CEO Day: attractive mix of important information and networking

On a normal business day the sometimes get so much news reports from start-ups and supporters that we have to publish some of them on the following day. Yesterday this was quite different. We received very few news. No wonder – everybody was at the CEO Day in Bern. More than 450 participants attended the event.
 
The Day was opened with a keynote by CTI Invest President Christian Wenger. We reported yesterday about it. Walter Steinlin, President of CTI, followed. He had some news to share. The first concerned the budget of CTI. It will be reduced in 2013. This year the budget was CHF140m. Next year it will be CHF100m. But it’s possible that additional funds will be available from a special government programme for innovative energy related products. (Video of the keynote)
 
The second news Walter Steinlin shared concerned the training programme for start-ups. CTI has opened the programme to several providers. Starting 2013 three consortia will run the programme which also has a new name. It is called CTI Entrepreneurship Training. CTI will inform about the programme in detail shortly.
 
Then the start-ups entered the stage. 20 companies pitched in the Dragon’s Den competition. A high-profile jury judged the appearances. In the afternoon the winners were presented. The best pitch was done by BioVersys (Video of the pitch) “Biotech start-ups have to know how to pitch because of their financing requirements”, commented CEO Day organiser Jean-Pierre Vuilleumier. 42matters, the company behind Appaware, ranked second in the competition (Video). Talkbits finished in third place (Video).
 
The rest of the day networking was at the centre. Nearly 300 participants took part in the 1 to 1 meetings and of course there was enough time during the day to contact other entrepreneurs, investors, supporters and representatives of industrial companies.