The 2017 European Robotics Forum ERF will take place on 22 to 24 March 2017, in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
The European Robotics Forum is a gathering of representatives of all European robotics stakeholders from industry, research, academia and public and private investors. It aims at facilitating networking between these groups through plenaries, sessions and workshops.
The Entrepreneurship workshop provides the ability for small innovative companies to pitch their ideas for the next big thing in robotics to a panel of technology investment experts. As well as the chance to win a cash prize, entrants stand the chance to gain valuable skills in how to pitch an investment idea together with the potential to gain interest in their company from the investment community.
Entrepreneurs with developed business plans can enter to pitch their ideas and have their flight, accommodation and ERF attendance fees paid for one person. Applications are required by 17th February 2017.
Time of workshop (Exact schedule to be adjusted):
The workshop will take place over three sessions : on Wednesday 22nd March, the first speed dating session will be between 14:00 and 18:00; on the Thursday 23rd, the second coaching session will be between 8:30 and 10:15 and the third judging session will be between 16:15 and 17:45. The first two sessions will be closed sessions for the entrants only, while the last session will be open to all members of the ERF.
Organiser(s):
Jon Agirre Ibarbia, Tecnalia, jon.agirre@tecnalia.com
Renaud Champion, PRIMNEXT, renaud.champion@primnext.com
Geoff Pegman, R U Robots, geoff.pegman@rurobots.co.uk
Motivation and objective:
The objective of the workshop is to encourage the wider of acceptance of entrepreneurship in your robotics researchers by providing Entrepreneurial coaching to several teams who themselves have ideas for developing robotics products or services.
Approach:
Three sessions are proposed. The first is a "speed dating" session at which all the entrants are invited to individually pitch their ideas to the panel of investment judges. This session will result in five entrepreneurs going forward to the next session. The second session is a coaching session in which the selected entrants are given coaching by experienced financiers and entrepreneurs in how to most effectively pitch their ideas to potential finance providers. In the final session, each potential entrepreneur will make a public presentation of their idea in front of a panel of private finance providers. The panel will then consider the presentations and declare a winner of the ERF Entrepreneurship award.
Agenda of the workshop:
The speed dating will involve each entrant pitching their existing business in a 5 minute slot followed by questions from the panel. For the five selected entrants coaching sessions will cover aspects of making a business case with the last part being about making convincing presentations. Each team will be provided with one dedicated coach (or the coaches may rotate but there will always be one coach per team). The presentation session will see each team presenting for 10 minutes before being questioned by the panel.
Coaches:
The coaches are in process of being identified but will consist of respected members of the investment community and / or well established entrepreneurs.
How can participants contribute to, and prepare for, the workshop?
The participants are expected to have already developed an idea for a product or service and done some background work in researching the marketplace in which it could be exploited. Entries are expected to be individuals but, exceptionally, could be small teams. However, only one person will be subsidised to join the event.
Interested participants must submit an application with the following format by 17th February 2017 to the following email address: jon.agirre@tecnalia.com
Sponsorship:
This event is sponsored by the European Commission DG CONNECT through the RockEU2 CA project and euRobotics aisbl.