Great people, great workshops, amazing startups at the second 5-HT Innovators Club

The second edition of the 5-HT Innovators Club was held from November 30 till December 2, 2022. This exclusive community event of our corporate partners combined keynote and workshop elements and offers plenty of space for the exchange of best practices. Startups also presented innovative solutions and use cases. On the third and final day, we took a tour of the Roche production site in Mannheim, which included learning about and trying out their VR-based training tools. 

It was phenomenal - thanks to all participants and their openness and willingness to exchange and collaborate. Your contribution made the event great and fruitful!

After welcoming words by Alexander Boeser who was also moderating the first day, 5-HT managing director Dr. Frank Funke outlined the successes of the past with more than 320 startups in the ecosystem and lots of matches to date along with a growing number of corporate partners. All focusing on the innovation and success of digital chemistry, digital health and sustainability.

Our 5-HT partners then learned from Alessandro Pistillo (BASF) in his keynote about the BASF SCOTT tool and the great example how building an “Ecosystem with purpose - driving GHG emission transparency in the value chains” and digitalization can support sustainability efforts.

Alessandro Pistillo: "I am grateful for the opportunity to share BASF experience in building an "ecosystem with purpose" at the keynote of 5-HT Innovators Club. I could outline a collaboration which is driving transparency in product carbonfootprint in multiple value chains towards decarbonization. But the biggest fun was to network with many passionate and knowledgeable people of the tech and corporate world." 

Afterwards, the approximately 60 participants had the opportunity to jingle and mingle during a nice evening.

The second day – moderated by Lisa Tschalenko - was packed with various workshops coming from the industry participants. Each peer had the opportunity to work on two out of four industry relevant challenges. The outcome of all workshops was presented after the sessions. They were characterized by fruitful discussions full of ideas, inspirations and cross-industry impulses.

Last but not least – during the future innovation insights session some ecosystem startups were showcasing their solutions which also inspired the participants.

Thanks to:

·         Energy Robotics and Vladimir Margolin (smart robotics for industry)

·         Goodly Innovations and Robert Hoffmeister (pharma process experts with AR-based training)

·         Nuralogix and Valerie Lasry (smartphone based health metrics detection)

·         Visual Abstract and Saribek Karapetyan, Benito Campos and Olga Godulianova (visual summaries of scientific publications)

During the tour of the Roche site in Mannheim, we were able to look at the production as well as the VR lab facilities. A visualization of a lab setup with various functionalities was part as well as trying out VR-based training tools. That was fun but not very easy. 

Here are some participants' voices:

Muriel Rakotomalala, SAP: "The magnitude and complexity of the challenges faced by chemicals and life science companies is unprecedented. That why they can only be solved with the power of an ecosystem. Thanks 5-HT Digital Hub - Chemistry & Health for putting together yet another inspiring event. I enjoyed hearing the different perspectives on the future of #chemistry, digitalhealth and sustainabilty from corporates and startups."

Shib Mukhopadhyay, Lilly: "the exchanges with attendees from various industries in this digital ecosystem were insightful and provided some great new perspectives for our work. For me personally, the crowning jewel of this entire experience was the incredible technologies from the 4 startups showcased during the Startup Marketplace. The growing application of hardware and software innovation that we saw at the Innovators Club blew me away."

Marco Majer, BASF: "It was a pleasure to attend the 5-HT Digital Hub - Chemistry & Health Innovators Club last week in Mannheim to connect & exchange with peers from the chemical and pharma industry."

Simon Zühlke, Endress+Hauser: "There is a group coming together which works cross industrial. It covers topics which are relevant for all of us for many industries and I can get ideas not only coming from peers out of my industry, but also from other industries."

Sebastian Schomisch, LTS Lohmann Therapie-Systeme: "At the 5-HT Innovators Club everybody is very open, so it’s easy to get in contact first and then start a deep discussion very early. So it’s very productive. It’s fun and it’s a great mixture along the value chain." 

Tatjana Williams, Lilly: "We are sharing our learnings and also gaining different insights and what challenges we face and how can we work on it together. It’s a lot of fun being here and working with everyone together, so yeah, nothing to add, but also very positive experience."

Philipp Noll, Merz Group: "Productive discussions and a feeling that everyone want to collaborate to leverage technology to improve patient outcome!"

Benito Campos, Visual Abstract: "I think the Innovators Club is one of those rare instances, one of those rare events where there are 100% intrinsically motivated people."

Robert Hoffmeister, Goodly Innovations: "Thank you so much 5-HT Digital Hub - Chemistry & Health for hosting this event. great people, great workshops, and amazing startups."

Thanks to our participants from Amazon Web Services (AWS), BASF, The Berner Group, BIX / Boehringer Ingelheim, Dentons, Endress+Hauser Group, Energy Robotics, FUCHS Group, GELITA, Goodly Innovations GmbH, GWQ ServicePlus AG, Lilly Deutschland GmbH / Eli Lilly and Company, LTS Lohmann Therapie-Systeme AG, Merck Group, Merz Aesthetics, NuraLogix Corporation, Pfizer, Roche, SAP, SCHOTT, Visual Abstract as well as Marco R. Majer, Benedict Heblich, Lena Christina Fütterer M.A., Torben Fruth, Shib Mukhopadhyay and Tatjana Williams for their contribution as challenge givers.

We say THANK YOU and see you at the next 5-HT InnovatorsClub 2023!