Event Partner Workshops

As part of the afternoon programme, you can take part in one of three workshops offered by our event partners. Workshop registration is part of the registration for the Kick-Off Event.
 

Triathlon-Workshops

Innovation Fast Track – A Taste of Design Thinking

How do ideas become innovations? In this 90-minute hands-on workshop, you'll experience the fundamentals of Design Thinking in a compact format. Working together, you'll tackle a concrete challenge, get to know key innovation methods, and gain insight into how research ideas or technologies evolve step by step into innovative solutions.
The workshop is designed as a fast track: you'll get a taste of the innovation process, work interactively in a team, and take away initial methods and inspiration for your own research or practice

Choose the track that best matches your starting point:

 

Track 1: From Research to Impact

How does research translate into societal impact?

Using a hands-on exercise, discover how Design Thinking can help take research findings further towards societal or economic impact — and identify the audiences that matter most.
Suitable for: Researchers from all disciplines, as well as representatives from policy, administration, business, and civil society.

Track 2: From Tech to Innovation

How does a technology become an innovation?

Discover how Design Thinking helps you understand user needs, spot potential applications, and turn technological ideas into first innovation concepts.
Suitable for: Researchers and innovation enthusiasts from computer science, AI, data science, and the natural and engineering sciences, as well as anyone who wants to better understand the innovation potential of new technologies.
Please note: This is an interactive introductory workshop. The goal is to get to know the innovation process and try out Design Thinking for yourself — not to develop a finished innovation in 90 minutes.

East Side Fab Workshop

From Data Literacy to Concrete Collaborations (DE)

How does data become knowledge – and knowledge become concrete collaboration?
This interactive workshop brings companies and SOUNDS together, surfaces different perspectives, and jointly develops concrete starting points for future collaboration.

To begin, participants' prior experience, data literacy, and expectations are made visible. An interactive positioning exercise sparks initial conversations, shifts in perspective, and a shared understanding of the different experiences and expectations that come together in the group.
From there, we move directly into the business context: Where do we encounter challenges around data acquisition, data collection, data literacy, and data utilisation? Which decisions depend on this? And where do untapped potentials lie? Participants bring in their own questions and help surface shared challenges and possible points of connection with SOUNDS.
In the third step, things become tangible and collaborative: using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, participants jointly build a vision of successful collaboration between SOUNDS and the Saarland business community. This makes visible which skills, resources, framework conditions, and partnerships are needed for an initial idea to grow into a concrete collaboration – and ultimately a Letter of Intent (LOI).

The result: individual questions come together into a shared picture of the key areas for action and success factors for collaboration – from data access and data quality to infrastructure and governance, through to trust, competencies, and concrete use cases.

What will participants take away?

  • a better understanding of their own data literacy and the perspectives of others
  • concrete business questions and data potentials
  • new points of connection for exchange with SOUNDS
  • a shared understanding of what successful collaboration requires
  • concrete "key areas of collaboration" as a basis for further discussions and potential collaboration projects

A workshop that doesn't just discuss data literacy — it makes it visible, tangible, and actionable for real collaboration.

The added value of LEGO®:

LEGO® models make abstract relationships tangible and encourage a shared dialogue about what successful collaboration requires. From participants' individual perspectives, a shared picture emerges of the framework conditions needed to successfully bring companies and SOUNDS together. The documented insights also provide a valuable basis for further developing the project and identifying future collaboration potential.