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Baden Württemberg: Connected e.V.

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General Information
The date when the cluster organisation was established: 
Wednesday, 1 January, 1997
Number of staff in the management team of the cluster organisation : 
21-30
Legal form of the cluster organisation: 
Registered Association
Regions: 
Stuttgart
Cluster Excellence Label: 
Silver Label
Other Label: 
ISO 9001:2008 label
Membership to European Strategic Cluster Partnerships (ESCP-4i, ESCP-S3 or ESCP-4x): 
MobiGoIn
MobiGoIn-Action
Membership to other networks/partnerships: 
Cluster Management Team: 
NameSurnamePositionTelephoneEmail
Jähnert
Dr. Jürgen
Cluster Manager
+490711-18421601
jaehnert@bwcon.de
Nieveler
Anja
Cluster Manager
+490761/76999510
nieveler@bwcon.de
Melisa
Oezkan
Cluster Manager
+490711-18421600
oezkan@bwcon.de
Link to team description on the cluster's website: 
http://www.bwcon.de/ueber-uns/kontakt.html
Languages spoken: 
English
French
German
Sectoral and Industrial Focus
Sectoral Industries: 
Business Services
Information Technology and Analytical Instruments
Technology fields: 
Information Technology/Informatics
Internet of Things
S3 EU priority areas: 
ICT trust, cyber security & network security
Intelligent inter-modal & sustainable urban areas (e.g. smart cities)
Emerging industries: 
Creative Industries
Digital Industries
Composition of the cluster
Total number of members: 
618
Number of SME members: 
449
Number of larger company members: 
23
Number of research organisations/universities/technology centres: 
67
Link to the cluster members’ list: 
http://www.bwcon.de/aus-dem-netzwerk/mitgliederliste.html
Entrepreneurship and scale-up support facilities in the cluster's ecosystem (see "Organisation type"): 
Name and link of major players: 
NameWebsiteType
SAP SE
http://www.sap.com
Larger Company
IBM Germany
http://www.ibm.de
Larger Company
GE Power AG
http://www.ge.com
Larger Company
Hewlett Packard Germany
http://www.hp.com
Larger Company
Cluster Strategy
Mission/Objectives: 

Baden-Württemberg: Connected represents a strong regional community. Baden-Württemberg is one of the economically strongest regions in Germany and Europe. A network of excellent research institutions and powerful industrial clusters are the base of the region's global competitiveness.

bwcon is the leading business initiative for the promotion of the high-tech sectors in the region with offices in Stuttgart and Freiburg. Established in 1997, the main goal of the network organization is to foster key-technologies in order to strengthen the region's economic development. Therefore, the focus of bwcon lies on information and communication technologies (ICT) which are seen as the innovation drivers for other industrial fields, such as mobility, production, health care and energy.

Today, bwcon connects more than 600 member companies and research institutions, represented by a honorary board composed of distinguished personalities. This eco-system creates a truly unique platform for cross-sector cooperation between developers, users and investors.

Do you have a formalised strategy?: 
Yes
Do you have a specific strategy focus that addresses internationalisation ?: 
Yes
Services
Support services provided: 
Internationalisation support (= Access to third countries markets)
Access to public support (regional/national programmes, innovation vouchers, etc.)
Access to private funding (connecting to investors, seed-capital, venture-capital, crowd-funding, etc.)
Support of technology transfer
Innovation Management / Support of innovation processes (internal, external)
Details of support services: 

For its members the cluster offers cross-industrial collaboration amongst start-ups, companies and research organizations within the ICT- and hightech-sector.

  • Networking and matchmaking at our conferences, roundtables and seminars
  • Exchange amongst experts in Special Interest Groups (SIGs) on trending topics in the ICT- and hightech-sector
  • Individual support for regional, national and EU project cooperations and funding programmes
  • Professional consultation on start-ups and growth by accredited specialists
  • Access to substantial investors and strong financing partners
  • Systematic matchmaking with outstanding talents and innovative start-ups
  • Online job-portal and targeted placement of professionals
Cooperation Activities
International Cooperation
The main countries targeted by the cluster organisation: 
Brazil
China
Israel
United States
Our cluster organisation undertook the following international activities to support our members: 
Participation at missions/events/study visits/fairs
Trans-national Cooperation
The main countries targeted by the cluster organisation: 
Austria
France
Italy
Spain
Sweden
Our cluster organisation undertook the following trans-national activities to support our members: 
Participation at missions/events/study visits/fairs
Please explain: 

In the context of our partnership MobiGoIn we organize focused international B2B matchings among SMEs, Start-ups and Research Institutions with a special aim at the (new) mobility sector. Such meetings take place for example in Paris or in Heidelberg (Germany).

Which clusters do you collaborate with?: 
MicroTec Südwest, Germany (www.microtec-suedwest.de)
ITS Baden-Württemberg (www.its-bw.de)
Media Evolution, Sweden (www.mediaevolution.se)
Mov'eo, France (www.pole-moveo.org)
PoloICT, Italy (www.torinowireless.it)
Smart Communities Tech, Italy (www.torinowireless.it)
Support Programmes
Participation in Funded Support Programmes: 
European ProgrammesProject NameName & Description (Regional/National)Link (Regional/National)
FP7
H2020
CIP/COSME
INTERREG

Selection:

  • Cloud Socket (funded in Horizon2020, www.cloudsocket.eu): Cloud Socket aims to put forth the idea of a “hybrid process” modelling framework applying well-known techniques for semantic, rule-based inference, meta modelling and knowledge management techniques to bridge the gap between business needs and the use and exploitation of Cloud resources and components.
  • FI Business (funded in FP7, www-fiware-business.eu): FI Business supports startups and SMEs that have been selected by one of the sixteen FIWARE accelerators in preparing their go-to-market strategy as well as in raising private funding. Services comprise EU-wide training bootcamps, business recognition workshops, online webinars covering all relevant business development topics, one-on-one coaching, online pitches and the participation at high-level investment forums.
  • InvestHorizion (funded in Horizon2020, www.investhorizon.eu): The InvestHorizon project aims to boost the investment awareness and readiness amongst innovative SMEs and improve the sensitization of investors and innovation intermediaries across Europe. It will address the difficulty of matching technology-based innovative companies with sufficiently specialized investors, especially at cross-border level, helping entrepreneurs to secure investment in early innovation phases.

Selection:

  • Go Cluster! - German national support programme for business development of cluster organizations
  • Mittelstand digital - German national support programme for innovation in SMEs
http://www.bwcon.de/projekte.html
Promotion
Success Story / Achievements: 

A field in which we estimate bwcon especially competitive is business development and business plan coaching for the hightech sector. With the Heidelberg Innovation Forum (www.heidelberg-innovationforum.eu) we run one of the leading investment matchmakings in Germany for several years now. With the Green Innovation and Investment Forum (www.green-inno-forum.de) we also have a taylored format for Green Tec. The bwcon Coaching Group for startups is one of the most reknown expert pools for business plan development in Baden-Württemberg.

Why should partners choose you for cooperation?: 

bwcon represents the whole hightech sector of ICT enabled technologies in the economically strong region of Southwest Germany. Among our more than 600 members you can collaborate with world leading SMEs and hidden champions as well as with large global players like SAP, IBM, GE or HP. Our cluster management with currently 24(+) employed experts has deep knowledge in the ICT-based innovation sectors of energy, mobility, health-care and production. We also have year long experience in business plan development for startups and run our own business development coaching group. Our cluster management has great experience in the management of public funded projects on regional, national and international level.