The Prices

• 1^st place: Voucher of 3000 € for a training of your choice at BFI Vienna or 1500 € cash

• 2^nd place: Voucher of 2000 € for training of your choice at BFI Vienna or 1000 € cash

• 3^rd place: Voucher of 1000 € for training of your choice at BFI Vienna or 500 € cash

• Most Valuable Person: 1000 € training of your choice at BFI Vienna or 500 € cash

(MVP: person providing the most ideas and/or the most valuable feedback on other ideas)

The Jury

Mag. Dr. Eveline Steinberger-Kern is the Founder and Director of The Blue Minds Company (TBMC), an innovative consulting and research company, which concerns itself with questions and answers to the transformation of energy systems. In Tel Aviv she operates the Foresight, a subsidiary of TBMC, that develops software for digital-energy-related services. From 1999 Eveline was at Verbund AG in Vienna for nine years, where she served, among other things, in the role of head of Strategic Marketing and portfolio management, and served as director of ‘Verbund-Sales GmbH’. The Austrian Climate and Energy Fund was her next station. While there, she led the business. 2010 she founded her first business with ‘green minds’ and participated in the startups surrounding the decentralised energy supply system (among other things, The Mobility House AG, a mobility services provider for electromobility). From 2012 to 2014, as Sector Cluster Lead Energy at Siemens AG Austria, she was in charge of the energy business in 19 countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Since July 2014 Eveline is back operating in her independent business (decentralised energy provision). The Blue Minds Company GmbH is a relaunch of the green minds e.U. company, which was founded in 2010

As Chief Commercial Officer, Mag. Maria Zesch   is responsible for marketing, sales and service for B2B, B2C and Wholesale customers of T-Mobile Austria. She is accountable for almost 1bn in revenues and 4 mio customers. She heads around 700 employees. She is also an executive member of the Deutsche Telekom European Commercial Leadership Team. Maria Zesch has been working for the Deutsche Telekom enterprise since 2003.

Mag. (FH) Tanja Wehsely  is a member of the Vienna City Council and the Vienna State Parliament. Since 2009 she is deputy chairwoman of the SPÖ Rathausklub (responsible for the organisation, coordination and communication concerning the social democratic members of the Vienna State Parliament and Vienna City Council) and chairwoman of SPÖ 20. As member of the Vienna City Council Tanja Wehsely presides over the board of Economics, Finance and International Affairs. Since 2010 she is also the deputy chairwoman of the waff (labour market promotion fund). Moreover she is not only active in the field of educating adults, but she also focuses on youth education. As such Tanja Wehsely is chairwoman of the Association for Vienna's Youth Centers. Since 2008 Tanja Wehsely gives lectures in Public Relations as well as Lobbying and Public Affairs as part of the Bachelor degree course for social work and Master Degree courses at the FH Campus Wien.

 Dr. Giordano Koch is Managing Director at HYVE Innovation Community. In the course of his career at HYVE he initiated and developed the business sectors “Open Government” and “Open Innovation Consulting”. He studied in Passau, Cleveland, at the Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen and graduated at the WHU Vienna and University of Hamburg. He is lecturer at the University of Linz and often booked as speaker, referring to various best practices and combining them with scientific findings. Innovation is everywhere: in Open Innovation, Crowdsourcing and Co-Creation. Please expect incredible stories, broad expertise and different perspectives from industry, politics and science. Dr. Koch inspires people with his presentations and takes the audience to a world of innovation; his manifold speaker experience has led him through over 50 speeches and keynotes.

Mag. Sandra Baierl is departmental manager at Kurier. She studied political science, publicism, communication management and English language and literature at the university of Vienna. After working several years as a journalist, she became editor in chief at Nivea and in 2006 came to Kurier. First she lead the carrier department and later on the business department.

Nikolaus Pelinka has been Managing Director of Kobza Media Group since 2012. Before that he gained management and leadership experience in large corporates and administrative structures like the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Austrian Railways and the national public broadcaster ORF. Nikolaus has completed an Executive MBA program in London and a Master of Science program in Political Communications. At present he attends the Executive Master of Business Law program at St. Gallen University, Switzerland.

Lorenz Edtmayer is founder and CEO of TAILORED MEDIA GROUP. With their companies DARWIN’S LAB (Academy, Product Design, Innovation Consulting), TAILORED APPS (Mobile App Entwicklung & Virtual Reality), WEB & SÖHNE (Chatbots, Artificial Intelligence, Web Applications), CLICK STARS (Performance Marketing) and SHARE LOCK (Cybersecurity, Hacking) the TAILORED MEDIA GROUP provides a complete value chain. Furthermore, Lorenz is Co-Founder of Austria's leading Startup- and Innovationplatform, derBrutkasten.com, and has a consulting (McKinsey &Company) and banking (Raiffeisen Bank Russia) background. Lorenz's strength lies in the identification of new business models, areas and trends. In his spare time Lorenz likes to invest in young Up-and-coming startups.

Hassen Kirmaci  founded with weXelerate 2017 Europe's biggest innovation center that hosts an entire ecosystem for innovation, including world-leading corporates, a network of international investors and Europe's most promising startups who are participating in our multi-corporate accelerator on site. In September the corporates and Start Ups move in the Design Tower of the Sofitel in downtown Vienna. Before Hassen Kirmaci started weXelerate he was Vice President at Gartner.

Dr. Valerie Höllinger MBA, MBL since 2011 CEO of the BFI Wien, studied law in Vienna and earned post-graduate degrees in business administration from the IMADEC University and the Paris-Lodron University. In her position as CEO, she is responsible for all financial and strategic operations of the organisation, digitization, the private and corporate customer business as well as the management of the divisions new business, data science, marketing, sales & PR, customer care and educational theory. Before she joined the BFI Wien, Höllinger acquired international managerial experience as member of the management board at ANECON Software Design und Beratung GmbH, in the division Strategy & Business Development at Telekom Austria AG and as Head of Sales in the beverage industry. Since 2014 Höllinger is a member of the supervisory board of the Staatsoper Wien GmbH. And since September 2015 she is Vice Chairman of the supervisory Board of Burgtheater GmbH, Staatsoper Wien GmbH, Volksoper Wien GmbH and ART for ART Theaterservice GmbH.

Mag. Franz-Josef Lackinger since 2003 at the BFI Wien and since 2011 CEO of the BFI Wien, studied history, german and political science at the University of Vienna. In his position as CEO he is responsible for HR, IT, facility management, the Business High-School (HAK/HAS des BFI Wien), the College of the BFI Wien (FH des BFI Wien) as well as the Berufsausbildungszentrum (BAZ) and all labor market related projects. Before he joined the BFI Wien, Lackinger was in the Education Department of the Austrian Union Bund (ÖGB) as well as in the Association of Austrian Education Houses (Verband Österreichischer Schulungs- und Bildungshäuser). Since 2011 Lackinger is Chairman of the supervisory Board of the Fachhochschule des BFI Wien, since September 1991 he is member of the supervisory board of Volkstheater GmbH and since 2017 member of the supervisory board of FAC GmbH.