"Hinterland of Things" conference starts

The event in Bielefeld aims to provide a platform for networking between SMEs and startups.

Under the motto 'Celebrating Entrepreneurship Together', the Hinterland of Things Conference will take place in Bielefeld from June 01. The conference is an initiative of the Founders Foundation. More than 1,300 participants are expected at the event, who will discuss the biggest challenges facing the German economy with a focus on technological developments, sustainability and digitalization. Included are 95 international speakers from SMEs, the start-up scene, venture capitalists and politics.

SPD Federal Chairman Lars Klingbeil will also be there. "In Germany, we sometimes find disruption difficult. Many companies think about what they can do better, but not what they can do and think differently. There is often a lack of willingness to take a radical step. That's where established companies can learn a lot from founders," Klingbeil said.

The conference is supported by the 'Hinterland Alliance', an association of the largest regional companies, such as Dr. Oetker, Melitta, Miele, Goldbeck, Claas and other partners such as Google Cloud, McKinsey, Intel, Slack, Dropbox, Dell, PWC and Lakestar. Startbase is media partner of the conference.