We are organising an EU Industry Days Pitching contest for new business ideas supporting the transition to a sustainable, digital and resilient economy. Four finalists will pitch their business ideas live and get feedback from business experts and investors, as well as the audience. Two winners, by jury and audience vote, will be invited to participate at the next SME assembly in Prague, Czech Republic. During this session there will be also a short presentation of the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme, given by Mr Jakub Boratynski, Director of Networks and Governance Directorate in DG GROW of the European Commission.

Moderators:

• Anna Heijker, Moderator & Pitch Trainer, Pitches & Presentations
• Alex Glod

Jury members:

• Ulla Engelmann, Head of Unit, DG GROW, European Commission
• Ruxandra Creosteanu, Co-Founder, Babele Create Together
• Jeremy de France, Founder @ Graphee & VP French Tech Bucharest 

Finalists:

• David Pereira de Castro, Founder, Blueveg 
• Iulia Dorobantu, Co-founder, Charger.ro 
• Dimitri Ionescu, Founder, LightMirror
• Martin Branný, COUNTER SOMETHING s. r. o.  Kristina

Speaker:

• Jakub Boratynski, DG GROW Director of Network and Governance,  European Commission

The session will focus on the place-based dimension of the EU industrial policy, providing a chance to present some key implementation challenges of industrial transitions at local and regional level. Invited speakers will reflect on the modalities to connect industrial ecosystems and regional innovation ecosystems, through instruments such as smart specialisation (S3), Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) and digitalisation as a key enabler of green industrial transitions in EU regions.

Intellectual property (IP) improves the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and provide a potential source of revenue. SMEs have specific needs, such as understanding the importance of IP for their businesses, tailored advice in assessing their intangibles, financial support to protect and enforce their IP and better access to finance provided by investors and banks to help them scale up. This session will provide a practical guide for SMEs on the different EU initiatives available to European SMEs in the area of intellectual property and present the benefits of the upcoming Unitary Patent System.

As outlined in the EU Industrial Strategy and its update - the future of EU industry will be driven by twin transition of industrial ecosystems and co-designing/co-creating solutions and pathways in close collaboration with practitioners - industrial stakeholders operating in a value chain. Bringing together important industrial stakeholders, investors and EU policy-makers, this high-level plenary session will zoom-in on opportunities, enablers and challenges of an ongoing transformational change of the EU industry. It will shed light on business case - new partnership models, investment opportunities, technology/infrastructure needs and social factors to accelerate the twin transition towards green, digital and resilient economy.

Moderator:

• Jacki Davis

Speakers:

• Natasja Paulssen
• Volker Helzle
• Spiros Nikolopoulos
• Michela Magas
• Luca Morena
• Lisa Lang
• Anna Athanasopoulou 
• Rehana Schwinninger-Ladak 

This session is fully dedicated to youth social entrepreneurship and its attractiveness. It also gathers relevant experts from the EU, international and local levels that will present opportunities of EU policies, the state of play of young social entrepreneurs but also challenges that still need to be tackled followed by concrete recommendations

Organiser: EUROPEAN NETWORK OF SOCIAL INTEGRATION ENTERPRISES (ENSIE)

Moderators:

• Pauline Bonino
• Aziza Yussupova

Speakers:

• Patrick Klein
• Julien de Beys
• Antonella Noya
• Angela Achitei
• Thomas Laleu

Introduction by Nicolas Schmit, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights