Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the award ceremony for the best start-up ideas in North Thuringia in 2020 was postponed to the summer of 2021. It was supposed to be a live event so that the idea pitches could take place directly in front of the jury. And so it was - on 2 June 2021, three students from Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences, Madlen Deutsch (Bachelor of Business Administration), Arne Voigt (Bachelor of Social Management) and David Welz (Bachelor of Social Management), presented their start-up idea at the BIC in Sondershausen. They staged the presentation of the identified problem and their creative solution as a story. It should be emphasised that this was the first time the three young people had seen and spoken to each other in person - all previous meetings had taken place virtually. A special day in two respects.

Your founding idea is an internet platform - nothing special in this age of digitalisation. And yet this platform has something very special: it provides sustainable products from various online shops which, in the best case scenario, can be ranked and compared using a neutral assessment. It is based on keywords such as affiliate marketing, customer empowerment and social responsibility. It is an idea with a lot of growth potential. This was also recognised by the jury, who evaluated the ideas and ultimately selected the winners. These included Steffi Dirumdam from IHK Nordhausen, Hans-Georg Müller from BIC Nordthüringen GmbH, Anke Hartung from ThEx Enterpreise and Dr Kareen Schlangen from the Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences start-up service.

Every year, the BIC Nordthüringen honours promising start-up ideas. The BIC is already calling for entries for the next round. New applications are possible from 01 July 2021. Details can be found on the BIC Nordthüringen website: www.bic-nordthueringen.de

In this context, regular workshops are also held to support idea generators and those who want to become one. In this summer semester, Martina Karl, business development consultant from Erfurt, will show how ideas bubble up from megatrend streams. The workshop is free of charge and will take place via Zoom on 29 June 2021 from 4 to 7 pm. Further information can be found on the Facebook page of the HS Nordhausen start-up service. Interested parties can already register now by e-mail to schlangenhs-nordhausen.de. The workshop invites you to dive into our immediate future together, to look at its different faces and to find out how this knowledge can be adapted for your own small and large ideas.