When children become inventors and the successful union between business and nonprofit
Yesterday was the day! The eagerly awaited event “Lifelong learning – business and non-profit successfully united” took place in the premises of Camp.Essen. The event came about in cooperation with the KIT Initiative and neomatt GmbH. Award ceremonies, exciting lectures and a live demonstration awaited the guests. The main focus was on the awarding of prizes to young inventors who support their fellow human beings and also the economy with their innovative ideas and the announcement of cooperation between KIT Initiative and neomatt GmbH to offer learning opportunities in the form of online knowledge and puzzle games.
The interesting guests consisted of the young inventors, their proud family members, their coaches and entrepreneurs from the business sector.
The following young inventors were awarded for their special achievements:
- Joshua Richter (11) invented a positioning aid for his disabled siblings that allows the children to sit in an upright position, thus avoiding incorrect postures that lead to pain and scoliosis.
- Timon Krunke (14) developed a protective light bear with solar charging that can be attached to school bags and the like. Solar cells automatically charge the bear and it starts to glow in the dark. A practical protection for children in road traffic.
- Marius Schönefeld (17) is now a young entrepreneur and has programmed an app for schools that facilitates communication between teachers and students. The communication takes place without disclosing private data and makes the communication process smoother, e.g. for substitute lessons.
The winners each received a medal and an accompanying certificate.
Another special guest was Dr. Viktor Yalovenko, a graduate engineer, who is involved in the KIT initiative on a voluntary basis and participates in numerous events for children and young inventors and organizes workshops for them. He received the KIT Media Award for his 15-year commitment. At the events and workshops, he motivates children to discover and live out their inventive spirit. He teaches them, for example, how to build new illuminants from old batteries. At yesterday’s event, he spoke passionately about his approach, his successes and his next plans. He supported the young inventor Timon Krunke with words and deeds during his development.
The guests were warmly welcomed at 5 p.m. in the foyer of the ComIn headquarters in Essen by the cooperation partners Mr. Hans-Georg Torkel (founder of the KIT initiative) and the managing director of neomatt GmbH Mr. Dirk Pessarra. In the foyer, the guests could first view the traveling exhibition of the posters of all inventions within the KIT initiative. The traveling exhibition comprises more than 20 posters and shows imaginative and useful inventions of children. The posters can be viewed in the foyer of ComIn for another two weeks.
After the welcome and introduction of the young inventors and cooperation partners, it was time to move to the Camp.Essen premises. Camp director Nils Ehle held the welcoming speech and thus gave the starting signal for the series of lectures of the speakers.
Hans-Georg Torkel explained the motivation and plans of the non-profit KIT initiative and presented its approach. The KIT initiative supports the extracurricular exchange of knowledge between young and old. The initiative motivates people of all ages to work together and calls for learning from each other. This takes place within the framework of workshops and KIT clubs, in which the inventive spirit and knowledge acquisition of children is awakened by older people.
Reimund Büschleb presented his project “KIT-Initiative Cashback”. He showed innovative financing possibilities to finance different non-profit as well as entrepreneurial models.
Dirk Pessarra presented the cooperation with the KIT Initiative. He told about the first meeting with Hans-Georg Torkel and the joint planning to unite the non-profit with the business sector in order to act together successfully and to support each other. As a highlight, he presented the new project “9quests” of neomatt GmbH, which will also be presented for the first time at the trade fair “Maker Faire Ruhr 2017” at DASA in Dortmund. The project focuses on transforming knowledge about specific places, exhibits or topics into small puzzles that the player can solve with the help of an app. On his puzzle journey, he starts as an apprentice and can progress to become a master magician. During the live demonstration, all guests got the opportunity to puzzle along live and solve the tricky tasks. With great fun and participation, they puzzled together and then asked curious questions about the project.
In the subsequent panel discussion, the organizers exchanged ideas with the interested parents and clarified questions about opportunities for young inventors to advance their developments and present them at selected events.
In summary, the event was met with great interest and provided good entertainment value. The guests and organizers were fun and passionate about the event. Especially the award ceremony and appreciation of the young inventors met with great response and led to the great joy of the prize winners.
An informative and motivating event that met with great approval and showed what positive things can come out of a cooperation between non-profit and business. We are already looking forward to the next joint appearance at the Maker Faire Ruhr 2017 at DASA in Dortmund.
A special thanks goes to Camp.Essen, especially Nils Ehle and Andreas Kaminski, who with their support offered us the premises to realize the event.
Photos: Melanie Baumeister
Written by Jessica Schlechter on Febuary 14, 2017