Be Confident!

In times of staff shortages, it is important to find not necessarily the best, but the right person for the long term. Who is the right person for a task area? What competencies someone needs to be successful in this position and whether you have the right managers for the new strategy.
 

Employee participation in Germany: What’s possible and What’s not? 10 Pitfalls when creating virtual employee participation schemes and brief update on latest legislation changes and why they are no game changer.
 

Whether you’re interested in establishing your business in Berlin, to internationalize your activities or if you are intending to grow here, Berlin Partner for Business and Technology provides customized support and assistance for the decision-making and implementation phases with its comprehensive services. One of the services focuses on funding and financing. In order to gain an insight into the world of funding, we will answer your key questions today, which you must consider when applying for funding. What types of subsidies are there? Who is eligible for funding? What do you need to consider when applying for funding? etc. We clear the funding jungle for you and show you the way to find the right funding programs for your business.

Program organized by Berlin Partner in cooperation with 36KR (China’s largest business and technology news platform, listed on NASDAQ since 2019).

5 min: Short intro and overview about the program
           Sandra Schulze, Area Manager China, Berlin Partner
 
10 min: How is innovation created in China?
             What are the drivers behind China’s continual fast technological development? How are new technologies quickly applied to different industries?
             Emon Wang, Partner Europe, 36Kr Global
 
20 min: China’s Artificial intelligence industry 
            Examples of applications of computer vision, natural language processing and deep learning
            Ben Jiang, VP Global Markets, 36Kr Global
 
30 min: How can startups from Berlin benefit from China’s innovation boost?
             Discussion round with two Berlin startups that have business connections to China:

• Sheen Hu, CEO, MatchX.io
• Timon von Bargen, Tech & Product, OrderYOYO
• Moderated by Sandra Schulze, Berlin Partner

Q&A with Stefan Gotthardt, Volkswagen Digital Solutions, and Cem Ergün-Müller, Startupnight: Using the Volkswagen Digital Lab in Lisbon as an example, we show which paths companies are taking in the search for personnel. Stefan Gotthardt reports on his experiences in recruiting IT employees/software developers in Portugal. What does a recruiting process look like? What is important to the company and what is the focus of future employees? What are the expectations? 

Germany, and Berlin in particular, is a great place for internationals. But there are some facts you should know to have the best time of your life. This session will give you first-hand information on topics such as pre-approval and visas, as well as insights and advice on residence permits.

Berlin Partner for Business and Technology is the business development agency of the city of Berlin and at the pulse of the city. Together with our partners from business and science, we are committed to Berlin as the place to be.

The term "War for Talents" has been around since 1997. The right employees are essential, especially in the early stages of a startup - also as a basis for decision-making for investors. At the same time, there is little time & budget for recruiting. Benjamin will give you 5 questions which you should ask yourself when recruiting.
 

The Venture capital industry is affected by many different trends at the moment: super-fast remote dealmaking at early-stages, mega funds like Softbank or Tiger Global, the increasing participation of Corporate Venture Capital, new ways of financing through crypto, the goal of bringing more diversity in the ecosystem – just to name a few. How does this change venture capital firms and their business models and what does this mean for founders seeking capital?

In this session Alexander and Jens will introduce preseed founders to the investors point of view and help you structure and manage your fundraise.

Moving your business to the next stage by starting in a new market can be a daunting endeavour. Luckily there is a plethora of business enabling actors out there. But which one is right for me? Should I go for a government funded gig or will I be better off with an NGO or other private agency? AsiaBerlin assembled a panel to explore the do's and don’ts of your journey to other regions of the globe.
 
 

In this session, we will introduce the TechBoost startup program founded in 2017 and talk about its evolution across the years, by referring to the initial value proposition. In addition to infrastructure and marketing support, building customer networks is becoming increasingly important for both, early and later stage startups.

This is where our own matchmaking initiative TechBoost Connect comes into play, whose vision we will talk about. 

We strongly believe that a sustainable startup initiative should drive business for all participants: Our customers, our startups and our own company. Be excited to hear about our learnings we have had along the way as well as the opportunities we seek to leverage even more in the future.

Corporations have to adapt faster and faster due to new technologies, changing employee skills and extremely agile startups. The talk will cover what is important for innovative companies today, both from a former corporate perspective and from the perspective of a founder today. Skills shortages, new ways of working, unsteady environments and many other trends mean that 21st century companies need to open up to remain competitive.
 

Over the last few years, the startup studio model has matured and has become one of the most exciting asset classes in the venture capital world. The concept behind startup studios is quite simple; they source and validate ideas, find the right co-founders, and build the business together. The secret behind the success of startup studios is to do this process continuously, pumping out new companies one after another.

During this talk Michael van Lier, managing director of Builders startup studio, will share his insights on the ongoing rise of startup studios and their potential as a promising investment opportunity.
 

Too often, founders work on ideas that can never make it, no matter how passionate they are. Problems might be a twisted market, wrong perception of user needs, the fact that it has been tried x times before and always failed, and many other caveats that are best identified BEFORE starting to put serious effort into an idea. As an angel, founder, author and lecturer, Christoph Räthke has been a driving force of the German startup ecosystem for over 20 years. Accordingly, the feedback he'll give you might either be a strong suggestion to reconsider or even fold your idea - or highly valuable advice on the next most useful steps to turn it into reality.

Aeneas Rekkas, serial entrepreneur and Co-Founder of ORY, a state-of-the-art Identity Management and Security startup in Munich, will talk about his journey. From developing learning platforms, receiving a Federal Cross of Merit, to engaging with large top-line VC firms for innovative deep-tech solutions. Aeneas is passionate about the Open Source community and will share some key insights on how to build successful tech startups.
 

Robert Schmidt, district manager at Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB), gives an overview about public support programs in Berlin which could be essential for your founding phase.
 

Discussion with VCs, key players at the tech ecosystem and founders.

Straight after our panel discussion „Why to join an accelerator / incubator”, startups and incubation experts will be waiting for your questions! Use these 30 minutes in this interactive session to find out whatever you need – how do I apply? What happens after the collaboration? Do I have to give equity? Top insights, tailored to your interests.

Startups that want to raise venture capital in the future should have a few topics in mind when founding and starting their business. We at HTGF see a variety of startups every year and this presentation combines the most common mistakes done by founders before the first institutional fundraise.

A sustainable world is unattainable while a fundamental part of it, our IT systems, is not resource-efficient. In this talk, I want to share a novel way of building IT services that fully utilizes the interconnections of digital machines and leverages the computational power of every connected device to enable a sustainable digital world.
 

Developing solutions together with the right partners that really make a difference!
 

Every day we receive 200 business emails, unlock our smartphone up to 80 times, lose up to 26% of our productivity just by the presence of the smartphone and can work on average only 10 minutes at a time without distractions! How are we supposed to be able to work productively and be balanced?

Artsiom Zhavarankau from Berlins Business Development Bank – Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) – will discuss alternative ways of funding with Marcel Quennet, CEO of QoD Technologies. 

Pascal is happy to answer questions after his stage program about go-to-market strategies.