Munich Startup: What exactly does the Muc Summit do and who is behind it? Please introduce your team.
Munich Summit: The Muc Summit GmbH was founded in 2015 by the UnternehmerTUM, dem Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship and German Entrepreneurship, and has established itself as a reliable partner and facilitator of the Munich Innovation Ecosystem in recent years, including events such as MUST – The Munich Summit and various satellite events on 3D printing and healthcare. With MUST – The Munich Innovation Ecosystem, the Munich Summit acts as a driving force for the strategic development of Munich's innovation ecosystem, bringing together the most relevant stakeholders to promote exchange in, from, and for Munich and to increase the visibility of Munich's innovation ecosystem nationally and internationally. This can create stronger connections and synergies between business, science, startups, and politics, as well as other ecosystem partners, making the location attractive in the long term.
As part of a strategy process, 45 participants were involved to adopt the following vision for Munich:
"Munich's innovative, open-minded, and diverse community brings together international young talents, startups, and established companies to co-create scalable innovation striving towards the Sustainable Development Goals. This unique blend of academia, industry, startups, government, science and society offers a unique high-tech based ecosystem in one of the most livable cities in the world."
Frizzi Engler-Hamm, Managing Director of Muc Summit GmbH: My goal is to sustainably develop Munich as a center of innovation, to attract talent with valuable and scalable business models, to identify potential and synergies between startups, universities, corporations, the public sector, and other stakeholders, in order to actively shape cross-sector collaborations and connect the right partners.
Matthias Notz: I serve as Managing Director of Muc Summit GmbH – in addition to my role as Managing Director of German Entrepreneurship GmbH (a shareholder of Muc Summit). I'm driven by the desire to make Munich even more visible and attractive as an innovation and startup hub, both within our own city, but also nationally and internationally. This benefits all stakeholders and partners in the Munich Innovation Ecosystem.
Katja Werner: Since 2017, I have been bringing together the most important players from business, science, the public sector, as well as the startup and ecosystem scene at national and international levels within the framework of MUST. In my role as Business Development & Project Lead, I enable entrepreneurial and innovation exchange between stakeholders, strategic development for the Munich innovation ecosystem, and national and international visibility for Munich as a location.
Johanna Kobilke: I represent Muc Summit GmbH as an "ecosystem integrator" for the "Munich Global Impact Sprint" project of the three Munich universities: Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the Technical University of Munich, and the Munich University of Applied Sciences. The goal is to bring international teams and talents to Munich and integrate their innovation activities into our ecosystem. My keen interest lies in the connection between companies and their impact on their social and ecological environment, as well as the resulting implications for action and opportunities for innovation as a driver of a livable and sustainable future.
Munich Startup: Which partners from business, science and the public sector do you work with?
Munich Summit: We work with, among others, the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, Google Germany, Innosabi, Intel Germany, the LabCampus, the City of Munich, Munich Startup, the Munich universities, PwC, the Plant1 and many other partners. We also have a network of international partners to strengthen the visibility of Munich's innovation ecosystem internationally. Our goal is to inspire further partners for our initiative in order to strengthen Munich as a leading innovation location.
Unique stakeholder mix in Munich
Munich Startup: What makes the Munich innovation ecosystem so unique in your opinion? And where do you see a need for action and where are you focusing your work?
Munich Summit: Munich's innovation ecosystem boasts a unique mix of stakeholders. Many SMEs are headquartered in Munich, as are 32 listed companies, and numerous international firms have established their German headquarters there. Furthermore, many internationally renowned universities, including the Munich University of Applied Sciences (HM), the Technical University of Munich (TU), and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), are located in the Bavarian capital. This creates an innovative environment and promotes new ideas and technologies. Thanks to the attractive job opportunities and university offerings, as well as their entrepreneurship centers, Munich has a wealth of talent.
Our work is based on bringing together the unique mix of stakeholders and networking them through regular dialogues, creating transparency and thus jointly setting and advancing the agenda for Munich's innovation ecosystem.
Munich Startup: How can you specifically support startups with your work?
Munich Summit: On the one hand, we can provide support through curated networking within the ecosystem, and on the other hand, we help to transparently reflect topics and challenges and to jointly develop solutions with the network of public authorities, business and science and to initiate projects.
Joint project with Munich universities
The University of Munich, the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and their three startup centers are working with us on the internationally oriented project "Munich Global Impact Sprint" to promote innovation and social change through responsible and impact-oriented entrepreneurship and to anchor it in Munich. The three universities jointly applied for funding by establishing a program that attracts national and international talent, technology-based projects, and young startups. We act as an ecosystem integrator within the project to anchor the innovations and activities in the Munich ecosystem, facilitate exchange with network partners, and initiate collaborations for co-creation. The goal is to scale sustainable business models and establish them in Munich.
Munich Startup: Some of you may be familiar with MUST – The Munich Summit, a major event that last took place in 2018. This is where startups met with corporates, venture capital firms, and other key players from the scientific community. Is a similar event format planned (post-coronavirus) or are there any other projects you can discuss right now?
Munich Summit: For the Munich Global Impact Sprint, we are planning several large-scale events, as well as community-building events and subject-specific workshops. The first virtual "matching event" will take place in April after the scouting process for international founders and aims to connect the talented individuals with each other and with the Munich ecosystem.
The second major "co-creation event" will take place at the end of the year. Here, startups will have the opportunity to pitch to local industry, universities, the public sector, and other stakeholders, and to work together in topic-specific workshops.
We also have various exchange formats within the Munich Innovation Ecosystem. In addition to a regular "MUST Dialogue," where the partner network has the opportunity to report on current projects and maintain the exchange, we organize workshops to jointly advance topics. In 2021, there will be a workshop format that addresses technologies that contribute to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.
We also regularly publish news about events and projects at https://www.must-munich.com/insights/.
Building a community – offline and online
Munich Startup: Muc Summit has recently been awarded the contract to act as ecosystem integrator for the Exist Potentiale project “Munich Global Impact Sprint” to help implement. What exactly is happening in the project and what do you have planned?
Munich Summit: Munich is one of the most attractive and innovation-friendly locations, attracting talents and startups as well as companies from the region and around the world. By positioning itself as an international startup hotspot for scalable, technology- and impact-focused solutions based on the SDGs (UN Sustainable Development Goals, Editor's note.) we are creating a sustainable and livable future for the location. Munich is a tech hub with strong B2B capabilities and excellent conditions for co-creation with ecosystem partners.
This award will enable us to build an effective online and offline community and support the project in establishing itself within the Munich network. To ensure long-term success, an innovation and collaboration platform will be provided to publish ideas, projects, and news, to further develop business models together with experts, and to enable co-creation processes.
