Industry 4.0 Accelerating the Industrial Digital Transformation
The rapid global digital transformation or Industry 4.0 impacts all companies, collaboration, manufacturing networks and partnerships within the field of production technology. This transformation is reshaping the competitive landscape by bringing fundamental changes to established industries, and innovation to transform the value chain is becoming ever more important.
Interdisciplinary and multistakeholder win-win partnerships between start-ups, corporates and academia is the key to accelerate innovation across manufacturing networks.
The dynamic Tech4Growth partnering workshops are part of the networking events series empowered by Innosuisse and EPFL Innovation Park, connecting start-up founders, corporate innovators as well as academic professors to learn about collaboration models and best practices.
This series focuses on the digital transformation of industry, where new technology such as industrial robotics, IoT, AI and data analytics are playing an increasing important role and will cover the following topics:
• successful technology transfers
• how to run joint R&D projects
• how to build win-win commercial partnerships
• how to make/get strategic investment and prepare a successful merger and acquisition
PROGRAM BENEFITS

PROGRAM DETAILS
This workshops series is for high tech start-up founders, corporate senior executives and university professors / and senior scientists active in Industry 4.0 sector to ensure relevant collaboration and exchanges (no service providers). Seats are limited and priority access will be given to the mentioned profiles, as we would like the exchanges and collaborations during the workshops to be as meaningful as possible to all participants.
The 4 online workshops on Nov. 1 (hybrid), 4, 8 & 10 are complimentary and you can join the series anytime to attend a single session. The final physical session on Nov. 12 at Bois Chamblard will be available at a fee. Reserve your spot now, participation will be confirmed due to limited seats!
I really enjoyed having invested – not spent – 6 hours of my time in person at EPFL Bois Chamblard Buchillon premises. The plenary session followed with informal small break-out workshops contributed to fruitful interactions and qualitative networking between attendees. I will certainly attend the next Tech4Growth Industry 4.0 as well as recommend it to Innovative-thinking peers. Innovative Sustainable Resilience we built!
Innovation today in Switzerland, is the most important asset. In fact, to grow when you are an industrial company, you have no other choice than to innovate. This is what FELCO has always done and will do in the future. Participating to Tech4Growth was an amazing experience for me. Sharing experiences and developing new concepts with peers, start-ups and the academic world is enhancing all the work done in the companies. I was extremely happy with the exchanges we had and with the quality of the questions and challenges we got during the sessions. Transforming a great idea into a profitable business is not easy and the kind of workshop like Tech4Growth Industry 4.0 is helping a lot!
TESTIMONIALS
Next to the contacts I received very valuable inputs on my own business from the participants which were extremely helpful.
The sessions provide a good overview of the challenge of collaboration between start-ups and corporates. Great testimonials of a large range of industries!
Collaboration between start-ups and corporations is key for Industry 4.0. Tech4Growth shared another one: giving us a place in space and time to share ideas, network, and shape the right frameworks for such increasing and dynamic collaborations.
The format was perfect (just the right number of people) and the venue was fantastic for thinking.
I was lucky to take part in the Tech4Growth workshops where I gained valuable insight into innovation processes, learned a lot and – most importantly – gained access to a very valuable network of innovation professionals. Just a short time later I had a follow up meeting with innovation experts because of my participation at the workshop. I highly recommend this workshop for anyone striving for innovation and / or transferring his business into the 4.0 world.
AGENDA
Nov 1 | PARTNERING FOR SUCCESS | Speakers | |
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8:30 AM - 12:00 PMHYBRID | Overview, landscape and trends of Industry 4.0. Review of strategic benefits and challenges of collaboration models between start-ups, academia and corporates. Partnering with Research Institute CSEM and examples of partnerships from start-up and SME point of view. | Lan Zuo-Gillet, EPFL Innovation Park Albert Enste, Federnfabrik Schmid
Stephane Poggi, FELCO
|
Nov 4 | COMMERCIAL PARTNERSHIPS DEEP DIVE | Speakers | |
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11:00 AM - 1:00 PMONLINE | Learn about start-up strategies for establishing commercial and procurement partnership with corporates and start-ups. Hear directly from Firmenich about the benefits and success of their start-up partnership programs and how they collaborate with Visium. | Christine Chichester, Firmenich
Karthigan Sinnathamby, Visium |
Nov 8 | TECHNOLOGY CO-DEVELOPMENT DEEP DIVE | Speakers | |
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11:00 AM - 1:00 PMONLINE | Explore how to drive the digital transformation through co-development. You will hear the co-development story of start-up Miraex and Bühler Group and discover best practices for R&D with Academia | Cornelia Koller, Bühler Group |
Nov 10 | CORPORATE VENTURE FUND DEEP DIVE | Speakers | |
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11:00 AM - 1:00 PMONLINE | Find out what makes an investment strategy successful. Hear the investment story from two perspectives, Shell Ventures and startup Akselos. You will also hear about strategies for corporate buy-out and the best practices in both technology integration and company aquisition. | Peter Van Giessel, Shell Technology Ventures |
Nov 12 | KEY LEARNINGS AND NETWORKING EVENT AT BOIS CHAMBLARD | Speakers | |
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10:00 AM - 5:00 PMIN PERSON | In this last session, you will hear a keynote on the “Why we call it the 4th industry revolution" from Xavier Comtesse and gain key insights from a panel discussion on the Future of Collaboration in Industry 4.0 with Jean-Luc Bazin of Swatch Group, Sonja Betschart of Werobotics and Antoine JeanRichard of Objectis. Finally, you will hear the key learnings from all workshops as well as get the opportunity to gather peer feedback for your own specific partnership case while networking in person at Bois Chamblard. | Jean-Luc Bazin, Swatch Group
Xavier Comtesse, Manufacture Thinking |
SPEAKERS
PARTNERS
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Lan Zuo Gillet
Deputy managing Director EPFL Innovation Park
Program leader
Massimo Lucchina
Member of Innovation Council
Innosuisse
Nicolas Loeillot
Expert
Innosuisse
Raphael Rollier
Head of Innovation and Product Management
SwissTopo
Simone Theiss
EPFL Innovation Park
Program manager