Meetings in the land of high-tech

• Wolfsburg’s phaeno, Germany’s most innovative science museum, attracts visitors with an interactive experimental landscape.
• The Hattingen-based Smarter Living Testlab is testing the integration of modern IT in-home comforts of the future.
• CRP Valley Stade, an alliance of 40 companies is working on the miracle composite CRP that makes aircraft tougher and lighter.
• The Fraunhofer Institute for Graphic Data Processing in Darmstadt makes advances in biometric processing technology...

Phaeno and Fraunhofer Institute, CRP Valley and Smarter Living Testlab – these are just a few of the many places of innovation that were presented to the international public during the Germany – Land of Ideas campaign in 2006. Land of Ideas, launched as a destination campaign by the German government and German industry, met with an enthusiastic response thanks to its many original and creative ideas: On each day of the FIFA World Cup 2006™ tribute was paid to an innovative place or innovative project in Germany with a brief portrait on the Land of Ideas website and a local event. Alongside social, business and cultural highlights there were also many examples from the fields of research and high-tech.

From the Land of Ideas to a High-Tech Strategy

But this was just one of the noteworthy activities in the German Year of Innovation 2006. In addition to the Land of Ideas series, which was continued in 2007 and is also very successful in 2008, the government has launched its High-Tech Strategy – a comprehensive national strategy for all its ministries. Under the motto of “Igniting Ideas!” it will invest a total of 15bn euros in nano- and biotechnologies, in optical technologies, in micro-, information and communication technologies, but also in basic technologies like car manufacturing and machine engineering or environment and energy technologies up to 2009. The strategy has three objectives: To develop lead markets, to improve co-operation between industry and science and to facilitate the transfer of research findings. An Industry Science Research Alliance with representatives from both fields will serve as a pacemaker.

High-tech destination Germany – also attractive for the MICE industry

No wonder that the German Convention Bureau used the dynamism of high-tech destination Germany and made 2007 its theme year of Business & Science. Its website http://www.germany-meetings.com/ lists lots of facts and figures on the topic, presenting Germany as a high-tech destination especially for the MICE industry. If we add platforms such as http://www.land-der-ideen.de/ and http://www.hightech-strategie.de/, science and high-tech meeting and convention planners will find all the information they require at a glance.

Land of Researchers and Discoverers

But it’s not just recent developments and initiatives that make the country between Flensburg and Passau, Aachen and Dresden, so attractive for scientific congresses, high-tech presentations or technology shows. Pioneering spirit and intellectual curiosity have a long tradition in Germany, as proven by its many inventions and prestigious awards. Last year, for example, two German scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize: Gerhard Ertl of the Max Planck Society’s Fritz Haber Institute for his fundamental research on surface chemistry and physicist Peter Grünberg of Jülich Research Centre for the development of a new hard disk technology. Grünberg and Ertl are two of 76 scientists, no less, who are featured on the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia’s list of “German Nobel Laureates” in the fields of chemistry, physics, physiology and medicine alone. While their discoveries are not always easy to understand, many other inventions from Germany have been a world-wide success story: book printing, for example, invented in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg, the diesel engine developed by Rudolf Diesel in 1890, or radiography discovered only five years later by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen. All this is rather well-known. But did you know that the life-saving airbag, pain-killing aspirin, infection-fighting bacteriology, the dynamo, chip card, lightbulb, magnetic tape, telephone, spark plug, and even the “hip” entertainment format MP3 were are all invented in Germany?     

Unique research landscape

The background for many past and future inventions, discoveries and developments is Germany’s unique, historically grown research landscape. It rests on three pillars: industry, universities and non-university institutions. The German Otto von Guericke Federation of Industrial Cooperative Research Associations plays a central role in research and development together with 48 corporate research facilities and over 700 associated institutes and is vital for industry. However, Germany’s universities are the traditional backbone of the German research and science system. By offering such a wide thematic and methodological variety and training young scientists they make a decisive contribution to the success of non-university research institutes. The national and federal state governments not only fund the two major German research organisations – the Max Planck Society and the German Research Society - but also the Scientific Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Alliance and Hermann-von-Helmholtz Alliance of German Research Centres with 15 major institutions. In addition, there are 55 national and 188 federal state facilities with research tasks, the German Academic Exchange Service, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, seven Academies of Science financed by the federal states and many foundations such as the Donors’ Association of German Science, which elects a City of Science and supports it with funding every year.

Business & Science – these are your partners

The key indicators of central industries show that business and science get along well in Germany: Measured by turnover, the car industry is Germany’s largest sector. At the same time, Germany is Europe’s largest market for car manufacturers and suppliers. Germany is also the largest European market for semi-conductor components, and Silicon Saxony has become the leading European semiconductor cluster. While microelectronics is one of the fastest-growing industries in Germany, information and communications technology is already the economic sector with the largest value added in the country. Germany is not only number two for medical patent applications world-wide, it also generates 30 per cent of global applications for biotechnology patents and is one of the Top Five countries for pharmaceuticals production on an international scale. Companies around the globe benefit from Germany’s central role in the prospering European space and aviation market, while German wind, solar and bioenergy technologies have the largest global market share.

Perfect MICE destination

Germany is the land of Nobel Prize Winners, land of research promotion and growing innovation markets. All these are good reasons to plan or visit scientific congresses and high-tech fairs here. But there is more to it than that: Germany is the geographic and economic centre of Europe. It is not only the EU’s largest economy and market but, with its nine borders, it is also a hub for the growth markets of Central and Eastern Europe. As a MICE destination it is already in the top league, ranking second world-wide and number one in Europe. If you are looking for a science and high-tech-focused MICE destination in Germany, you have various options. The following will offer orientation:

• The German Convention Bureau (GCB), http://www.germany-meetings.com/ 
• Leading high-tech fairs (see box),
• Locations of relevant research institutions,
• Places on the Land of Ideas website,
• Germany’s eleven metropolitan regions (Berlin/Brandenburg, Bremen-Oldenburg, Frankfurt/Rhine-Main, Hamburg, Hannover–Braunschweig–Göttingen, Munich, Nuremberg, Rhine-Neckar, Rhine-Ruhr, Saxon Triangle and Stuttgart),
• The German Competence Networks, Fields of Innovation, and Innovation Regions established by the German Ministry of Economics and Technology,
• Relevant ideas for social programmes (museums, tours, events).

From solar-powered venues and meetings in new high-tech centres through factory inspections, industry park tours and visits to technology museums to theme routes and technology walks – there are no limits to exciting science and high-tech theme events in Germany. Of course, the German Convention Bureau will help you find the right venue, an inspiring social programme and the right local event partner. On the GCB’s website you will also find portraits and tips on the country’s most important research and science hubs.   

Websites:
http://www.germany-meetings.com/ (–> Germany Meetings –> Business & Science)
http://www.hightech-strategie.de/
http://www.land-der-ideen.de/
http://www.invest-in-germany.de/
http://www.ideen-zuenden.de/
http://www.kompetenznetze.de/
http://www.bmbf.de/ (–> High-Tech Strategy / Education/ Research/ Science)
wm2006.deutschland.de
http://www.museen.de/ (–> Search –> “Technology“ or “Natural Science” or “Physics” or …)
http://www.wer-zu-wem.de/ (–> Themes –> factory tours or –> industries)