Tomorrow's world changers

With Prof. Dr Susanne Tittlbach as the opening speaker, the finale of the ideas competition got off to a promising start. The Vice President for Digitalisation, Innovation and Sustainability at the University of Bayreuth already praised the success of last year, when the ideas competition was held for the first time.

A total of eight teams presented their pitches to the jury, which consisted of Dr Petra Beermann, Head of the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Florian Eagan as representative of the Wirtschaftsjunioren Bayreuth, Dr Dorothee Strunz, Managing Director of Lamilux, and Alexander Mietzke, Head of Digital Innovation Labs and member of the New Venture Management Board.

A total of eight teams presented their pitches to the jury, which consisted of Dr Petra Beermann, Head of the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Florian Eagan as representative of the Wirtschaftsjunioren Bayreuth, Dr Dorothee Strunz, Managing Director of Lamilux, and Alexander Mietzke, Head of Digital Innovation Labs and member of the New Venture Management Board. The SHELP team won first place worth 1,000 euros, which was sponsored by REHAU New Ventures.

With SHELP, the team wants to make everyday life easier for people in wheelchairs with limited mobility. For this purpose, they have developed a carousel that automatically sorts different shelf levels up and down, depending on which shelf and content the user wants to access. This way, people with limited mobility can also access storage space effortlessly and continue to live a more self-determined daily life. "This idea can be a real help for people with limited mobility, but also for others, and convinced the jury," explains Dr Petra Beermann afterwards. The jury member is also enthusiastic about the fact that each idea wants to make the world a little better: "We see a great new generation of entrepreneurs growing up who want to bring about positive change.

With the second place, a team with a social background also took a place on the podium. Carelink is a networking platform for chronically ill people who can exchange information with like-minded people, but also receive information about their everyday life. In addition to SHELP and CareLink, the Surya team, which wants to make the everyday work of solateurs more efficient, was also convincing. Advancing socially relevant visions can be called the motto of the evening. Because the internationally active keynote speaker Ali Mahlodji also had only one thing in mind: to create inspiration to change the world view of at least one person for the better.

With the motivating speech of the Austrian-Persian storyteller, he certainly not only changed one life for the better, but also gave the impulse for many future entrepreneurs to believe in themselves and not to be afraid of the future. The life coach left the stage to thunderous applause. "We are overwhelmed by the exuberant mood. Every single seat is filled. We are fully booked," says Leonie Gärtner, organiser of the competition and staff member at the Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. It is clear by now at the latest that this will not be the last ideas competition of this size.