After a successful Call for participation for the 2014 Health & Wellbeing (HWB) Business Community, nineteen SMEs from six EIT Node countries were selected to join the initiative.
The aim of the HWB Business Community is to connect Wellbeing focused European ICT companies to expand their business networks, share knowledge and innovate with the EIT ICT Labs Health & Wellbeing Innovation Area.
You can find an overview of the companies from: HWB Business Communities 2013 & 2014 web page
An important element of the HWB Business Community activity is the opportunity for the SMEs from across Europe to meet each other, partner and share local market insights and identify new international business opportunities.
The HWB Business Community companies benefit from the network of experienced EIT Business Developers and the local HWB ecosystems of six EIT ICT Labs locations in Berlin, Eindhoven, Helsinki, London, Paris and Trento. This gives greater reach and support for internationalization than acting individually on their own with limited knowledge and budgets.
The first main Community activity of the year was the Kick-off event held in Berlin 28th-29th April. The German health and wellbeing market is an important opportunity for the Community and this directly influenced the choice of location for the Kick-off.
Fifteen of the SMEs participated the 2day workshop, along with very good representation from the EIT ICT Labs Health and Wellbeing Action Line through leader Jean Gelissen and leads from key Innovation Activities alongside EIT ICT Labs' partners VTT, TU Delft and TrentoRise and five EIT ICT Labs Business Developers.
The Kick-off event comprised a mixed program of knowledge sharing presentations by SMEs and EIT representatives, structured short one-to-one meetings, workshops, local insight and discussions.
The four local guest organizations represented - Berlin Partner (Invest in Berlin organization); Otto Bock (leading prosthesis provider); Silicon Alley (EIT media blogging partner); XL Health (investor) gave presentations, took questions and actively participated in short one-on-one meetings with the SMEs.
The feedback from the attending HWB Community was very positive, with tens of valuable business contacts made, many business leads generated and tens of follow-up discussions planned. The Community helped shape the plan for the remainder of the year.
The HWB Business Community participates in 1-2 highly visible promotional events each year and the SMEs gain contact with "the Extended Community" of EIT partners, local industry players and investors. Those events are now being planned based on the SME feedback. Through HWB Business Community LinkedIn Group the SMEs can stay in contact with each other and meet also the HWB Business Community Alumni network from 2013.
For more information please contact HWB Community Lead: Outi Toijala
