75 highly motivated participants | 15 interdisciplinary teams | 12 weeks full of innovation, power and team spirit | 3 different challenges from the industrial world | 1 goal!
Batch #2 of the Corporate Campus Challenge concluded last week with a great finale. 12 weeks of intensive work are behind us and we are super proud that all of the teams persevered to the end. The agenda was diverse. On October 23rd, 2020 we had the big, digital kick-off. The challenges from our challenge providers were presented and the students formed interdisciplinary teams to tackle the challenges. Mentored by our coaches and staff at Campus Founders, the entrepreneurial journey and the search for innovative solutions began.
The focus was on teaching methods and skills as well as on practical application. Closely accompanied and in constant sparring with our challenge providers, the teams were able to test, test, test and iterate again and again to see whether they were pursuing the right solution for customers and users.
Despite challenging circumstances thanks to the current pandemic and implementation as an online format, prototypes were successfully built and tested.
We focused on collaboration and mutual support through a gamification approach. There were credits for supporting other teams and even an award at the end for the team that was most engaged in terms of support.
In the last third of the program, the solutions and approaches were improved again on the basis of the test phase, and in pitch training we practiced how to convince the audience, the jury and, above all, the challenge providers of the merits of the idea.
Our digital workshop rooms were bubbling with energy and motivation, and it was great fun to see how creative and innovative the students from the various universities in and around Heilbronn were at work.
In the finale, the challenge providers finally got to experience the pitches and the jury, which brought an incredible amount of expertise and diversity, gave their final verdict.
More than 200 spectators and viewers jumped at the opportunity to experience the results first-hand and live and attended the Zoom meeting.
As a special treat, we invited Gunther Wobser, CEO and President of LAUDA, and asked him to give a keynote speech. The topic couldn’t have been more fitting, Gunther spoke to the audience on the topic of “Ingredients For Change: How to Survive Mastering Innovation” and gave everyone plenty to think about.
Finally, various awards were presented to the teams and there was every reason to celebrate! At a get together afterwards, there was a colorful exchange of ideas, networking and a virtual toast to the successes of the evening.
All in all, not only the finale, but the entire program was a huge success. Our Program Manager Johannes Schnabel, together with his team of coaches, spared no effort and built a great community among the teams. The program, full of expertise from the fields of Design Thinking and Lean Startup, has had a reach well beyond the immediate Heilbronn region and we are already looking forward to the next batch, which will take place in the winter semester 2021/2022.
Many thanks to everyone who supported us during the 12 weeks and especially at the Finale. Whether it was our challenge providers Beyerdynamic, Ferdinand-Steinbeis-Institut and Zukunftsfonds HN, the jury or our speakers – together we have achieved incredible success and defied the challenges of the current situation.
Thanks also to the tireless participants who really put in the work to get the maximum out of the challenges. We hope that the path will continue for some of the teams and maybe even some ideas will be followed up by the challenge providers! Finally, thanks to the great cooperation with our academic partners DHBW, HHN, HUGS, HS Pforzheim, Experimenta, TUM. With your support we were able to attract our talented and motivated participants.
We rocked it together!
