One trade fair, two events

As part of the HACK4INDUSTRY powered by prototype.club startups have the opportunity to drive real change in the industry. It consists of two parts. The first one starts with a two-week working phase after the companies have published their challenge. This part culminates with live coding in Hall 14 at HANNOVER MESSE, before the startups present their developed prototypes and business models to a panel of experts.

This year, Siemens Energy will also be presenting a Challenge and will benefit from the creativity and implementation expertise of many startups. In addition, the Competence Center Innovative Procurement (KOINNO) of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection will be on site. This promotes innovative public procurement with advice and a variety of tools. KOINNO will explain how contracting authorities can benefit from innovative procurement, such as prototype.club's procurement law-compliant process, and how startups can successfully place their bids in these awards.

Afterward, the HACK4INDUSTRY Night in Hall 17 will provide just the right stage for the awards for the best teams in the challenges. On these evenings, the three best startups per challenge will present their solution in the spotlight. The winners of the Industry Challenges are thus awarded in a high-profile manner with the prospect of a follow-up contract.

Startups and established companies benefit

The HACK4INDUSTRY powered by prototype.club offers startups and young talents opportunities for real follow-up contracts. The prototype.club process, which complies with public procurement law, enables startups to pre-qualify as a new service provider based on their performance. On the other hand, industrial companies benefit in many ways from the flexible, quickly implementable, and future-proof solution. While the public award provides the right attention for innovative companies, the industrial partners also gain access to sought-after specialists and new service providers. In short, startups find new partners and investors, while established companies expand their innovative strength and remain competitive.

From the challenge to the MVP

The HACK4INDUSTRY powered by prototype.club process is divided into six steps:
1) Industry partners define their challenges in the form of a challenge.
2) prototype.club prequalifies interdisciplinary startups and talents to work on the challenge during the developer sprint.
3) In a virtual kick-off two weeks before the start of HANNOVER MESSE, the teams receive the challenge and the associated data.
4) Within two weeks, the participants develop functional prototypes to solve the Challenge.
5) Prototypes and business plans are pitched on-site at the event or virtually in front of the jury.
6) After the selection of the winning team and the award ceremony, a joint scoping workshop with the startup and company follows, where a 100-day roadmap for the implementation of the MVP (minimal product) is defined.

Call for challenges

Established companies exhibiting at HANNOVER MESSE 2023 and looking for innovative solutions to internal business challenges are invited to participate in HACK4INDUSTRY powered by prototype.club. Information and contact details can be found at https://www.prototype.club/hm-prototype-club/

Netze BW, TransnetBW, and CoVerified proved how well the format works: At Enerthon 2021, the grid operators set the challenge of visualizing the complex process of the DA/RE grid security initiative, through which system stability in the power grid is ensured, in a way that is both public-friendly and comprehensible. CoVerified took first place in the Challenge, winning a follow-on contract to implement this. Here is the result: https://www.dare-plattform.de/erleben/ . In addition, their work for TransnetBW was exhibited at HANNOVER MESSE.