On the 22nd and the 23rd of May Europe will meet Gelderland and Gelderland will meet Europe. During the two-day international conference Empowering Sustainability you will meet other European partners, innovative start-up and scale-up hubs and clusters from various European regions. Together we will set to work to accelerate innovation in sustainability. The conference is the time to be inspired as well as a next step to European cooperation with other entrepreneurs, authorities and research institutes.

Be inspired:

• Listen to key note speakers from business & industry, science and government: Louise O. Fresco, President Executive Board Wageningen University & Research; Alberic Pater, Manager Sustainability Ikea Nederland and many others;
• Meet entrepreneurs, administrators, policy-makers and innovation hubs from the Netherlands and Europe;
• Check the international cooperation corner and participate in the partner search;
• Closely look into themes that matter: food, health, energy, industry, government as accelerator;
• Learn from sustainable projects and remarkable locations in Gelderland;
• Be surprised by Olympic top sports location Papendal and top chef Eric te Velthuis.

Day 1. Get inspired
We have invited speakers from a variety of disciplines, looking at the theme of Empowering Sustainability from different perspectives. Each with their conclusions, their experience and their dreams. All with the same goal: we have to act now for a sustainable future. Why is it so urgent and why is collaboration between science, entrepreneurs and government the only way to speed up innovation on sustainability? 

Be inspired in work sessions, meet European partners

Meet entrepreneurs, administrators, policy-makers and innovation hubs from the Netherlands and Europe. Check the international cooperation corner, chat with experts, and participate in the partner search;

Day 2. Empowering connection
The second day we will split into 5 groups, with more thematic goals. Look into the themes that matter: (agri)Food, Health, Energy, Industry and SME Tools. Learn from sustainable projects, innovative companies and remarkable locations in Gelderland.

Practical information
What’s included

• Dinner on day 1 and lunch on day 2
• Possibility to stay overnight with breakfast service in Hotel Papendal (at own expense)
• Transport from and to Arnhem Central Station
• Transport during the work visits on day 2

Hotel
We advice you to book a hotel via the website of Hotel Papendal (event location). Please use the code EER2019 in the booking ;

Costs
Conference participation is free of charge. You only pay for travel (there is a good train connection: Brussels - Arnhem; only hours) and accommodation expenses. In special cases we can contribute towards the ; 

Site visits
We try to place all participants in the site visit of their choice; In the registration process you can also select your second choice. In case of oversubscription, we will close the subscription and you can choose one of the other sessions.