After the cancellation of the last conVenture in November 2021 due to corona, conVenture - the nordic start-up convention - could finally take place again "live and in color" on May 31st, 2022. It was also the first time that conVenture was not held on campus, but in the premises of the Technologiezentrum in Flensburg.

Sold-out Event

With 125 registrations, a fully booked, full Technologiezentrum, represented by Michael Otten and Dr. Conny Clausen, was to be expected in advance. After months of screen meetings, online conferences and events, the participants enjoyed exchanging ideas on site, being able to test the products developed by the start-ups and taking in the impressions of a packed conference room.

Hear & Learn From Start-ups in the Region

The diversity of the German-Danish start-up ecosystem was presented by the start-up story of the Danish start-up Buy2Sell (Kristian Lolk Rautert), followed by a technical contribution from the Acoustic Voice Profiling specialist Dr. Oliver Niebuhr (SDU Sønderborg & AllGoodSpeakers APS) as well as a look behind the scenes of teachers and the challenges in the field of sex education through the start-up Teach LOVE (Dr. Johanna L. Degen).

Kristian started with the story about his first Bang & Olufsen purchases in Denmark, which he prepared and then resold on the market outside of Denmark. Today Buy2Sell is Denmark's largest eBay seller. He also talked about personal highs and lows on the way to today's company.

Dr. Oliver Niebuhr looked at the topic of start-up success from a completely different perspective - the acoustic voice profile and the degree of charisma in it, which is analyzed on a scientific basis and with the help of artificial intelligence. Charisma would be characterized by self-confidence, competence and passion in the voice. As Oliver reported, two other studies showed that charisma was the most important factor in a successful crowdfunding campaign.

In the last story of the evening, the participants were able to experience how female researchers from Europa-Universität Flensburg can unexpectedly become founders. Dr. Johanna Degen took everyone on the journey into today's school lessons and the current situation in the field of sex education. The high demand for the new Teach LOVE from the start clearly shows how much catching up there is in sex education at German schools.

Networking on the Start-Up Pier

Building on the exciting insights of the speakers, the founders and those interested in founding a company were able to use the opportunity to find out about the latest news from the start-up pier, to exchange ideas and to network with the VentureWærft start-ups. In addition to the start-ups from the region, the FabLab IDEENREICH from the Flensburg University of Applied Sciences was also on site and had a 3D printer and other material with them to look at, touch and try out.

ConVenture is the networking event on the topic of start-ups in the German-Danish border region, where start-ups (of today and tomorrow), founding supporters, established entrepreneurs, investors and those interested in founding meet. In addition to start-up stories from young founders, the focus is on networking and the Start-Up Pier, a small fair with regional campus start-ups.

More information about VentureWærft and conVenture is available at www.venturewaerft.com.

conVenture is a joint event of the German and Danish VentureWærft Dock partners: Dock1 of the Jackstädt-Zentrum Flensburg, Flensburg Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Flensburg Technologiezentrum, North Frisian Innovation-Center, Syddansk Universitet (Entrepreneurship Labs & Mads Clausen Institute) and Sønderborg Vækstråd. In addition to these partners, VentureWærft also consists of experienced entrepreneurs and start-ups from the region. The VentureWærft is supported by the project Grenzland INNOVATIV Schleswig-Holstein, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Joint Science Conference.