PROMOTING INNOVATION THROUGH COLLABORATION

Activity Report2013

The community and place where people come to create meaningful projects

OVERVIEW

WHATExamples of Projects and Events Examples of Support Structures

WHOThe CommunityOur MembersProjects Run by The Impactory Members

HOWThe Impactory DefinedOur OfferingHow Our Members Define The Impactory

WHYThe context

We want to create positive impact. We also believe it is key to own up to this wish and measure the impact we have on Luxembourg and the community we are part of. It is not an easy task. Some impact can be measured in numbers while other things are softer issues. This is our first report and prototype. As we grow we will have more data and experience to build future reports that grow richer and richer in showing the impact.

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Innovation is necessary to find solutions to today’s major societal problems such as climate change, sustainable transport and mobility, energy efficiency, poverty, well-being and ageing. By supporting entrepreneurial initiatives, we are encouraging innovators to change perceptions and worldviews, which will foster social change. Since January 2013, the Impactory has been fully operational. This report highlights the first steps and achievements made during our first year. It has been a year of prototyping based on perceived needs. When we started working on the idea of The Impactory (2010 - 2012), the ecosystem for entrepreneurship in Luxembourg was fragmented. Support structures for entrepreneurs were in their infancy. Today it’s showing signs of strengthening. Support for start-ups and innovation for mid to late stages or international companies has grown. However, more of the support is needed for the grassroots level innovation and the initial idea generation stages.

The Impactory turns ideas into projects, generating a positive impact.

WHYThe context

© City Mag

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TOTAL NEW JOBSCREATED: 12

As unemployment rates grow among younger generations, companies are increasing the workload of their employees. Poor working conditions and a lack of opportunities are making people question traditional work models and look for employment alternatives.

The economical crisis and current unemployment rates in Europe show the need for innovation and dynamism in our economies.

Luxembourg is very friendly for existing medium and large businesses. It is a different picture for people who want to grow an idea into a mature business. There are high requirements on share capital if one wants to go the limited liability route. In addition many find it cumbersome and risky to have to apply for a business license just to have the right to try out ones idea. Guidance, business and moral support is needed to make people progress. All means to lower the thresholds in a sound manner will increase the level of entrepreneurship. Lobbying for legal changes like the introduction of the Sarl Simplifiee and abolishment of the requirement for a business license for many types of activities are things the Impactory community are supporting and in part driving with the wider community (EC Information Society and Media, 2011 Final report for DG INFSO Study SMART2009-0077Socio-Economic Impact of Open Service Innovation (http://files.openinnovation-platform.eu/policydocs/osi_study_final_report.pdf))

Red tape and mentality holding people back.

The context

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Business angels, Impact Investors and Philanthropists are needed in order to allow promising projects to get accelerated and multiplied.

“Incentives need to be offered to promote the emergence of business angels, capable of reinvesting their profits in the ecosystem and encouraging investment and takeovers by large groups through multicorporate and pan-European investment funds!” Distinguin S, (2013), Open Innovation 2.0 YearBook 2013 (https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/open-innovation-20-yearbook-2013)

Europe is facing numerous challenges and the way to tackle them lies in innovation and entrepreneurship.

In order to solve society’s urgent problems we need to foster more open innovation and involve all parties concerned. Innovation is most successful when every user is involved in the process and shifts towards an innovation ecosystem. It enables long-term sustainable solutions.

Understanding and awareness of social business and impact investing is low in most European countries

In today’s interconnected world we need to find new ways to tackle challenges, try new forms of working. The concept of coworking combined with collaboration is emerging as a serious option. We use collaboration as a tool for innovation and we offer various programs and the infrastructure needed to make real innovation happen.

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HOWThe Impactory DefinedThe Impactory is a community and coworking space in the city center where people meet, learn and work on their businesses and projects. Our community today counts over 100 entrepreneurs, freelancers, intrapreneurs and students from different backgrounds and cultures. We envisioned this space to be as a “do-tank” to connect and empower change makers. It is a go-to place for innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship leading to a better and stronger world.

The Impactory asbl was created 24 March 2012 based on research and feedback from entrepreneurs in the Entrepreneurship Task Force Luxembourg since 2010.

The Impactory is a meeting place for creative people willing to work on projects that matter. It’s a learning platform where everyone shares their knowledge to build a higher form of collective intelligence. We believe that collaboration is the key leverage point for driving innovation and facilitating the emergence of new sustainable solutions to complex problems.

The Impactory’s central elements:

use new ways to interact

access to a flexible and creativespace to meet same-minded peers,

work and learn

access to a virtual platform to interact and shareopportunities and

projects

SPACE COLLABORATION

becoming part of a trustedcommunity through networking and

meaningful conversations

build new partnerships,identifying complementary actors

who have the neededknowledge and skills

member collaboration in projects to facilitate innovation

identify issues and opportunities

mobilize existing knowledge then combine it and transform it

into new knowledge

action-focused events, trainings,workshops and social events

KNOWLEDGE

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The Impactory exists mainly through its community. We are a network of people contributing to different projects and creating an atmosphere of entrepreneurship within The Impactory. We are still too young to accurately measure the results of our different initiatives but the interactions and projects are growing exponentially and our first success stories are emerging.

The SpaceThe first component of the Impactory is the space. Our physical space is the base that enables members to meet, work and increase their scope of interactions in their businesses and projects. Our physical space at 29, Bd Grande Duchesse Charlotte and a virtual space that is used to enable members to meet and interact virtually.

CollaborationCollaboration is the second component and is generated by the community and accelerated by the operational team of hosts at The Impactory. This team acts as catalysts for collaboration connecting people and ideas on a daily basis.

KnowledgeKnowledge is shared and built through the various workshops and events organised by members and third parties. It is a very powerful model when peers teach peers. We are committed to nurturing communal learning. We believe the stronger the collaboration, the more knowledge is created and spread throughout the community.

Our Offering

The impactory experience is when these three elements of space, collaboration and knowledge starts interacting and feeding each other. At the end of the day it is the individual members and the community at large that bring momentum to this interaction.

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2 surveys have been made amongst our members in order to: • affirm that our concept is well understood by our members, • confirm if our direction is the right one to take

The community’s answers on these two aspects confirmed the need of our activities and projects, as shown below.

TOTAL MEMBERS: 130

How our members define The Impactory

“Creative. disruptive. cool.”

“A collaboration space to share ideas and materialize projects.”

“A space to meet new, like-minded people - a resource centre.”

“Vibrant, incredibly welcoming and very open-minded.”

“One of the most important, open initiatives in Luxembourg”

“A home. A catalyst. A community of creative and motivated people”

“The place where you can work on ideas and without feeling alone”

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“A great coworking space that helps you develop your ideas into projects.”

“A room for non-formalized business

“A place where entrepreneurs, startups and creatives meet, network and co-create.”

“Inspirational, connecting, fun.”

“Colourful, vibrant and a bit crazy”

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© City Mag

“The connections. plus it is inspirational.”

“Bringing me in contact with fascinating people”

“A place to test your ideas and get feedback”

“Having a place to work, different from home cross way where to meet inspiring people and projects”

The Impactory helps its members with...

© Nicolas Schmit

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WORK STATUS WHEN JOINED

employee: 45independent: 52unemployed: 10student: 12

“Networking and getting advice/feedback”

“Opening my eyes for new possibilities, no matter how small the steps I make.”

“A space to give back to the community, to test new or innovative material, and to learn from peers”

“The knowhow of its members”

“The business helpdesk was vital for me, to get started & I loved the lunches and contacts made through that.”

“Getting feedback from peers about my project”

“Being an umbrella and a fertilisation place for innovation.”

“Bringing people together, organise workshops on themes interesting to members”

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Examples of projects and events

Conference on poverty, March 2013

Enabling member collaboration, support and information: leveraging the skills from members, enabling mutual nurturing and development:

In partnership with 123 Go Social, Caritas and Idea Monopoly, a conference was jointly organized with the objective to empower the civil society to use collective intelligence to come up with solutions to counter poverty and foster social inclusion. Due to its success, a sequel conference was held on 25 March 2014. This was an extended partnership with the University of Luxembourg and CRP Henri Tudor and 123Go Social.

The conference started with a presentation of the situation of exclusion and poverty in Luxembourg by Caritas, followed by co-creation workshops on solution exploration of the stated problems.

WHAT

AVERAGE EVENT PARTICIPANTS:13 attendees per event

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Global Service Jam, March 2013

The Impactory helped to organise and host the Global Service Jam 2013 in collaboration with fi4si (http://www.fi4si.eu). The Impactory additionally offered a home and support for the projects that wanted to continue after the short and intense events. The winners of GSJ 2013 are currently still working on their project called The Bus of Happy Mistakes. The Bus is a hands-on service for child day-cares and schools to stimulate creativity and co-creation behaviour. The founders of the Bus of Happy Mistakes are also engaged Impactory members who actively contribute to The Impactory’s missions.

Fail 2 Succeed Conference, April 2013

The event jointly organised with Impactory members Eric Cama (http://luxmove.blogspot.com) and Marie-Thérèse Truong (http:// www.noagesite.com) tackled the topic of failure and how it generates reluctance from most people when it comes to making an important decision. Luxembourg and French entrepreneurs shared their experience around the development and implementation of their ideas, despite the risks involved. The speeches were followed by an open space where participants could explore their issues with experienced entrepreneurs. We warmly thank Jean-Claude Bintz (Tango, Voxmobile, Lakehouse, Sting etc), André Reuter (General Manager Polygône http://www.polygone.lu) and Denis Jacquet (http:// www.accelerateurdecroissance.com/) for their time and contribution.

Examples of projects and events

© Nicolas Schmit

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TOTAL NUMBER OF EVENTS 2013:84 events

Impact measurement workshop, June 2013

Action Lab, November - December 2013

ESADE Alumni is a series of 3 workshops around the theme “how to make your ideas happen”. The aim was to get the participants to move on their project and find creative solutions that make a difference by applying simple processes and tools.

Pieter Oostlander, president of the European Venture Philantropy Association introduced the social investment fund focusing on Benelux projects. Together with a group of multidisciplinary professionals in finance, education and entrepreneurship, a parallel between risk, return and impact was drawn where the participants compared their experiences and perspectives. Finally, a model for impact measurement steps designed by EVPA was presented, which helps organisations plan their impact goals and follow them up.

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Girls in Tech co-design session, July 2013This workshop led to the organisation of the first coding classes for women in Luxembourg during fall 2013 thanks to member contribution on a volunteer basis. In 2014 an ASBL has been jointly created by some women involved in the first workshop (see the member section for more details).

EU Code week, October 2013A European initiative lead by Neelie Kroes young advisors - 100 participants involved in awareness raising activities around digital skills. Workshops for kids as well as for adults were organised.

Examples of projects and events

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TYPE OF EVENTS: community events, conferences, helpdesks, peer-to-peer trainings

© Nicolas Schmit

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Pitching events, monthlyApéro Pitches each month for members to pitch their idea, get constructive feedback from peers and meet potential partners.

Dragon’s Den competition, a pitching event in collaboration with the Irish Chamber of Commerce.

Business Helpdesk, monthlyEspaces Entreprises monthly Business Helpdesk at The Impactory: support in administrative and legal matters around company creation in Luxembourg

Examples of support structures

© Nicolas Schmit

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Startup Challenge, June 2013Pilot project aiming at empowering young people to consider entrepreneurship as a career: business modelling and final contest with pitches, in collaboration with the University of Luxembourg.

Startup Weekend Idea Generation, June 2013Startup Weekend idea generation event hosting, in collaboration with Technoport and Agile Partners.

Jeudis de l’Innovation Sociale 2013-2014Active participation in the “jeudis de l’innovation sociale” organised by CRP Henri Tudor aiming at co-designing the future landscape of social innovation in Luxembourg. The Impactory has contributed since October 2013. In 2014 The Impactory joined the task force working on building a social innovation service platform together with actors from the public, non-profit and private sector.

Business Modelling workshops, quarterlyUsing intuitive methods to define and improve the business model and gather feedback from peers.

... to make meaningful projects happen

© Nicolas Schmit

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AVERAGE COWORKERS PER MONTH:106 visitors

Our community is composed of a wide range of entrepreneurs and changemakers.In 2013 many connections and partnerships have been built with both the private and the public sector in order to spread the word of the Impactory’s services in Luxembourg, and to secure a certain level of added-value for those who enter the red doors of our space.The strongest partnerships, which began in 2013 and came to fruition in 2014, are composed of groups within the public and private sector.

The Ministry of Economy, as well as the department of Economie Sociale et Solidaire, have encouraged us from the beginning by helping us cover some of the payroll and other operational costs. This help financed the fixed costs for 4 months, which in turn enabled us to focus on developing the community and provide meaningful content.

Additionally, we have built and strengthened our relationships with 1,2,3 GO Social and other local actors in the ecosystem (see our partners and supporters section for the full list). This has led to a rapid emergence of an ecosystem that works in a more orchestrated way. At the moment we are working on a joint marketing site and brochure for the ecosystem. Our goal is to create a guide that will take entrepreneurs through a step-by-step program resulting in a clear understanding of tasks that must be accomplished to achieve their goal.

Finally, a recent article in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/technology/out-of-the-shadows-a-tech-hub-in-luxembourg.html? hp&_r=1) highlights that there is a strong, emerging ecosystem for entrepreneurship in Luxembourg. This system reaches far beyond the Greater Region and has already connected with startup communities in Silicon Valley and Europe.

WHOThe Community

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© Nicolas Schmit

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1. Members creating an impact on societyCategories: ASBL, social entrepreneur, health / wellbeing, sustainabilityShare of total community: 22%

2. Students, trainers & scholarsCategories: students, trainers, coaches, teachersShare of total community: 17%

3. CreativesCategories: fashion, design, arts & entertainment, innovationShare of total community: 19%

4. TechnologyCategories: e-commerce, application, programmers, online platformShare of total community: 15%

5. FinanceCategories: business angels, finance, accounting backgroundShare of total community: 10%

Our Members

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A Diverse Community

Design

Arts  &  Entertainment

Startup

Fashion

International  startup

Sustainability

Health  /  Wellbeing

E-­‐CommerceInnovation

Finance

Social  Entrepreneur

Real  Estate

Student

Tech

ASBL

Consulting

Food  &  Beverages

Business  Angel

Training  &  Education

Freelancer

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Mamie et MoiMamie et moi offers retro-chic baby garments made with love.

Mamie et Moi is a social business which sells baby clothing online knitted by “mamie’s”. The team of Mamie et Moi works with a certain number of old ladies, “mamie’s”, who love knitting. Most of the “mamie” profiles learned to knit from generation to generation, which turns the retro-inspired garments into pieces with a story and the mamies can in turn make use of their skills for extra income. You can subscribe to a “mamie” and receive a selection of garments regularly throughout the year or you can order individual pieces spontaneously.

http://www.mamieetmoi.com

Projects run by members

© City Mag, VdL

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Code ClubCode Club in Luxembourg is the result of 3 communities: the open-source Code Club World, the enthusiastic Impactory (a co-working space for social impact) and the open-minded web workers of Betacube. It all began with a tweet, which turned into a talk about code literacy by Patrick Welfringer along with a call to action to start our own local Code Club.v

Now, a growing team of volunteers is focusing on making our first Code Club a success, before we spread out. We’d like to see a Code Club in every single primary school in Luxembourg and even beyond, in the Greater Region.

Code Club is about fun, creativity and learning through exploring. It’s important that the children enjoy their time at Code Club and that it doesn’t feel like another school lesson. They should understand that they’re in charge of the computer, and can (and should) make it do what they want, not the other way around.

http://codeclub.lu

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GenCreoGenCreo S.A. is a startup founded on an award winning idea, located in tech hub and business incubator – Technoport in Esch Belval, Luxembourg.With focus on internet related services and applications, the mission of GenCreo is earn Happy Users and Happier Clients. GenCreo’s ambition is to deliver worldwide recognizable products and contribute to the development of entrepreneurial ecosystem in the area of ITC and related jobs creation.First product of GenCreo is ImCreo ® an “info” photo application for smartphones and smartcameras.

http://www.gencreo.com

Projects run by members

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SportunitySportunity is about creating success stories. Stories that encourage and inspire underprivileged communities by showing that there is life beyond poverty, by giving them an opportunity to succeed. Sportunity is a global initiative that provides financing and support to children with outstanding athletic talent and no financial means to realize that potential.

http://www.sportunity.org

Vegetarian ButcherThis innovative new food business had its start at the Impactory where the team worked on the initial business plan and received advice from other members and founders. The company now employs four people.

https://www.facebook.com/AmVEIERZENG

BinarThis web and back-end development firm started as a two man shop out of The Impactory. The founders have also been part of helping the Impactory with our website. Since the early days in 2013 Binar has grown and are now in their own offices and currently employs people on payroll or as contractors. Binar has also raised external funding to drive this growth.

http://www.binar.lu

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Girls in TechGirls in Tech Luxembourg is part of Girls in Tech Worldwide, and has been founded in January 2014.‘Girls in Tech’ (GIT) is a global organization focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of influential women in technology. As women with the capacity to inspire and lead, it’s our desire to sustain an organization that focuses on the promotion, growth and success of entrepreneurial and innovative women in the technology space.Created in February 2007, Girls in Tech is an organization founded by Adriana Gascoigne, and was born out of a need to provide a place for women to cultivate ideas around their careers and business concepts involving technology and entrepreneurship. Girls in Tech is headquartered in Denver, Colorado and has multiple chapters around the world, including North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South America.Girls in Tech offers a variety of resources and tools for women to supplement and further their professional aspirations. Our programs include GIT University (GIT U), GIT360 Labs, XChange, Catalyst Conference, AMPLIFY Business Pitch Competition, GIT Mentorship Program (GIT M), D+D Day and various others.http://luxembourg.girlsintech.org

Projects run by members

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© Sven Becker

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Our Partners and Sponsors

Our sponsors

On behalf of the members we would like to thank our partners, whose help was a major contribution to the success The Impactory has had so far.

Our Service Partners

Our Partners

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HUB Luxembourg a.s.b.l.29, Bd grande Duchesse Charlotte

L-1331 Luxembourg

www.theimpactory.com