Canvas | Community | The Beacon

Headquartered in Leuven (Belgium) and with research sites across Belgium, in the Netherlands, Taiwan and the USA, an rep offices in China and Japan, imec leverages its state-of-the-art R&D infrastructure and its team of about 4,000 expert scientists, to drive open innovation across the globe. They unite world-industry leaders, Flanders-based and international companies, start-ups, and academia and knowledge centers, for R&D in nano-electronics and digital technologies, including advanced semiconductor scaling, silicon photonics, smart health, smart energy, smart mobility and smart cities solutions, artificial intelligence, beyond-5G and sensing technologies and more.

Next to its R&D offering, imec also leverages its expertise and large international industry network to support smaller organizations that have limited in-house R&D resources as well as larger companies with their innovation process from initial idea to fully functioning product, from the design of a product or chip, to prototyping, testing and optimizing, and manufacturing.

Finally, imec supports tech start-ups and scale-ups with a tailored offering. The imec.istart program is a business acceleration program that provides tech entrepreneurs with specialized coaching, facilities and overall support to help them grow their businesses, while the imec.scale-ups program focuses on larger innovative tech scale-ups looking to conquer the European market.

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Commissioned by the Flemish government, Lantis is building connections that make the city and region flourish. Lantis is responsible for the realisation of the Oosterweel connection, which will increase prosperity and improve the quality of life. Lantis is contributing to this by promoting mobility, including the construction of numerous bicycle connections and multimodal junctions on the city outskirts of Antwerp.

Lantis strives for operational excellence in order to carry out projects as efficiently as possible and deliver quality. Thanks to intensive cooperation with the surrounding area, the organisation works transparently and with a focus on results. Innovation and transformation ensure future-oriented projects with a lasting impact on the dynamics of the region. This is the Lantis way of successfully realising large projects in an urban environment.

Lantis stands for Liveable Antwerp through Innovation and Cooperation and is a public limited company. The day-to-day management is in the hands of the management committee led by managing director Luc Hellemans. David Van Herreweghe chairs the board of directors.

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As Europe’s second-largest port and largest integrated chemical cluster, the Port of Antwerp Bruges is a major lifeline for the Belgian economy: annually around 238 million tonnes of international maritime freight are handled. The Port of Antwerp Bruges accounts, directly and indirectly, for a total of around 143.000 jobs and more than €20 billion added value.

Innovation and digitisation enable our mission to be ‘a home port for a sustainable future’ as we aim to flexibly respond to a rapidly evolving maritime market. By supporting The Beacon, we want to ensure that our port platform finds relevant points of contact and vice versa. Furthermore, we want to facilitate the exchange effect created through the ecosystem being built around The Beacon.

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The city of Antwerp welcomes businesses, researchers, citizens and city officials to experiment with smart technologies that aim to make urban life more enjoyable and sustainable. Antwerp is a living lab where solutions are tested and co-created with its inhabitants. The city is home to highly innovative businesses and with 171 nationalities that live in Antwerp, it is above all a very diverse, and international city. The Ecosystem in Antwerp is developing rapidly, over the past years the amount of start-ups and scaleups in Antwerp doubled.

Innovative companies are the driving force behind the Antwerp knowledge economy. Their growth is crucial for our future. The City of Antwerp therefore strongly believes in the power of digital networking and is developing an ecosystem for digital innovation in which large and small businesses, startups, scaleups, researchers and capital providers with an interest in the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence can meet each other. Thanks to the cross-pollination that occurs in The Beacon, innovative products are developed that are relevant to Antwerp’s ‘smart city’ ambitions and to our financial stakeholders: industry and logistics.

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The University of Antwerp is a research university where pioneering, innovative research is conducted at an international level. Research and education are closely linked, with 20,000 students and 6000 staff spread across our nine faculties. As a driving force in the Antwerp innovation ecosystem, innovation is a constant focus.

The Beacon is the university’s pioneering pre-incubation structure for the domain of Metropolitanism, Smart City, Mobility & Logistics. It houses the IDLab research group and the Design Sciences Hub.

The IDLab research group of the University of Antwerp and imec performs fundamental and applied research on Wireless technologies, Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things. IDLab, headed by prof. Steven Latré, targets the most daunting challenges industry is facing to deliver digital transformation, connecting everything and extracting high value from data. Bringing researchers and industrial partners together at the same location facilitates knowledge transfer and enables the cross-fertilization and co-creation insights on smart cities, IoT and AI towards the industrial partners in The Beacon.

The Design Sciences Hub of the Faculty of Design Sciences is an interdisciplinary innovation and valorization lab. They offer design solutions for urban challenges and wicked problems in the triangle of urban planning, built environment, and urban health.

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Slush 2026, Helsinki: 12 spots in the Flemish delegation

Startup.Flanders is opening registrations for Slush 2026 in Helsinki (17-20 November, with day zero on 17/11) and offering 12 startups a place in the Flemish delegation.

What's included for €1,200: a half-day demo booth, one full conference ticket (second ticket available at €300 excl. VAT), an invite to Belgian Beer Night, a "How to Hack Slush" prep session, and a trial pitch opportunity for the Slush 100 competition.

To apply, submit your pitch deck via the registration page. Startup.Flanders and Slush will select participants based on the decks, and you'll hear back by end of June. Ecosystem passes sell out early, so don't wait.

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Webinar (18 June) — Cloud decisions for sensitive data: how to reduce risk and stay in control

Sharing an upcoming webinar that we at Sigli are co-hosting with OVHcloud on Thursday, 18 June (15:00–16:00 CEST, online). It should be directly relevant for Beacon members working with sensitive operational data — port and logistics, industrial systems, smart-city deployments — where the question of where data lives is becoming a board-level discussion.
The session skips the usual "why sovereign cloud" pitch and focuses on the how: which workloads actually need a sovereign environment and which don't, how to deploy AI on proprietary data without handing it to a hyperscaler, what an open-source cloud stack changes for vendor lock-in, and how infrastructure choices translate into compliance posture across EU, UK and DACH markets.
OVHcloud brings the infrastructure perspective — European hosting, full hardware-to-energy stack. Sigli brings the implementation side: workload placement, migration logic, and where AI safely fits in production.
Max Golikov from Sigli is one of the headliners — Beacon members may recognise him from the recent Innovantage podcast episode with Robin Pauwels.
Live attendees get a €200 OVHcloud voucher to test the stack themselves.
Registration is free via Eventbrite — link below.
Happy to take questions from the community here or directly.

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John Baekelmans nieuwe voorzitter raad van bestuur The Beacon

John Baekelmans wordt benoemd tot nieuwe voorzitter van de raad van bestuur van The Beacon. Hij volgt Wim De Waele op, die na zijn voorzitterschap sinds de oprichting in 2018 het roer doorgeeft.

The Beacon zet zo een nieuwe strategische stap in zijn ambitie om uit te groeien tot dé Europese innovatiehub voor digitale oplossingen in haven, industrie en mobiliteit. Met een verscherpte focus op IoT, AI, autonome systemen en (cyber)security wil de Antwerpse innovatiehub de centrale plek zijn waar technologiebedrijven en onderzoekers samenwerken aan de volgende generatie maritieme en industriële toepassingen.

In de komende jaren wil The Beacon zijn rol als verbindende schakel tussen startups, scale-ups, grote ondernemingen en kennisinstellingen nog verder versterken. De nadruk ligt op het ontwikkelen van concrete oplossingen die supply chains efficiënter en veerkrachtiger maken en tegelijk de bescherming van kritieke infrastructuur verbeteren. Daarbij wordt ook sterk ingezet op regionale samenwerking tussen innovatiepolen zoals Antwerpen, Gent, Hasselt, Kortrijk en Leuven, om meer talent en kapitaal aan te trekken en het Vlaamse ecosysteem internationaal sterker te positioneren.

Als nieuwe voorzitter van de raad van bestuur zal John Baekelmans een belangrijke rol spelen in het versnellen van deze koers. Met meer dan 25 jaar internationale ervaring in de technologiesector, onder meer in IoT, AI en digitale innovatie in haven- en industriële omgevingen, brengt hij een combinatie van strategische visie en praktijkervaring mee. Baekelmans werkte bij 3 Vlaamse startups en was als VP actief bij onder andere Cisco & imec en is vandaag Chief Product & Technology Officer bij Pointerpro in Antwerpen. Zijn achtergrond in zowel globale ondernemingen als lokale ecosystemen maakt hem bijzonder goed geplaatst om The Beacon te helpen uitbouwen tot een nog sterker innovatieplatform.

Samen met het team en de partners wil Baekelmans de strategische positionering van The Beacon verder aanscherpen en de groei van de community ondersteunen. De organisatie verenigt vandaag al meer dan 100 technologiebedrijven, startups, scale-ups en onderzoeksinstellingen op bijna 10.000 m² kantoor-, werk- en eventruimte in Antwerpen, met een duidelijke focus op digitale innovatie voor havens, industrie en mobiliteit.

𝐀𝐃𝐋𝐂 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐠𝐢𝐮𝐦’𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐢𝐫 𝐌𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐨

Belgium's first advanced cargo drone hub is being built between Antwerp city centre and the port — and our resident ADLC is behind it.

An air bridge connecting two of the city's most logistically dense zones. No road congestion. No last-mile headaches.

Congratulations to the whole team!

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Belgium has launched its first open robotics lab. Here’s what’s happening on the ground!

Our founding partner Port of Antwerp-Bruges launching Belgium's first open robotics laboratory, together with North Star!

North Star, Belgium’s biggest AI and robotics community with more than 800 members, 15 events, and 20 hires, has launched The Vessel at the Antwerp port area (place), supported by Port of Antwerp-Bruges, which supports ongoing robotics and AI prototyping through August and will be featured at the Port of the Future Summit in September.

This groundbreaking initiative perfectly aligns with The Beacon's mission to drive maritime-tech innovation through AI and automation. Congratulations to the entire Port of Antwerp-Bruges team on this milestone achievement.

Read more here:

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Flanders takes the lead in regulation of autonomous and sustainable boating

Flanders is taking a big step towards autonomous and more sustainable boating on inland waterways. Last Friday 9 January, the Flemish government approved a final legal framework that takes innovative vessels out of the pilot zone and steers them towards daily practice. This explicitly positions Flanders as a European pioneer.

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Seafar and MAHI call 'permanent framework innovative sailing' strong signal

The permanent legal framework for innovative shipping in Flanders, announced in June 2025, was finally approved by the Flemish Government on Friday 9 January 2026. Sector players Seafar and MAHI call it a strong signal and a model of cooperation.

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BubblyDoo secures deal with Disney (DUTCH)

From now on, your kid can embark on adventures with Elsa and Mickey Mouse. BubblyDoo, an Antwerp company which creates personalised children's books, has secured a license agreement with Walt Disney. Last year, the company
BubblyDoo, een Antwerps bedrijf dat gepersonaliseerde kinderboeken maakt, heeft een licentieovereenkomst beet met Walt Disney. The company achieved a turnover of 5 million euros last year.

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MAHI powers remote operations for leading Danish dredging and offshore company Rohde Nielsen

AHI powers remote operations for leading Danish dredging and offshore company Rohde Nielsen

We’re proud to share some exciting news from within our own community: MAHI, one of our members, has been selected by Danish dredging and offshore shipping company Rohde Nielsen to equip part of its fleet with remote operations technology.

Rohde Nielsen, known for its innovative approach to dredging and offshore services, has contracted MAHI to enable remote control of its split hopper dredgers. The aim is to optimise dredging operations and create a solid foundation for future remote and increasingly autonomous activities.

Within just four weeks, MAHI successfully installed its remote operations technology on board two Rohde Nielsen vessels, Hugin and Munin. At the same time, a dedicated Remote Operations Centre (ROC) was set up in the company’s home port of Grenaa, Denmark. MAHI also trained the captains who will operate the vessels from shore, ensuring they are ready to take over control from land as operations are phased in.

Rohde Nielsen’s Head of Fleet Operations, Michael Martin Wegener Bjarløv, highlights why they chose MAHI: the company’s pragmatic approach and its ability to deliver a fast, professional installation on two complex split hopper vessels. The project will allow Rohde Nielsen to enhance its operational capabilities and, in collaboration with crew and authorities, take further steps towards remote ship operation.

As MAHI puts it, their mission is to strip away complexity and deliver a future-proof basis that enables a fleet to scale and evolve. This Danish project follows an earlier deployment of MAHI’s remote operations technology for Chilean tug operator Ultratug.

It’s inspiring to see a member of our community driving this kind of innovation in real-world maritime operations.

Dockflow raises 1.4 million in funding

Dockflow has raised an impressive €1.4 million to expand its maritime logistics software with AI-powered predictions. The funding allows them to further develop their platform's capabilities, from real-time container tracking to full predictive AI.

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Xylos partners up with Eye Security

We are proud to announce our strategic partnership with Eye Security 🔒

Cyber attacks continue to increase, with more than one in five SMEs affected each year. That is why we are joining forces with Eye Security, a European specialist in 24/7 monitoring and incident response.

This partnership gives our customers:
✔️ continuous security
✔️ immediate incident response
✔️ ransomware insurance
✔️ a fully integrated and easily managed solution

"Our customers want clear, reliable protection without complexity. With Eye Security, we can deliver on that promise," says Patrick Leysen, CEO of Xylos.

Read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/eExUu6fD

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Unikoo launches Marketing AI Studio Markomatic

(DUTCH)
Unikoo lanceert Markomatic, een AI-innovatiestudio die AI-marketingsystemen op maat bouwt en integreert in de bestaande werkwijze van marketingteams. Geen klassiek uitvoerend bureau of consultancy, maar oplossingen die naadloos aansluiten op het dagelijkse werk van marketeers; merkgetrouw in tone of voice, messaging en branding.

“Er zijn zoveel tools, opties en beloftes dat marketeers door de bomen het bos niet meer zien”, aldus Kasper Vancoppenolle, founder van Markomatic. “Veel marketeers gebruiken AI al, maar niet op het volle potentieel. Met Markomatic bouwen we voor elk marketingteam een brigade van AI-assistenten die we trainen met specifieke data, regels en use cases van de klant.”

Wat Markomatic onderscheidt: de oplossingen worden niet gebouwd door AI-consultants, maar door ervaren marketeers die de technologie en haar potentieel door en door begrijpen. Zij slaan de brug tussen marketingnoden en technologie. Binnen zo snel als twee tot vier weken staat er een werkende omgeving klaar, met gedetailleerde documentatie, training en EU-conforme gegevensbescherming.

Markomatic werkt met een helder stappenplan, van analyse en maatwerk tot implementatie en opleiding. Centraal staat het human-in-the-loop-principe: geen volledig autonome AI-agents, maar systemen die repetitieve taken overnemen terwijl marketeers de regie behouden over strategie, creatieve insteek en finale goedkeuring. AI bepaalt het tempo; de mens de richting.

“Markomatic helpt marketingteams de rol van AI in hun organisatie scherp te zetten en marketingmateriaal op hun eigen voorwaarden te ontwikkelen,” aldus Kenn Wouters, founder van Unikoo. “Het is een toegankelijke manier om structureel waarde te creëren met AI.”

Markomatic sluit naadloos aan bij de diensten van Unikoo, full-servicepartner voor start-ups, scale-ups en kmo’s. Unikoo biedt flexibele en schaalbare samenwerkingen in finance, administratie, HR, marketing en technologie, en helpt organisaties AI te omarmen op een manier die efficiëntie verhoogt en de operationele werking versterkt. Markomatic’s oplossingen versterken deze visie met concrete, snel inzetbare AI-systemen voor marketingteams.

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Marple gets 600k funding

Marple will focus more on model-based engineering and correlating measurement data with simulations. In total, they have raised €600k for this research project, with a significant part funded through VLAIO’s innovation grant.

Hyperfox selected for exclusive Google Forum in Silicon Valley

Hyperfox is the only Belgian company selected for the prestigious Google for Startups Gemini Founders Forum in Mountain View, California.
Out of more than 1,000 scale-ups worldwide, only 53 companies were chosen to participate in this exclusive programme, organized by Google for Startups,Google Cloud and Google DeepMind.

The GeminiFounders Forum brings together a select group of the most promising AI scale-ups in the heart of Silicon Valley to share knowledge, gain access to Google's top expertise and collaborate on the future of artificial intelligence.

“This selection is a huge recognition for our team,” says Tom Devos, founder and CEO ofHyperfox. “We use AI to solve a real business problem, enabling us to process orders in seconds instead of minutes, in a specific niche of distribution and transport companies. The fact that Google selected us from more than a thousand candidates shows that our approach resonates internationally.”

Hyperfox is developing an AI platform that automatically processes B2B orders from various channels (such as email, PDF, Excel, WhatsApp, telephone and EDI) and converts them into correct ERP/TMS orders. In this way, the company helps manufacturing and distribution companies save time, reduce errors and speed up their orderflow.

During the Gemini Founders Forum, Hyperfox will work with experts from Google Cloud and DeepMind on AI enhancement, scalability and technological innovation.

“This is a unique opportunity for us as a team,” says Thomas Vangelooven, CTO of Hyperfox. ‘Every day, we apply the latest AI developments to real-world challenges faced by our customers, and it quickly becomes clear that AI is still at the beginning of its maturity curve. The collaboration with Google DeepMind offers us the opportunity to refine our technology at an accelerated pace and apply new generations of AI models to order automation in a concrete way. It is a strong confirmation that we are ont he right track internationally.’

The forum will take place in November 2025 at the Google campus in Mountain View, California.

Mahi Wins Blue Innovation Award

Meet the winners of the Blue Innovation Awards 2025
The Blue Innovation Awards 2025 once again highlighted the creativity and strength of Flanders’ blue economy. This year’s entries reflected a strong drive for innovation and collaboration, with projects that stood out for their quality and impact

On Thursday 9 October, the winners of the Blue Innovation Awards 2025 were announced during StarWatts in Maison De La Poste in Brussels. Blue Cluster proudly presents the winning initiatives:

MAHI Sense by MAHI won the Blue Innovation Wave Award. It is the first autonomous maritime computer system officially approved for installation on internationally certified seagoing vessels. This consitutes a major milestone for the future of autonomous shipping.
GEOxyz’s Geodrone 6800 received the Corporate Blue Innovation Wave Award. This unmanned surface drone performs offshore measurements without crew on board, operated entirely remotely from a control room onshore. The result is safer, more sustainable, and more efficient operations, with significantly reduced CO₂ emissions.

The Data-Driven Whale Routing app, a joint creation by Whale Guardians, Bogerd Martin, Dice Consulting and LuxSpace, won the Blue Innovation Swell Award. The app uses smart data to make shipping routes safer for whales by showing where they are most likely to be at a given time.
Finally, the Inspirational Blue Wave Award, presented by the public, went to Aquaforest by Jan De Nul. This project uses dredged sediment to create a mangrove island in Ecuador. Apart from restoring nature, it provides insights into ecological construction and nature-inclusive design.
The winners will feature prominently at Blue Cluster events in the coming year year and may use the unique Blue Innovation Awards logo.

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Winterfest Start it x The Beacon

The ultimate Christmas get-together before the holidays! Bring your family members along to The Beacon for a cosy evening of yuletide fun. Score unique Christmas gifts made with love by our community members.

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Our Summer Deal is here!

Get a full year access to our inspiring, fully equipped coworking space for €200/month instead of €300 when you sign up in June, July or August 2025.

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Emissions Reporting for Maritime Shipping & Logistics

Emissions Reporting for Maritime Shipping & Logistics

"Please report CSRD / CBAM / ETS / GLEC compliance" - say what?

A sea of regulations—and everyone’s asking the same question: where do we even start?

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The maritime shipping industry is facing an overwhelming wave of sustainability regulations, from the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to the Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Navigating these complex requirements can feel daunting, and many businesses are left wondering what steps to take.
At Dockflow, we’re introducing our CO2-tracking feature for ocean-going containers, a tool designed to help shippers and logistics providers manage carbon reporting. But we know that this is just one part of the bigger challenge. This event aims to provide much-needed clarity by offering an overview of the key reporting frameworks, calculation methods, and compliance requirements that are reshaping maritime logistics. If you're feeling unsure about where to go next, this session will offer practical pointers to help you get on track.

Joining us with expertise:
Quentin Donnadille - Policy Advisor - Maritime Logistics, Sustainable Logistics, Road Freight at CLECAT - European association for forwarding, transport, logistic and Customs services

Wouter Lox and Roel Van Lerberghe - Sustinera - Advising companies on sustainability, CSRD-reporting, auditing and sustainable stakeholder communication

+ TBC

Event Details:

Date: Thursday, October 24th, 2024
Time: 18:00 CEST
Location: The Beacon, Antwerp (with a livestream option available)
Register: https://dockflow.com/emissions-reporting-for-maritime-shipping-and-logistics-event
Attend in person at The Beacon in Antwerp or join us via the livestream. We’ll feature expert external speakers who can shed light on these pressing issues and help you understand what’s really expected.

What You'll Learn:
A clear overview of the CSRD, CBAM, and ETS regulations and what they mean for maritime logistics.
Insights into CO2 tracking calculation methods, including COFRET, GLEC, ISO 14083, and EN 16258.
Guidance on how to start aligning your business with the latest sustainability frameworks and avoid the most common pitfalls.
How Dockflow’s CO2-tracking feature can support your compliance efforts as part of the bigger picture.
Who Should Attend:
Freight forwarders, shippers, and logistics service providers struggling with the complexity of emissions reporting.
Sustainability officers, compliance managers, and those tasked with meeting environmental regulations.
Anyone unsure of how to navigate the ever-expanding list of EU and US climate disclosure rules.
How to Attend:
In Person: Be part of the live discussion at The Beacon, Antwerp.
Livestream: Can’t make it in person? Join us online and stay informed from wherever you are.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of regulations, this event will help you understand where to begin.

Invite link: https://dockflow.com/emissions-reporting-for-maritime-shipping-and-logistics-event

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Interview COO Robin Pauwels

The new Innovantage episode, featuring Robin Pauwels, COO at The Beacon | Innovation Community .Maxim Golikov and Robin Pauwels will discuss AI's impact on personalized education, healthcare modernization, and community engagement.

The expert guest is the Chief Operating Officer at The Beacon | Innovation Community , a community builder, and a former big data developer, Robin Pauwels.

In this episode, Maxim Golikov and Robin Pauwels will cover the following topics:
💭 How AI enhances personalised education experiences
💭 The role of AI in modernising healthcare systems
💭 Innovative ways AI is used in community engagement

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The Captains Table 2024 Challenge

🌟💫 Applications now open for The Captain’s Table 2024 Challenge! 💫🌟

✅ Environment
We are looking for companies that make real money by slashing hashtag#carbon, hashtag#methane, and other hashtag#greenhouse gases, and from fixing our hashtag#oceans and hashtag#waterways. Solutions can range from capture, storage, efficiency enhancing hardware and optimisation. If it helps hashtag#maritime meet our hashtag#emissiontargets, or clean up our environment, we want to hear from you!

✅ Social Impact
No one should get left behind as we transition to a clear and more digitalised way of working. We need solutions that support workers through the transition with consideration to hashtag#education, hashtag#training, hashtag#reskilling, and hashtag#safety.

✅ Governance and Risk Management
Business is risk management. We are seeking smart technologies that hashtag#automate, hashtag#streamline hashtag#riskmanagement to reduce errors, increase efficiency and align with organisational goals.

✅ Digitalised Supply Chains
If you have been following our posts, you know we believe that hashtag#digitalised hashtag#supplychains are essential to creating a more resilient and cleaner supply chain. We seek solutions that digitalise and automate supply chains, enhancing efficiency in hashtag#inventorymanagement, hashtag#portcall hashtag#scheduling, hashtag#etradedocs, hashtag#efinancing, hashtag#dataexchange, hashtag#routeoptimisation and hashtag#procurement.

If you are developing a truly innovative technology that everyone says is awesome, apply now via our new and revamped website:
https://captainstable.hk

Deadline: 31 August 2024

For enquiries, email: [email protected]

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