Dnamo - the new incubator in Rotterdam

The Unreasonable Institute

2009-10-08T09:00:00.004+02:00

When Dnamo was in New York at the Feast Conference, they have met another incubator: The Unreasonable Institute. Dnamo was very thrilled to meet this incubator and is looking forward to share thoughts. The Unreasonable Institute is an institute that is very interested in young social entrepreneurs with bold ideas from around the world. They would like to unite the 25 most brilliant entrepreneurs from around the world to attend an intensive 10 week summer institute.

The idea of this institute is to incubate, support and finance the chosen young social entrepreneurs to give their ideas wings. At the summer institute, the young entrepreneurs undergo rigorous and practical training including personal & entrepreneurial skill development. They will also get guidance from mentors. Each Unreasonable Fellow will graduate the Institute with a viable business plan that is purposeful, sustainable, scalable and replicable. The 1st annual summer institute will be held in the summer of 2010 in the city of Boulder, Colorado.

The Feast Conference

2009-10-05T09:00:00.002+02:00

The Dnamo team was in New York last week to attend at The Feast Conference. The Feast Conference gathers the world greatest innovators from across industries and society to empower, inspire and engage each other in creating a world-shaking change. The conference presents the most innovative solutions, insights, and best practices as a catalyst toward action.

The main goal of this conference is to first change individuals, industries and ultimately the world. An open exchange of ideas across industries and society is necessary to produce lasting, sustainable, meaningful change. "The Feast" brings together the world's leading creative entrepreneurs, revolutionaries, radicals, doers and thinkers to inspire more action, share best practices, and create valuable connections that will change the world.

Dnamo pictures online!

2009-10-01T09:00:00.002+02:00

During the start-up, the Dnamo team tried to capture some important moments on camera. For example the Dnamo team working hard on decorating the temporarily office of Dnamo . They arranged the furniture, chairs, tables, whiteboards, flip overs, beamers, plants, the espressomachine, lights and more.

When the Dnamo team has finished te decoration, the first workshop was given to the entrepreneurs. The pictures of this Kick off are also online. You can find these pictures and other pictures of Enviu events on the Enviu Flickr page.

Opening presentation

2009-09-28T09:00:00.000+02:00

Dnamo Incubator

View more documents from Oriol Pascual.

The Pressure Cooker has started!

2009-09-24T09:00:00.005+02:00

One week after the selection, the Pressure Cooker kick off took place. Since that day the the entrepreneurs have been overwhelmed with trainings and workshops. During the 100 days of the Pressure Cooker, the entrepreneurs will receive 10 workshops that are all 'introductory': a first glimpse of the subject that will be given in the future. the entrepreneurs will get to know more about Business System & Organization, Team Management, Legal/IP, Fiscal, Realization & Risks, Pitching, Finance, Subsidies, Sales and Investments.

Oriol Pascual developed a crash course for the entrepreneurs. During this session the entrepreneurs will be introduced in the field of sustainability and entrepreneurship.

The entrepreneurs will also be provided with a lot of coaching. They have meetings with a sustainability coach an ISMA coach. The coaching is to help them to elaborate on their sustainable business concept and develop a strategic plan to successfully promote products to a targeted and identified market.

a picnic with Dnamo

2009-09-21T09:00:00.000+02:00

Inspiring, high-level conference, world-class speakers, cutting-edge technology, innovative small and large group networking, unique, cool and friendly, these are the key elements for PICNIC 09. PICNIC is a unique three day festival and an inspiring conference complimented by a set of networking events and hands-on technology experiences for top creatives and innovation professionals in business, technology, new media, entertainment, science and the arts and of course Dnamo could not miss this event.

The festival will take place in Amsterdam from September 23 till September 25. The goal of the festival is to educate and connect people, industries, sectors and disciplines and stimulate creativity, innovation, inspirantion and business. PICNIC is desighned to evoke an emotional reaction through visual and auditory stimuli and surprises.

For more information about PICNIC and tickets for this event go to the website.

Dnamo @ Emerce eDay

2009-09-14T09:30:00.001+02:00

This Thursday the 17th we will attend the Emerce eDay event at the Van Nelle Fabriek. There we will join the Incubator Exchange, where 100 representatives of promising incubators, the top of the innovative business and investment world will meet.

Emerce eDay is the yearly Dutch convention for online business and marketing dicision makers. 1500 decision makers in the field of interactive marketing, media an e-business will attend. They are responsible for driving innovation in large Dutch top 500 companies, or smaller fast growing online ventures. New strategies, cases, concepts and technology on e-business, will be delivered by national and international key note speakers.

This year Emerce eDay is celebrating its 5th anniversary. Especially for this celebration, Emerce eDay will also form the backdrop for a special edition of the Incubator Exchange. This event has already had two succesful Dutch editions before and therefor this edition, the Incubator Exchange will go international.

For more information go to the website.

Dnamo selects first round of sustainable entrepreneurs

2009-09-10T09:00:00.006+02:00

Dnamo, the incubator for sustainable start-ups, is already rolling. Last Tuesday (Sept. 8th), six entrepreneurs were invited to present their sustainable business ideas and aim to be selected to participate in the pre-incubation program. The selection committee, composed by Dnamo's management team (Lesley Fockema, Stephan van Dijk and Oriol Pascual), was impressed by the quality and potential of the ideas and candidates. Out of six candidates, four were selected.

The selected ideas include a portable water purification system, sustainable packaging for the flower industry, an autonomous lightning system for developing regions, and propulsion system for boats that improves the efficiency by 60%. The four candidates will start next week with the pre-incubation program, where they will receive an intensive program filled with coaching on issues like finances, business planning, intellectual property, technology and sustainability. The pre-incubation program lasts 100 days and will provide the necessary support to end up writing a solid businessplan. After this process, the entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to defend their ideas again and join the 3-year incubation program.

Dnamo has developed a unique pre-incubation program where entrepreneurs have the opportunity to go from purely an idea, to a solid business plan.

Forget Rotterdam Innovation Lab! Dnamo is the name of the new incubator in Rotterdam.

2009-09-07T08:46:00.007+02:00

Photograph by Richard Baxter (Australia)

As we told earlier Rotterdam Innovation Lab was just a working title of the incubator. There were too many other organisations with the words 'innovation' or 'lab' in their name. If you really are that innovative, you should not need to mention that in your name. Do not talk about it, BE about it.

Here a little explanation about the new name.

Dnamo generates creative energy and converts it into sustainable innovations.
Dnamo connects an co-creates to get the best result.
Dnamo is a hothouse and gives power and motivation to entrepreneurs.
Dnamo is a movement of 'movers and shakers'.

Dnamo is an incubator in Rotterdam where innovative entrepreneurs could get assistance in the development of their sustainable and innovative businesses. At the RD Campus, Dnamo is the place where the best sustainable businesses are being born!

What's in a name?

2009-09-03T09:00:00.008+02:00

Rotterdam Innovation Lab was just a temporary working name for our project. If you google Innovation Lab, this is what you get: "Results 1-10 of approximately 2.800.000 for Innovation Lab (0,21 seconds)". So we figured we need to distinguish ourselves from all those other labs and think of a powerful name.

At this very moment we are deciding on the new name. There has already been a very productive brainstorm with Enviu, Yes!Delft, TU Delft, DC Works and Contain.r for possible names. The seven best have been chosen; SparkleCollective, Innovation Bay, Marrow, The ARC, Dnamo, Springfields and SpringVentura. Now it is up to Enviu, Yes!Delft and TU Delft to decide how the Rotterdam Innovation Lab will be called from now on.

The new name will be presented in the next blog. Stay Tuned!

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

2009-08-31T09:00:00.001+02:00

The office is under construction. On September 15 we are finally moving to the Dock office at the RDM Campus. This temporarily office is being painted and the furniture is arriving bit by bit. New chairs, new tables, whiteboards, a flip over, a beamer, one plant and most important, the espressomachine. We are stil working on internet, telephony and laptops etc. Keep you posted about the progress. The office is almost ready, all we need now is a new name...

Delft University of Technology

2009-08-27T09:00:00.002+02:00

The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is a top-notch academic institution in Europe and dedicated to state-of-the-art research, education and innovation in the field of energy, mobility, infrastructures, ICT, environment and health. Over more than 10 years Delft University of Technology has commited itself to become a frontrunner in researching, designing and engineering sustainable technological solutions. Currently, the TU Delft has more than 4.000 employees working on these challenges and provides education to more dan 15.000 students. The TU Delft is partner in the Rotterdam Innovation Lab to faciliate entrepreneurship in the field of sustainable innovation and provides acces to techincal know-how and research facilities for starting sustainable entrepreneurs.

Rotterdam city and its commitment to sustainability

2009-08-24T09:00:00.002+02:00

The city Rotterdam has substantial ambitions in the areas of economy, space and society. Therefore Rotterdam made a commitment to sustainability and it is called The Rotterdam Climate Initiative (RCI). The RCI is a collaboration between the city Rotterdam, Port of Rotterdam, DCMR Milieudienst Rijnmond and Deltalinqs. Their goal is to reduce the CO2 in 2025 with 50% compared to the year 1990, preparation to climate change and strengthening the economy of Rotterdam.

The foundation of RCI is based on five things: Sustainable City, Energy Port, Sustainable mobility, Energizing City and lastly the Rotterdam Innovation Lab. For the Rotterdam Innovation Lab, RCI is responsible for initial pre-start-up and start-up finance.

Port of Rotterdam: Green & Clean

2009-08-20T09:00:00.002+02:00

Port of Rotterdam has provided the space for the RDM Campus and the Rotterdam Innovation Lab. They believe that social entrepreneurship is the key element for a successful future. CSR is an obligation for a healthy development of the dock to create harmony with the environment. Invest in sustainability, involvement and transparency, because the future of the Rotterdam docks need to be green and clean.

Hogeschool Rotterdam

2009-08-17T09:00:00.010+02:00

With the motto 'Outside in - Inside out', Hogeschool Rotterdam develops its relationships with companies and institutions in the surrounding area. Hogeschool Rotterdam scouts ideas and student entrepreneurs for the Rotterdam Innovation Lab and is also responsible for the recruitment and guidance of students. The Hogeschool Rotterdam is the result of a merger between 19 institutions for higher professional education in 1988. Followed in 2002 by a merger with the Hogeschool voor Economische Studies (HES). The school now has the highest growing percentage of all multisectoral HBO institutions in The Netherlands.

Rabobank: third most sustainable bank of the world

2009-08-13T09:00:00.001+02:00

The Rabobank Group is an international financial services provider from Dutch grounds who want to contribute to a sustainable economical development. the policy will form the basis of four key themes focusing on greater integration of CSR performance. The Rabobank is one of the top three most sustainable banks of the world. For the Rotterdam Innovation Lab, Rabobank offers pre-seeding capital, coaching on idea development, employee volunteering and sponsoring.

Apply now for the Rotterdam Innovation Lab!

2009-08-10T09:00:00.004+02:00

Do you have a sustainable business idea? Do you really believe in it but you need to do some research and get support? Get your business started at the Rotterdam Innovation Lab! Master students who are aiming to bring their graduation project to a start-up phase, can also do this here. It is even possible to do your internship at the Rotterdam Innovation Lab.

Interested?

Send an email to Jurjen or go to the Enviu website and fill in the form.

RDM Campus: the place to be for sustainable entrepreneurs.

2009-08-06T09:00:00.002+02:00

Right in the middle of the citydocks of Rotterdam, the place to be for sustainable entrepreneurs is being realized. RDM stands for Research, Design and Manufacturing. The RDM Campus is a unique location where different companies and schools share a space. Here they can create and develop innovative manufacturing and for new energy carriers.

In February, students of the technical department of the Hogeschool Rotterdam already have moved to the RDM Campus, followed one month later by the students of the Albeda College. This September the Rotterdam Innovation Lab and some other companies will set foot at the RDM Campus. The grand opening wille be on October 29, 2009.

For more information on the RDM Campus go to the website.

The program

2009-08-03T09:00:00.006+02:00

Rotterdam Innovation Lab has a complete program for pre-incubation and incubation and is now ready to start. The pre-incubation program is called the Pressure Cooker. This phase is focused to support potential entrepreneurs to develop their good idea into a succesful business plan. The package consist of a number of tools, coaching sessions and workshops during a period of 100 days, 14 weeks.

After the pre-incubation the incubation process follows. When the incubation phase starts, the entrepreneur is ready to consolidate his idea into a start-up. For this, TU Delft and the incubator for techno-starters YES!Delft provide incubation and training services to the entrepreneurs. This includes informative workshops like intellectual property, prototyping, internationalization, themed master classes, personal development and coaching.

The Rotterdam Innovation Lab opens its doors @ the RDM Campus

2009-07-30T11:34:00.008+02:00

In September, the Rotterdam Innovation Lab will open its doors on the RDM Campus. The first entrepreneurs will have an intake to participate in the program. They will present their work in fifteen minutes to the selection committee.

Mid October the Pressure Cooker process starts. It contains a intensive program of 100 days of intensive training and support to go from purely an idea, to a full business plan. Also we will have a first round of interviews with entrepreneurs that will join the incubation phase that will contain a three years program.

October 29 is the date you will have to save in your agenda. This day minister Jaqueline Cramer from the VROM ministry will open the Rotterdam Innovation Lab. It is a big day where you can see lots of innovative inventions, inspiring entrepreneurs and lost of press. And on this same day, the RDM Campus will officially be opened by a very, very, very important and famous person, some one you all know. Who is it?? You will read more about this later...

Hi All!

2009-07-29T13:57:00.004+02:00

Hi all!

It has been a while since we did our last post. Now it is time to start blogging again. On this blog you will find new posts every week on the development of the Rotterdam Innovation Lab. Did you know this is only a teporary name? Read more about this later...

Rotterdam Innovation Lab does iFest'08

2008-07-30T17:29:00.004+02:00

400 creative people + top-notch innovation specialists + Barcelona = iFest, the innovation event that celebrates business growth through the effective use of innovation, held in Barcelona (July 10-12th). Enviu and the Rotterdam Innovation Lab were there with high expectations which where greatly fulfilled. We attended inspirational presentations from people like the IDEO team, Hiroshi Tasaka, Peter Watson , Nick Leon, Herbe Lebret or Matt Kingdon amongst others.

iFest'08 videos (speakers' presentations & more)
iFest'08 pictures

But as you may already know at Enviu we are not happy by only getting inspired by great speakers, and couldn’t avoid getting actively involved and bring our vision on sustainable innovation. As result, Enviu gave several presentations focused on eco-innovation at the Netherlands, and more specifically the developments around the upcoming Innovation Lab. Additionally, the kick-of meeting of the NEXT Europe Alliance took place and for first time we met physically with our partners. But this deserves another blog post, stay tuned!

Europe; Leading the Way in Sustainable Innovation?

2008-06-21T20:44:00.004+02:00

Paul Smith recently posted at Ecopreneurist about the development of the NEXT Europe Alliance where he reviews the innovation labs that are part of it. "You could mistakenly believe, judging by all the press about US cleantech, renewable energy, and green business ventures, that the hub for all things green and innovative is the US". And we ask; where are the organizations, entrepreneurs, inventions, incubators, and companies that contribute to foster sustainable innovation & entrepreneurship?

Here you can find some of the organizations that we keep an eye on, however the list is far from complete and would like to ask for your take. Leave us your suggestions at the comments section and help us identify the movers and shakers on the field.

TU Eindhoven Innovation Lab (NL)
Media Guild (NL) Incubator/hub
Science Park (NL) Research, companies, incubation
Philips Consumer Electronics - Innovation Lab (NL)
Programa Innova (ES) University Incubator
Innovation Lab (DK) Innovation network
Danish User Center Innovation Lab (DK) Research center
InnovationLab (Ireland) Research center
Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education (Stanford - US)
Innovation Lab at East State University (Tennessee - US) University Incubator
Civic Innovation Lab (Cleveland - US) Community incubator
MIT Community Innovation Lab (Boston – US)
Masdar, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Emirates) Incubator
Victorian Eco Innovation Lab (AU)

What is your take?

URL Update: RotterdamInnovation.com

2008-06-19T10:40:00.001+02:00

From now on, you can access this blog from a new address: www.rotterdaminnovation.com Please update your bookmarks since we may change the blogging platfform on a near future, but the URL will always remain the same.

www.RotterdamInnovation.com

Ferry Service to RDM has Started: Aqualiner

2008-06-02T16:48:00.004+02:00

Since May 29th 2008, the company Aqualiner has a regular ferry service from the center of Rotterdam to the RDM Campus. Every 20 minutes, a ferry departs from the same location of the tourisitic atraction Spido: right next to the Erasmus Bridge.

Now it's easy to reach the RDM Campus and the Innovation lab for a reasonable proce: 2,5 euros.

Aqualiner Time Schedule