MFG European Reporter -

Just few days and the Creativity World Forum 2009 will be part of the history: prominent representatives from industry, science, politics, film, architecture, music and design will come together for a two day event on the 1st and 2nd December 2009, in Ludwigsburg. These high-profile speakers include the inventor of the MP3 Professor Dr. Karlheinz Brandenburg, the CEO of Robert Bosch GmbH, Franz Fehrenbach, Nokia Vice President and the former Finnish Prime Minister Esko Aho, film-maker Professor Doris Dörrie, top architect Professor Tobias Wallisser as well as high-ranking designer Professor Hartmut Esslinger.

Approx. 1,200 participants from all around the world are expected to participate in the congress premiering in Germany this year.The event organised by the Ministry of Economics Baden-Württemberg and the MFG Baden-Württemberg, Public Innovation Agency for ICT and Media is the annual main event for the 13 “Districts of Creativity”.

120 speakers, 6 different panels, many opportunities for networking and live music will constitute the framework for a fruitful meeting beetween creativity and technology.

A Matchmaking Forum will offer the participant a unique opportunity for networking and socializing. Besides, on days 1 and 2 of the congress Baden-Württemberg International will be holding a trade exhibition where the regions of the Districts of Creativity, institutions of the creative industries, initiatives and regions from around Baden-Württemberg as well as further international partner regions, companies, research and transfer organisations will be on show.

And if all this is stil not enough, on the 3^rd December as closure of the Creativity World Forum the participants will have the opportunity to take part to the three tours through the creative regions of Baden-Württemberg. During this tour they will have the chance to visit exemplary companies and institutions in the region of Stuttgart, the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region and the technology region of Karlsruhe.

For more information on the  Creativity World Forum visit the website

The IT and Media World of the future. New Business Models with IT services. Opportunities for innovation in IT end users industries. These and many more are themes of “Digital Paths to New Market”, a MFG publication, which investigates the future of technologies and their potential.

“Digital Paths to New Markets” sums up the MFG project FAZIT’s most important research finding in compact form. The book offers a fresh and deep  guide to help identifying the innovation and development prospects for a variety of information technologies at an early stage and leverage the latent potentials.
Klaus Haasis, CEO of MFG Baden-Württemberg, and Dr. Andreas Buchholz in the introduction of the book remember how it all started: “Back in 2005, when the FAZIT research project was first launched, one thing was certain: in order to reach tomorrow’s market, we will have to tread new, digital paths.”

FAZIT is a German acronym for “Research Project for Current and Future IT and Media Technologies and Their Use in Baden-Württemberg”. Under the leadership of the MFG Foundation division of MFG Baden-Württemberg, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for System and Innovation Research and the Centre for European Economic Research examined IT and media trends of relevance for the region’s future viability.

All these results handed up in “Digital Paths to New Markets”. The book, published four months ago, can be now download for free on the FAZIT website in the german version as well as in the english one

Applications for the European Seal of e-Excellence 2010 are now open to award ICT and digital media companies worldwide. The European Seal of e-Excellence is known for promoting ICT digital companies with an excellent track record in the marketing of innovation, i.e.:
- innovative products and services
- excellent marketing practices to promote them.

How to apply
The period to apply for the European Seal of e-Excellence is officially open till 31st of December 2009. Interested companies may now apply online through the Seal of e-Excellence website.

A jury composed of representatives of the Partner Associations selects the winners on the basis of an open application process. The Seal Award Ceremony will take place at CeBIT, the European trade show for the ICT industry on 2nd of March 2010.

What to win
By focusing on the marketing aspects of digital products and services, the European Seal of e-Excellence helps winners promote themselves in the global market place. Winners are entitled to:
- publicly display the “Seal of e-Excellence” logo in their own marketing programmes
- free membership in the European Multimedia Forum
- receive preferential rates for all e-Accelerator services
- other advantages in kind from various Seal Partners and Sponsors.

The European Seal of e-Excelence has been awarded annually since 2003. It is organised by the partners of the European Multimedia Forum (EMF) and Digital Tender and supported by a network of digital media associations from Europe.

One week after the Heidelberg Innovation Forum, our partners from New Brunswick, Canada hosted their innovation forum. We’ve been invited to have a look what the “little sister event” looks like.

Based on the concept of Heidelberg Innovation Forum the National Research Council Canada (NRC) established their New Brunswick Innovation Forum for the first time in October 2008. For the second year we tried to link both forums more closely. We did that in two ways: On the one hand we exchanged panellists, on the other we streamed both events live to each others’ location.
Sean Adams, Chief Marketing Officer at Red Ball Internet explained their iBurst technology at Heidelberg Innovation Forum. The mobile wireless broadband system was developed to process data and maintains efficiency by using dedicated radio frequencies and advanced algorithms to securely transmit data to and from iBurst-powered devices.
One week later Nicolas Palme (Project Thermakey),  Ralf Heimberg (CEO at ICIDO) and Dr. Carsten Günther (CTO at Heidelberg mobil International, HDM-I) joined the New Brunswick Innovation Forum in Saint John. They held Industry Session 2 “International Matchmaking – Real Companies Offering Real Opportunities” presenting their technologies and business concepts.

It’s been an inspiring time both in Heidelberg and in New Brunswick. To get a glimpse of the New Brunswick Innovation Forum see the videos. To get more information about the German original visit the website of Heidelberg Innovation Forum.

Today at 2 p.m. in the fascinating Turin the International Conference “CReATE: CONNECTING ICT RESEARCH AND CREATIVE ENTERPRISES” will start. For two days (4th-5th November) the conference will be the meeting point for experts, coming from several countries and different background, to discuss the state of the art of ICT innovation in creative industries and cluster development.

Experts, entrepreneurs, public decision makers, academics will share their experience during thematic workshops addressed to discuss the CReATE research priorities. A round table about IT research policy for creative industry will provide a multiple approach on public actions to innovate and make competitive the creative sector and will give inputs to the upcoming CReATE Joint Research Agenda.

Many ispiring speakers are attended, here the full program. If you are not in Turin, you can follow the conference for free in streaming on WIPIE TV.

Our European Project VoicE has been rewarded with the European eDemocracy Award . The prize has been assigned in the contest of the World eDemocracy Forum, which took place from 22th to 23th October in Paris. Each year the Forum hosts international experts, which for two days debates on topics related to politic in Internet and partecipative democracy.

The Politech Institute of Brussels recognizes each year the best international citizen communication’s projects, assigning a prize in five different categories. The project VoicE, realized by the MFG Baden-Württemberg togheter with 8 European partners , has been awarded in the category “Online-Democracy”.

VoicE offers background information on the topic of consumer protection within the EU as well as EU legislation and the European institutions. Using state-of-the-art communication tools like blogs and online forums, the platform facilitates a constructive dialogue between citizens and their elected representatives at EU leveL. Within the two regional platforms VoiceS (www.bw-voice.eu and www.voice.gva.es), citizens can thus directly contact the MEPs from their local region, ask relevant questions and voice their opinions. Politicians have an opportunity to react immediately to citizens’ proposals, answer queries and position themselves in the area of consumer protection.VoicE allows them to listen to their voters’ concerns and learn more about their expectations of European politics.

The software Gov2DemOSS used by the Project VoicE has also been recognised as Good Practice in the framework of the 4th European eGovernment Awards 2009 and thus been rewarded with the EU Good Practice label 2009.