Here on the second day at the electronica exhibition we had loads more visitors than yesterday and at the Elektor booth we saw more contestants pitching their ideas for the Fast Forward start-up award. One interesting example in the ‘prototype’ category is a flexible IoT board. Another contender is a wind generator design developed for use in emerging markets such as India but also suitable for installation in any domestic environment. They bravely fielded questions about their designs from the official judges for the awards made up of Elektor editors and engineers from the partner companies Würth Elektronik, Conrad and ST – and also the audience!

Our supporting program has also been drawing visitors in. Dr. Christian Groß and Malte Priem from the VDE (the German Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies) gave an interesting presentation answering the question: ‘What makes Start-ups tick?’ On top of that we were pleased to meet so many readers of our magazine who were happy to talk shop with the Elektor team. Some had even brought their own projects along. One of them was a rather interesting USB supply to power the Rpi using supercaps… that could well be the subject of an upcoming article in Elektor.

On Thursday it will be the last day of presentations by the contestants for the Fast Forward Award. On Friday the finalists will be chosen and the prizes awarded. If you are as fired up as we are why not drop by and pay us a visit at our booth by the East Entrance!