Living partnership

The Bay Areas e.V. and the Mittelstand 4.0 Competence Center Kiel announce the fourth Digital Challenge. Digitalization Minister Jan Philipp Albrecht is the patron of the Digital Challenge 2020: "Best opportunity to make your business model sustainably digital and thus fit for the future".

We are looking for disruptive and sustainable digital business models from students from the true north. With our event partner Mittelstand 4.0 Competence Center KielToday, together with the state government, we launched the fourth nationwide Digital Challenge.

"The delegation trip was a valuable event in its entirety. Not only were new digital trends and directions discovered and critically discussed, but important interpersonal connections were also created. It is only by networking people that digital potential can be properly brought to the streets and these processes can be managed with sense and understanding."

- Martin Fischbock, Light Instruments

Our members and those of our partner association San Francisco Kiel Sister City Committee Inc. (SFKSCC) had big plans for the trip of the 60-strong delegation from the Bay Area of Schleswig-Holstein to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Under the leadership of the State Chancellery, the State Chancellery and the WTSH The Bay Areas e.V. was involved in the week-long trip. They returned with a suitcase full of successes, which makes us extremely happy because it shows that the people from the Bay Areas live a lively partnership on many levels.

One group of teachers and principals in particular has attracted attention with its results. With the help of Renata Kiefer from the SFKSSC and Jens Buchloh, dedicated education cluster spokesperson at The Bay Areas, have initiated an intensive educational dialog. The schools are now launching joint student projects at various grade levels on the topic of "Human impact on the marine ecosystem". The results are to be presented at a ceremony during Kiel Week 2019. Lord Mayor Ulf Kämpfer and City President Hans-Werner Tovar of the City of Kiel have already pledged their support. Stephan Wieprecht from the Klaus Groth School in Neumünster would like to use the project to intensify contacts with a view to a school partnership. Several school partnerships have already been initiated or intensified with the help of the active participants.

In addition to the existing partnership between the Wirtschaftsgymnasium Kiel and the Convent & Stuart Hall School, new partnerships - between the City College San Francisco with the Regional Education Centers Kiel / Plön and the Louisenlund Foundation with the Alto International School - as well as a cooperation between the Max Planck School Kiel and the German International School Silicon Valley (GISSV) was launched.

In the area of business and university cooperation, numerous company and university visits took place, for example to Standford University, Cisco Meraki, LinkedIn, Ruckus Networks, Smart City in the city of San José, Lightform, DocuSign, AirBnB and Detecon USA Inc.. They invited visitors to rediscover and experience the unknown and the familiar, and to build and further strengthen the network in terms of entrepreneurial and scientific relationships. During the tour of the Plug & Play Tech Center, our former working student Pauline Hofmann guided the delegation through the company. She worked at Plug & Play in Munich and San Francisco as part of her practical semester.

For Martin Fischbock (Light Instruments), new member and winner of the start-up competition organized by The Bay Areas and others OVERFLYER is clear: "The delegation trip was a valuable event in its entirety. Not only were new digital trends and directions discovered and critically discussed, but important interpersonal connections were also created. It is only by networking people that digital potential can be properly brought to the streets and these processes can be managed with sense and understanding."

Together with the board members Hanna Fleck of the San Francisco Kiel Sister City Committee Inc. and our 1st Chairman Axel Schulz, Mayor Ulf Kämpfer, Mayor London Breed and City President Hans-Werner Tovar signed a joint agreement on waste prevention at San Francisco City Hall.

"I was overwhelmed by the city, the helpfulness of our hosts and, above all, the very good, productive atmosphere within the North German delegation."

- Jens-Peter Meißner, Headmaster of the Max Planck School in Kiel

Jens-Peter Meißner, Headmaster of the Max Planck School in Kiel, reported: "I was overwhelmed by the city, the helpfulness of our hosts and, above all, by the very good, productive atmosphere within the North German delegation." Genuine interest in each other's topics and mutual support had led to numerous contacts for further fruitful cooperation. "A personal highlight," said Meißner, "was the meeting with the head of the newly opened North German innovation office in San Francisco, former Max Planck student Tim Ole Jöhnk, whom I presented with his school-leaving certificate in 2008."

Dirk Schrödter, Head of the State Chancellery, ceremoniously opened the Northern German Innovation Office, a contact office headed by Jöhnk with the aim of networking the economic regions of Schleswig-Holstein and San Francisco / Silicon Valley. When Tim Ole Jöhnk sang the Schleswig-Holstein Song at the opening of the contact office, Hans-Jürgen Rösler from EUROCON "a goosebump moment".

Before leaving, the delegation was able to visit the Kieler Woche poster exhibition at San Francisco Airport, which was organized by Uwe Wanger from Kiel Marketing and Dirk Lonnemann from Kiel, with the support of Gerald Gutschmidt from SFKSCC through the SFO Museum was realized.

Catherine Donovan from the Louisenlund Foundation enthused: "It was great to be part of this delegation and to see how partnerships with San Francisco were initiated at all levels - school, university, business!

Once back home, they were able to enjoy an organ concert in Kiel's St. Nicolai Church with Dr. Timothy Zerlang from San Francisco as part of the city partnership. And just a few days after the delegation left, the next Schleswig-Holsteiners were already in San Francisco to fill the partnership with life: The Kiel Dragons took part in the International Dragon Boat Festival to celebrate the connection between the people of the two Bay Areas in a joint competition.

The Bay Areas is now looking forward to the 3rd CineMare International Film Festival starting on 24.10.2018 in Kiel, which this time, in cooperation with the International Ocean Film Festival and its Executive Director Ana Blanco from San Francisco, will bring marine filmmakers from all over the world to Kiel in order to integrate marine research, art and water sports in an interdisciplinary way through film and thus offer the public interesting points of contact.

We are already looking forward to welcoming our friends and partners from San Francisco here in Kiel soon. Until then, we still have a lot of plans, ideas and work ahead of us to cultivate, enjoy and celebrate the new connections.

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