) and has been awarded with several prizes for its innovative strengths over the past 20 years.

We are a global legal business, transforming legal services through our people for our clients. Led by Managing Partner & CEO Andrew Leaitherland, we are delivering services and solutions that go beyond expectations.

We operate through the same sectors as our clients, so we can identify challenges and find solutions to the legal problems they face. Our core sector groups include Energy & Industrials, Financial Services, Insurance, Public Sector, Real Estate, Retail, Food & Hospitality, Technology and Transport.

We have 27 offices and more than 1,500 lawyers across the world and are proud to offer clients our direct support from, e.g. Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Republic of Ireland, Singapore, the United Kingdom or the United States.

Prof. Müller is Lead Scientist for Data Science at Fraunhofer Institute IAIS and head of then new chair for Data Science and Engineering (http://data.bit.uni-bonn.de/) at University of Bonn. Before he was full professor at Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam (2015-2018), independent research group leader at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (2010-2015), and Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Antwerp (2012-2015). He received his Diploma (2007) and his PhD (2010) from RWTH Aachen University.

His research interests cover knowledge discovery, data mining, big data, and data exploration for graph data, time series, and data streams. He is leading open-source data science projects, has organized tutorials and workshops, and edited a special issue for the Machine Learning Journal. In the past few years, he has coordinated Data Science education programmes: One on the level of university education (M.Sc.), two graduate schools (PhD) and multiple executive education programmes for industry.

AHK Israel is officially registered as the 'German-Israeli Chamber of Industry & Commerce'. It was founded in 1967 and is a business to business organisation of numerous Israeli and German member firms. The Chamber's commercial services help an array of companies each year to start and expand their export activities by providing business contacts, information and advice. Within AHK the NRW Cooperation and Technology Scout functions as a focal point for NRW related issues such as technology scouting, market entry support, relocation matters or general counselling regarding both markets.

We are an international law firm specializing in commercial law.

We represent and advise mainly entrepreneurs and their companies, as well as agencies, start-ups associations, foundations, cities / municipalities, universities, trade unions and works councils. Our clients in the entrepreneurial field use our expertise in all business law issues, with focus on IT-law, IP-aw and dataprotection law. Since our clients belong to the most varied and innovative sectors of the economy, we are familiar with the specifics and challenges of numerous branches of industry. We offer our clients professional and practice-oriented advice by specialized lawyers and certified lawyers. Our experience has shown that in order to achieve an economically successful solution to a legal dispute, it is necessary to review all aspects of a case.

security essen is the world‘s most important trade fair for civil security. The world market for security is booming – it is presenting itself with more than 950 exhibitors every two years in Essen. From cyber security, access systems, and CCTV to perimeter protection: here you get an overview of the latest innovations across all areas of security including smart building and smart home.

NRW.International coordinates the promotion of foreign trade in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). In particular, it supports SMEs in the development of important growth markets worldwide. In close coordination with its partners NRW.International provides a variety of measures tailored to the companies‘ needs: It is responsible for the organisation of joint trade fair presentations abroad as well as the coordination and support of international trade delegations from NRW to foreign countries. As member of the worldwide European project Enterprise Europe Network NRW.International also organises B2B activities between visiting and regional companies.

As partner of the trilateral cooperation together with NRW.INVEST and AHK Israel NRW.International engages in building a platform of exchange between Israeli and NRW startups, hightech companies and Mittelstand.

NRW.INVEST – Economic development agency

The state-owned economic development agency NRW.INVEST conducts international marketing for Germany’s No. 1 investment location, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). In doing so, it campaigns worldwide for foreign direct investment. Besides subsidiaries in Japan and the USA, NRW.INVEST operates branch offices in China, India, Israel, Korea, Poland, Russia, Turkey and the United Kingdom. NRW.INVEST works closely with the local and regional economic development agencies in the state and the Ministry of Economics, as well as with firms, associations, chambers of commerce and industry and other business-related organizations. Today there are already about 19,000 foreign firms based in Germany’s economically most important federal state.

In 2017 NRW.INVEST opened two new branch offices in Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley to offer services especially for high-tech companies and startups that are interested in expanding their business into the European/German market.

With a gas transmission system spanning 12,000 kilometres, Essen-based Open Grid Europe is one of the biggest transmission system operators in Germany. All over the country, our approximately 1,450 staff ensure safe, environmentally-friendly and customer-oriented gas transmission. We actively support the European gas market and work together with the European distribution network operators to create the prerequisites for transnational gas transportation and trading.

Our core activities

•Design and construction of pipelines from conceptual design, project management and engineering on to implementation

•Operation of the pipeline system including maintenance and repair as well as control and monitoring of the network

•Capacity management and marketing

•Quantity determination and billing

Philipp Riederle is a digital expert, speaker, author and Germany's youngest management consultant. At the age of 13, he was already producing highly acclaimed podcasts such as "My iPhone and me". At the age of 15, he founded his own company, Phipz Media. In 2013, parallel to his A-levels, he wrote the Spiegel bestseller "Who we are and what we want". Since 2014 he has been studying at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and in the same year he was honored by the German government as Germany's leading "Digital Brain". In 2017 he received the highest international recognition as the speaker "CSP", and in September 2018 he was appointed a member of the Advisory Council Digital Economy NRW. The 24-year-old describes strategies with which companies can inspire the digital generation with their content and products, and win and retain them as employees. He describes the self-image of a generation that wants to play an effective role in the changes taking place in society and work culture.

The Rhine University of Applied Science Cologne (RFH) is a privately run, nationally recognized university of applied sciences. Offering full-time, ´dual´and continuing-education instruction, students can enrol in 20 Bachelor´s and 20 Master´s programmes. Instruction is offered in engineering, media, healthcare management, business, law & informatics, as well as logistics, security, psychology and communication management. The RFH ranks among the largest private Universities in Germany. Actually, round about 6.500 Students are enrolled. The RFH offers a high degree of practical relevance achieved through modern laboratories, project-related work, lecturers with experience in the field and close cooperation with the relevant actors in business and public community. The R&D institutes of the RFH are among others into Automation, 4.0 production, robotics, laser application,Artificial Intelligence, three dimensional printing (metal and plastics), data sciences and „experience“ management.

Schumpeter Ventures is a freshly founded VC fund focusing on early-stage FinTech, InsurTech and Cyber Security startups.

Together with sister company Bröskamp Consulting, we match two worlds: enduring corporates and thriving startups. Day-to-day our consulting team realizes corporate hurdles with respect to digitalization and innovation. These practice lessons multiplied with our tech experts give Schumpeter Ventures a competitive edge in identifying and actively supporting the best solution-generating startups. This innovative way of venture capital combines the interests of corporates, startups and investors towards a fruitful set-up with top-tier returns for all stakeholders.

Our mission: INVEST, BUILD & GROW!

Team-IT-Group is an established and leading, highly innovative IT Service provider, systems integrator, and technology provider, established to provide leading edge intelligent technical solutions as well as competent consulting services to businesses in order to allow the efficient and effective secure access, networking and communication between heterogeneous information resources and services, anytime and anywhere.

Team-IT-Group delivers leading edge ubiquitous IT-Technology, intelligent technical solutions as well as business consulting services. Team-IT-Group was founded with the vision to enable and support businesses to execute the best possible strategy during digital transformation. Team-IT-Group is providing its customers and business partners with robust, extensible and customizable security-enhanced solutions for information sharing, data exchange, services invocation, software applications, Cloud and Communication solutions.

With about 1,900 stores, at least 15,000 products on offer in each store and 16,000 employees in 8 countries around Europe: This makes TEDi one of the leading companies in the non-food sector.

Since it was founded in 2004, TEDI has grown rapidly but also sustainably and, without losing sight of economic viability. TEDI has strong roots in the German city of Dortmund, but assumes responsibility beyond the city boarders. TEDi is a family-friendly neighbourhood supplier that is present not only in big cities but also in rural areas. It is constantly searching for new locations, developing the interior design concept and quickly adapting to changing market conditions, always staying flexible. It offers small prices and a wide selection. The extensive range is ideal for browsing and you will always find something you need: from the most practical everyday items to the crazy and fun items.

TEDi´s top priority: Offering the customers a broad and varied product range with lots of surprises.

thyssenkrupp is a diversified industrial group with traditionally strong materials capabilities and a growing share of capital goods and services businesses.

thyssenkrupp's range of materials includes steel grades of all kinds, but also plastics and aluminum. In addition there are technology goods such as elevators and escalators, complete industrial complexes, components for vehicle construction and wind turbines as well as modern marine technology. thyssenkrupp has 161.000 employees in 78 countries and sales of 42.7 billion euros.

Uniper is an international energy company that combines three major fields of activity:

1. We generate energy with our own fossil, nuclear and hydro plants. In Germany, Sweden, the UK, and Russia, we are a vital part of the national infrastructure and guarantor for a secure energy supply.

2. We procure, trade, transport, store, sell, and supply commodities such as power, natural gas, LNG, and coal as well as energy-related products, especially to large and industrial customers.

3. We offer a wide range of independent consultancy and services for all types of power generation assets, power grids, and gas infrastructure as well as for energy supply.

Uniper also develops new, scalable business models, especially in the fields of energy storage/new flexibility options, carbon recycling, and hydrogen. Moreover, we analyse the impact of the progress in digitalization on our business segments and work processes and evaluate to which extent this trend may represent new business opportunities.