On 18 and 19 October, Amsterdam transformed into the meeting point for sustainable energy innovation and business as it played host to The Business Booster 2023. InnoEnergy’s annual flagship event attracted a record 1,500+ attendees from around Europe and beyond to explore the theme of The new Green Economy: Balancing profit and purpose. Over two days, the InnoEnergy innovation ecosystem was in full action with high-level speakers, pitching sessions, exhibition visits and discovering new technologies, reverse pitching sessions, roundtable discussions, fireside chats and parallel sessions on critical topics to the new Green Economy. But the most important of all – networking! Over 3,200 B2B meetings took place during the event between entrepreneurs, corporates, investors and policy makers. What else was on this year?

Insights from thought leaders

The event’s roster of plenary speakers included representatives from industry, investors, policy, innovators and more as they tackled key questions concerning Europe’s readiness for the new Green Economy, offering in-depth perspectives from the front lines and visions on how to achieve a sustainable energy future. Experts took to the stage to discuss various topics critical to the new Green Economy such as the skills gap, Critical Raw Materials, agriculture and decarbonisation and financing the energy transition.

Diego Pavia, CEO of InnoEnergy kicked off the 11th edition of The Business Booster, now the leading innovation event in sustainable energy. Co-founder and Innovation Director at InnoEnergy, Elena Bou, set the stage by giving context to this year’s theme and explaining the solutions for the new Green Economy exist and that many of the companies within the ecosystem are balancing profit and purpose already today. The challenge now? Scaling and deployment!

Over the two days we were also joined by high-level keynote speakers such as the European Commission’s Executive Vice President Maroš Šefčovič, Constantijn van Oranje as special envoy to Techleap.nl, Chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation Bertrand Piccard, and the EIB’s Jean-Christophe Laloux.

The energy transition and policy in focus

We were thrilled to welcome again this year Maroš Šefčovič Executive Vice-President at the European Commission who opened the second day of The Business Booster. He delivered a message on ‘Competitive sustainability’, outlining how Europe should maintain its tech and sustainability lead in the cleantech sector, making it our biggest advantage going forward. On batteries, we heard that EU manufacturers need to take more responsibility for their supply chains including investing upstream to ensure reliable production, guaranteeing the highest social and environmental standards.

To the 1,500+ attendees, EVP Šefčovič left the following message: ”We are ready to fight for European industry, we want you to thrive, succeed, create jobs and revenue. That’s our task.”

Jean-Christophe Laloux of the European Investment Bank reiterated its mission to finance the clean energy transition by laying out how the European Tech Champions Inititative aims to tackle the European scale-up gap and move innovations from demo to industrial-scale faster and de-risked.

Innovation and ecosystems

Bertrand Picard delivered an inspiring speech reminding us that modernising our world needs to introduce new processes and systems to be more efficient with both energy and natural resource use as well as suggesting a new narrative around a clean, modern and inclusive economy.

During his fireside chat with Elena Bou, Constantijn van Oranje of Techleap.nl highlighted some of the challenges of the European start-up ecosystem such as lack of financing and the underestimation of the role of entrepreneurs.

 

 

150+ innovative technologies

A selection of InnoEnergy‘s portfolio companies exhibited their groundbreaking solutions, including at a product display area with prototypes and live demos. They also pitched their solutions to investors, industry and policymakers and those voted best by the audience moved onto the pitching finals which closed out the event. Congratulations to the final pitching winners 1st place Nevomo, 2nd place Elestor B.V. and 3rd place X1 Wind and thank you to all 150 of our portfolio companies who exhibited, pitched and connected with investors, corporates and policy makers here.

 

 

 

 

Networking for impact

Beyond the sessions, TBB.2023 provided an ideal opportunity for networking – the heart of the event. Attendees seized the opportunity to connect, discuss potential collaborations, and share innovative ideas while forging new partnerships and accelerating the adoption of clean energy solutions. The buzzing networking area and the 3,200+ B2B meetings underlined the importance of collective effort in driving change and cemented The Business Booster as the meeting point for the sustainable energy ecosystem.

 

 

Collaborating for the energy transition

With the largest gathering of the sustainable energy innovation ecosystem, TBB.2023 offered the perfect opportunity for partnership launches and announcements.

Two InnoEnergy portfolio companies, Hardt Hyperloop and Zeleros, signed a MOU during the event to expedite the technical and commercial development of hyperloop in Europe. Hardt and Zeleros will work together on the demonstration, de-risking, and implementation of the technology, with the development of an interoperable system to allow seamless transport across borders as the main priority. Read more about the cooperation here as published by our media partner Innovation News Network.

The InnoEnergy Skills Institute team invited attendees to experience the Minecraft world, with its latest innovation and the ultimate way to test your skills in contributing to a greener planet. Through Green Energy City visitors were able explore the future of sustainable energy and education through gaming!

ManpowerGroup and the InnoEnergy Skills Institute announced their partnership to upskill thousands of people for green jobs by 2025. The collaboration will provide accelerated virtual and in-person training for 70 in-demand roles including Battery Technicians, Electric Vehicle (EV) Chargers Maintenance Operators, Production Engineers, and more. Additionally, it helps drive progress towards the European Commission’s goal of having a skilled workforce to support the European Union’s Green Deal. Read the full press release.

Lastly, climate reporter for Bloomberg News, Dr. Akshat Rathi hosted a signing at The Business Booster for his first book Climate Capitalism, which tells the stories of people building solutions at scale to tackle one of humanity’s greatest challenges.

Our partners in the new Green Economy

A big thank you to all our sponsors and our hosting sponsors Schneider Electric and SE Ventures for being our partners in this edition and helping us create the future of sustainable energy, today.

Thank you also to our diamond, emerald and sapphire sponsors as well as our event and media partners. And to our sustainable energy ecosystem for making this year the most successful TBB yet again – we look forward to seeing you in Barcelona!

View The Business Booster 2023 photos here and be sure to pre-register for TBB.2024 in Barcelona!