Showcase Event

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This event intended to share the main results of the NEPTUNE project, providing to the beneficiaries of the accelerator the opportunity to present their innovative project to a large audience made of large enterprises, EU officials, potential investors and business partners.

On October 17th 2018, the NEPTUNE project organized its Showcase Event in Brussels. The final event of the Blue Growth Accelerator aimed to present the excellent results obtained and gave the opportunity to its beneficiaries to showcase their innovative projects through pitches, booths and networking sessions.

 

The event gathered in total 117 participants, of which:

  • 74 SMEs;
  • 4 large companies;
  • 10 clusters;
  • 7 associations;
  • 14 governmental or public authority.

11 European countries were represented, showing the high interest for companies to search for new collaborations and ideas abroad.

After an opening speech from the lead partner Aerospace Valley represented by Ms. Fabienne Daveran – European Desk Manager, to provide an overview about NEPTUNE, Mr. Felix Leinemann – Head of Unit Blue Economy sectors at DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, European Commission and Mr. Gunnar MATTHIESEN – Senior Project Officer at the Executive Agency for SMEs (EASME), were invited to share information about existing and forthcoming European funds available for SMEs and the potential of Blue Growth in the EU.

The following four thematic pitching sessions:  Environment & Marine Renewable Energies, Port Logistics & Maritime Transport, Environment and Water Management in Rural and Urban Areas followed this introduction involving the presentation of 24 projects funded through NEPTUNE. The SMEs showcased the activities performed so far and the impacts of NEPTUNE on their organisations from improved sales to jobs creation.  

Each session was introduced by key stakeholders in the topic, large companies’ representatives and experts, who provided a panorama of the subsector and exposed their own strategy upon the domain as well as their interest for the innovations developed by SMEs and startups:

  • SBM Offshore, the market-leader in providing floating solutions over the full product life-cycle for the energy industry, represented by Ms. Stéphanie St Hill – Business Development Manager, presented the Marine Renewable Energies sector needs;
  • ADUR, a software developer company for Transport and logistics, represented by Mr. Lander Tolosa – Service Manager, introduced the Ports Logistics and Maritime Transport overall vision;
  • Veolia group, the global leader in optimized resource management, which designs and provides water, waste and energy management solutions contributing to the sustainable development of communities and industries and represented by Ms. Marie-Christine Huau, Market Business Development Director, highlighted the actual and future issues addressed to coastal and maritime Environment;
  • FARAL Consult, a water infrastructure and management company, represented by Mr. Florin Iliescu – Water Management Expert, presented the challenges in Water Management in Rural and Urban Areas.

Ms. Anna Sobczak – Policy Officer for Clusters and Emerging Industries at DG GROW, European Commission, concluded the event by stressing out the importance and the added-value of clusters in the innovative SME support, notably through the cascade funding scheme carried by INNOSUP-1 projects.

 

Two B2B sessions and a networking lunch gave the opportunity to participants to exchange with each other. At the end of the day, 81 formal meetings took place in order to envision new opportunities and create new business partnerships, not including the spontaneous ones occurring all day long.