2/23/2018 Under the BeyondConventions format, large German corporations sought start-up partners for their digital challenges at the final round of BeyondConventions at the thyssenkrupp Quarter, Essen. ThyssenKrupp, Innogy, Open Grid Europe, Schacht One (Haniel) and FUNKE MEDIEN NRW, supported by ruhr:HUB.CAMP.ESSEN and Initiativkreis Ruhr, took a new approach to cooperation. In November last year the five companies defined challenges from their businesses on the beyondconventions.de website and called on the international start-up scene to come up with creative solutions. The start-ups presented their concepts to the corporates in seven-minute-long pitches. (Photo: Thyssenkrupp) Over 220 entries were received, and 35 start-ups presented their solutions to the corporations on February 20 and 21. The name BeyondConventions is a good indication of what the five companies are looking for with their respective challenges: Unconventional solutions by creative companies that break new ground. For the corporations, this kind of cooperation with start-ups is a first. "Initiatives like BeyondConventions are decisive both for the start-up-scene and for the digital economy of our region. By pooling the potentials of innovative new enterprise and established companies, they promote the dynamic development of our economy," said Andreas Pinkwart, Minister for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitization and Energy of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in his address at the BeyondConventions event. thyssenkrupp CEO Heinrich Hiesinger, who opened the event along with the Mayor of Essen Thomas Kufen, emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary cooperation in BeyondConventions: "Knowledge alone is no longer enough to create true competitive advantages. Real added value arises when we combine knowledge from different companies and corporate cultures. Only by working together will we be able to successfully shape the digital transformation." Most of the start-ups that took part in BeyondConventions are from Germany, but there were also entrants from the United States and New Zealand. The solutions they are developing include an app that shows the importance of natural gas for the transition to renewables, a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to help with recruiting, new functions for voice-controlled virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa, and drones that document progress on the construction of industrial plants. There were no cash prizes, trophies or certificates to be won in BeyondConventions. Instead, concrete orders will be placed for the best concept in each case. The challenges are based directly on real work situations at the corporations.
Major German corporations have sought partnerships with start - ups in order to develop unconventional solutions for the digital transformation of the oil industry . Through the BeyondConventions format , companies such as Google and Facebook have sought cooperation with start - ups to tackle the digital transformation that is occurring in the oil industry .