Grand Opening of EIT ICT Labs Silicon Valley

The Grand Opening of EIT ICT Labs Silicon Valley took place on 25 September 2014 in San Francisco, U.S., officially opened by Willem Jonker, CEO EIT ICT Labs.

First up was Joon Yun, managing partner and president of Palo Alto Investors, LLC with a keynote on Hiding in Plain Sight - Massive Trends Missed by the Masses.

Interactive Workshops featured pitches & group discussions on the Future of Urban Life and Mobility; the Future of Education; Software Defined Networks; Building a Bridge For Entrepreneurship Between Silicon Valley and Europe.

The evening programme featured the Opening Ceremony of EIT ICT Labs in Silicon Valley led by Willem Jonker, CEO EIT ICT Labs.

The EIT ICT Labs Programs and Activities in Silicon Valley were presented by Program directors Anders Flodström, Klaus Beetz, Marko Turpeinen, and Roberto Saracco, with a talk by Mauro Battocchi, Consul General of Italy, EU Chairmanship and Massimo Maresca, Science Attache.

The keynote came from Host Duncan Logan, Founder and CEO of RocketSpace, a world-renowned technology campus that connects tech startups, innovative corporate brands, accelerator programs, and entrepreneurs to bring the future to market.

Panel on the European Opportunity in the Bay Area

Panellists included Erik Ekudden, VP Global Technology Strategy at Ericsson; Carrie Walsh, Managing Director, Entrepreneur Services Group, Silicon Valley Bank; Bernd Girod, Professor EE, Senior Ass. Dean, Online Learning and Professional Development, Stanford University; Paul Campbell, EIT ICT Labs Silicon Valley Advisor and David Nordfors, EIT ICT Labs Silicon Valley Advisor.

Health and Pitching Contest

The scope and value of the pitching contest were highlighted by Klaus Beetz, EIT ICT Labs, Robert Thijssen, Consulate General for the Netherlands in San Francisco and Tiina Tanninen, Tekes Silicon Valley.

It was then the turn of 12 European startups to give their elevator pitches.  In the hot seat were:

David Tacconi, CEO, CoRehab: Collaborative Rehabilitation
Jussi Räisänen, CEO & Co-Founder, HeiaHeia.com: Social Encouragement for Fitness
Glenn Bilby, Chairman and co-founder, Quick Posture: Posture Therapy
Benjamin Jensen, Key Account Manager, Professional Sports & Research, Firstbeat Technologies: Lifestyle Assessment
Dick Uyttewaal: CEO SkinVision
Paul Vos: CEO IQ Messenger
Jussi Kaasinen, CEO & Co-Founder, Sports Tracking Technologies
Johann Huber, CEO & Co-Founder, Soma-Analytics: Employee Emotional Resilience
Jörg Land, Managing Director, Tinnitracks (Sonormed GmbH): Tinnitus Treatment
Anupam Nayak, CEO Applied Radar Technology
Anne Bruinvels, CEO PxHealthcare
Jan Peter Larsen, CEO Sense Health

The Contest was moderated by Maarten den Braber, co-founder of Quantified Self Europe and QS Amsterdam, co-organiser of Singularity University NL. On the jury were Lisa Suennen, Managing Partner Venture Valkyrie and Anne deGheest, Founder of HealthTech Capital and Medstars Venture Partners.

About EIT ICT Labs

EIT ICT Labs provides diverse services such as advanced innovation projects, support entrepreneurs and develop innovation ecosystems, we run masters educations and have a doctoral school. We operate physical centres that host programs, projects, partners and entrepreneurs, works with stakeholders in business, research, education and government. EIT ICT Labs is a partnership of global companies, leading research centres and top ranked universities supporting innovation and entrepreneurship. Our new centre in Silicon Valley will be joining the pool of EIT ICT Labs centres in Berlin, Eindhoven, Helsinki, London, Paris, Stockholm and Trento.