Industry meets Makers presents itself in Bratislava

On September 30 and October 1, 2025, SAPIE Forum 2025 took place in Bratislava, Slovakia. The conference focused on the technological and entrepreneurial future of the CEE region:

◾How to build globally successful deep-tech companies from Central and Eastern Europe

◾How to bring top talent back to the region

◾How to respond to European regulatory trends and strengthen the cyber resilience of companies

◾How to innovate healthcare and e-commerce in the age of AI

◾How to obtain growth financing and increase the competitiveness of companies

The Interreg Slovakia-Austria project Twin City Hub and the ‘Industry meets Makers’ (IMM) format took part in the SAPIE Forum 2025 as part of the panel discussion ‘From pilots to scale-ups: how collaboration between start-ups and corporates works’. IMM CEO & Founder Sandra Stromberger shared interesting views and experiences and presented the IMM format as one of the solutions.

“Open innovation is a way forward – for Europe as well as Austria and Slovakia. At Industry meets Makers, everything revolves around the development of open innovations – specifically, the collaboration of companies with external developers and creative makers as well as interdisciplinary team setups that bring groundbreaking, technological solutions of the future onto the track at lightning speed.”
– Sandra Stromberger, CEO & Founder, Industry meets Makers

Highlights

◾Innovation must be a priority. We must translate proven models from abroad into local success.

◾The development of the region is crucial. Central and Eastern Europe has the potential to develop into a center of competitiveness – if we combine the forces of business, science, government and communities.

◾AI is the future. Artificial intelligence plays a crucial role in the transformation of business, education and healthcare.

◾We think big. Only ambitious goals lead to groundbreaking results.

🔗 More information:

https://www.sapieforum.sk/

https://sapie.sk/news/sapie-forum-2025

We are delighted that during the two-day conference, many start-ups were interested in the SK-AT dimension of the Twin City Hub project and expressed their interest in participating in the activities, especially “Industry meets Makers”.

What comes next

We are currently preparing the 10th anniversary of Industry meets Makers as part of the new Twin City Hub initiative. The anniversary program will start with an opening event in Bratislava on 4 December 2025 and culminate in a Best of IMM presentation in Vienna on 7 May 2026. The topics of the ‘Challenges’ are currently being defined and the program planning is in full swing.