“The European Chemistry Partnering Event 2018 was a great opportunity for us to meet start-up companies as well as medium-sized businesses. We were impressed by the high density and diversity of technological know-how, but also of the innovative capacity and the entrepreneurial spirit. The format was extraordinarily efficient, because of the large number of very interesting pitches together with partnering events, workshops and an exhibition. Even though, we are attending with 3 colleagues, we were not able to get everything we were interested in. There were so many interesting new technologies, raw materials, innovative ideas. Especially to listen to all of the very interesting pitches, where start-up companies could present their message in 6 minutes and we might find by chance fruitful synergies with our company, two colleagues would be needed, only.

We were pleased to see that via the online platform provided, it was rather straightforward to evaluate and contact interesting companies in advance. This way, we were able to set up 15-20 partnering events, all of which resulted in interesting discussions. In particular, we have already received samples from participating companies and at the moment, we are negotiating further collaboration with a number of other representatives. Moreover, we have received excellent internal feedback, so we will consider visiting the ECP 2019 with even more than 3 colleagues.”

Dr. Stephan Zöllner, Executive Manager, Acrylic Adhesive Research & Development, tesa AG, Hamburg, Germany