Bremen over Berlin: how BLG’s Digilab is introducing a start-up mentality in this global company

Industry 4.0 describes one of the most comprehensive revolutions in our production landscape - so comprehensive, in fact, that it has been awarded the title of fourth industrial revolution. But what is it all about?

As a Hanseatic metropolis, international trade is in the blood of the people of Bremen. From here, companies control their worldwide destiny, import and export goods from the most remote corners - we present 10 of them

The colours of the local football team are not the only thing that's green about Bremen, as you'll see when you take a stroll around its parks and open spaces. A look at the statistics shows that Bremen is the greenest city in Germany.

David Zhou first came to Bremen seven years ago. The Corona crisis has given the lighting manufacturer undreamt-of tailwind - and virtually swept his warehouse empty. This is not the only reason why he feels right at home in Bremen.

Will Silicon Valley soon be history? And are the market values of electric vehicle manufacturers like Nikola and Tesla justified? Here are some fresh insights from our Silicon Valley office into what is going on in the heartland of tech on the US west coast.

Bremen is known in China as one of the world’s major ports. But that’s just one of the factors attracting Chinese companies to our Hanseatic city.

Our colleague in Turkey, Erol Tüfekci, has prepared a video – set against the impressive skyscraper skyline of Izmir’s modern Bayrakli district – in which he describes how Bremeninvest helps companies with their business in Germany.

How is Turkey handling the coronavirus crisis? And why is Istanbul attracting investment of nearly US$ 2 billion from Silicon Valley?

Bremen and Taiwan share a long-standing friendship. The Hanseatic city has been in close contact with the Asian island for more than 30 years. New opportunities in Far Eastern markets are opening up for Bremen-based companies despite the coronavirus crisis.

There’s a huge market for wearable computing solutions – especially ones that are able to provide virtual assistance as well. One of the global leaders in this field is Ubimax, a company from Bremen.

What is the effect of brexite for companies? This question is answered by Anja Markmann, responsible for customs and foreign trade law at the Bremen Chamber of Commerce.

Embarking on digital transformation is a bit like setting sail without a map and GPS – no one knows where the journey will take you and what to expect along the way. Fortunately, there are a number of places in Bremen where you can find the support you need to ensure your digital journey is a safe one. We have created a list for you.

Whether an AI for Werder Bremen or robots equipped with lasers: These and more stories in our AI overview!

What makes Vietnam – a socialist state – so interesting to western companies? In this edition of our country newsletter for Vietnam we seek to answer this question, and we also report on the country’s most exciting start-ups.

The new Silk Road is China's gigantic infrastructure project. Small and medium sized European companies can profit from it - a new network will help them. We talked to the initiators.

Becks and Melitta may be high-profile brands, but international food and beverage companies also manufacture lots of other products in Bremen and Bremerhaven. Here are ten examples.

The state of Bremen covers 420 square kilometres and is home to around 670,000 people. Almost 22,000 companies provide more than 325,000 jobs. Below, we introduce some of the strong sectors that that make Bremen such an excellent business location.

Experience Silicon Valley at first hand with Bremeninvest! Tim Ole Jöhnk, our man in Silicon Valley, is inviting representatives from the food and supply chain industries to join a delegation on a visit to Silicon Valley. More on this and other exciting stories in the September newsletter.

Will it soon be our robot colleague who greets us in the mornings? Robots will be helping us out at our desks in future, and this is already becoming a reality in Bremen.

Coworking, agile working, design thinking: what do these buzzwords mean? We put this question to expert Sven Hermann, who talks to us about the concept known as ‘New Work’ and what kind of companies might benefit from it.

For a long time, import duties prevented producers from selling anything other than raw beans to Europe. Bremerhaven entrepreneur Felix Ahlers supports a Cooperative which covers the entire value chain and has created 120 jobs in Ethiopia.

Steel producer ArcelorMittal is employing a digital strategy that could also be of interest to SMEs – including when it comes to artificial intelligence.

Bremen without logistics – inconceivable! But what do the more than 1,000 companies that make up the sector actually do? We introduce ten logistics firms.

Companies that are largely unknown but are market leaders in their field – those are hidden champions. Which of these twelve hidden champions from Bremen do you know?

The ESA Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Northern Germany is a new beacon project for the aerospace sector in Bremen.

In January 2018, WFB Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH opened an office in Ho Chi Minh City. Bremen was the first federal state with its own representative office in Vietnam. Manuel Kühn, WFB Project Manager International Settlement, explains in an interview why this proved to be a really good idea.

Is this what the salesman of the future looks like? With "Pepper", the Bremen-based start-up Blackout Technologies develops unique software based on artificial intelligence throughout Europe.

Werder goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka owes his job to artificial intelligence. He was designed by the team of JUST ADD AI. Founder Roland Becker tells us how other medium-sized companies already benefit from AI today.

Artificial intelligence is regarded as an absolute growth topic - should every company jump on the bandwagon now? No, says Bastian Diedrich from the Bremen digital agency hmmh, but he makes an important restriction.

Bremen: Down-to-earth, yet always ready to surprise you. An attractive place to live, a city through which we can move easily and without stress. People from different cities and countries tell us why they fell in love with Bremen and have made their lives here.

A company founder lives for his or her idea – no distance is too far and no obstacle too high. Four foreign entrepreneurs in Bremen share their passion for their vision.

Jiani Chen recently moved to Bremen. The energetic young Chinese woman founded the start-up App CN in the Hanseatic city and is now looking to kick-start her international business. She loves things about Bremen that many locals would take for granted.

Sometimes you have to learn from other people's mistakes and trust your instincts. That is what Muhammad-Farhan Aslam believed when he took over his father's business. And it turned out to be one of many good decisions that he made.

AI, machine learning, neural networks – the topic of artificial intelligence is full of jargon. We provide some simple definitions to guide you.

Bremen-based Flyline can look back on two decades of success and expansion. The British Airways (BA) subsidiary began as a call centre with a 30-strong workforce. Today, Flyline employs around 400 people at Bremen airport.

Many companies fail to choose the right approach when it comes to trademarks and Intellectual property right protection in general, according to Bremen lawyer Dr Eckhard Ratjen – not just in Germany, but also particularly when entering markets in other countries. But with the right strategy, many problems can be avoided from the outset.

Artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday life, and Bremen-based companies are leading the way. We have put together a ‘who’s who’ in artificial intelligence in Bremen.

Whether they involve flying around virtual spaces or manipulating reality, augmented and virtual reality open up new dimensions. A number of companies in Bremen are working on these technologies, and one of them is even the global leader in its market.

From one side of the Atlantic to the other: two graduates from New York University travel to Bremen for a research internship – and immediately want to stay.

Almost half of all coffee beans imported into Germany pass through Bremen’s ports. Coffee roasters such as Lloyd Caffee and Cross Coffee have helped to cement the image of Bremen as Germany’s coffee capital.

Bremen’s IT sector is an important pillar of the local industry. We introduce ten IT service providers.

The best of both worlds. A young Indian from Bremen is helping German engineering to benefit from India’s factory capacities and vice versa. And everything is completely digitalised – with one click in real time, an order can be sent straight to the Indian factory. The benefit for manufacturers is huge.

Bremen is expanding. Several construction projects will reshape the city centre. The 2018 Bremen property market report – an overview of office, logistics and retail properties, and of investment market trends – confirms that the city is an attractive location for investors and developers.

To the south of Bremerhaven, plans are taking shape for a new business and industrial park that will fulfil strict sustainability criteria. Situated on what is known as the Luneplate, a site close to the largest nature conservation area in the state of Bremen, the park is set to become the home of companies operating in the green economy.

How is the role of media and other forms of communication changing in society? What are the resulting challenges? The international MA in Digital Media and Society, which launches at the University of Bremen in time for the winter semester, aims to provide the answers.

Airbus is a global trailblazer in the field of 3D printing, and the aerospace company has established a technology centre for this new production method in Bremen. This is one of many reasons why the Hanseatic city has become a hub for 3D printing in Europe.

We don’t normally get to see Littelfuse’s products. And yet there’s hardly any electronic device that doesn’t require components from this global market leader. The European headquarters of the US firm are located in Bremen. And they’re far more than just a sales office.

Our city centre is evolving. Bremen is creating affordable and desirable residential areas, offices and retail space. The city is set to get a more modern look thanks to projects near the main train station, in new districts and right by the river.

Good ideas may be rare, but imitators are easy to find. Which makes it all the more important to secure patents for new inventions. Bremen-based InnoWi helps companies and the research community to register new patents, and is also on hand to provide advice and access to funding.

Exciting times in Überseestadt, Bremen’s New Harbour District. Large parts of the old 400 metre long Schuppen 3 building are to be demolished to make way for a new quarter featuring a mix of apartments, offices, retail units and services. And there is a good reason why it will be called EuropaQuartier.

It was a cold February evening when Paramjit Kohli first came to Bremen from India – and he loved it immediately. Read on to find out why he founded a company here and what lessons he has learned over the past year.

Stathis Stasinopoulos built his first bike so that he could get to and from work in Athens more easily. At the time, he could not have imagined that his idea would see him set up his own business in Bremen. We visited the entrepreneurial engineer in his new workshop in the north of Bremen.

Fish fingers have been made in Bremerhaven for almost 60 years. Over this period, they have withstood all food trends and are more popular today than ever before. On average, each German consumer eats 24 of them a year. And they were probably made in Bremerhaven, the fish finger capital.

The construction of the complex new EcoMaT research and technology centre at Airport-Stadt Bremen is at an advanced stage. Prospective tenants include Airbus and Testia, as well as a number of leading medium-sized businesses and scientific institutions. After the topping-out ceremony, work will get under way on the interior of the building.

The depths of the ocean remain one of the last great mysteries on Earth. What is the precise composition of the seafloor? What flora and fauna inhabit it? Where has the delicate balance of the ecosystem been seriously disrupted? We still don’t have complete answers to any of these questions, but four young scientists from Bremen are aiming to change that.

Bremeninvest is currently managing the fifth construction phase at Bremen Industrial Park, scheduled for completion in 2020, and has already taken reservations from several companies. Businesses that have already relocated here are investing in their growth and their future.

Bremen has the right location to suit any company, from the logistics sector at the Cargo Distribution Center (GVZ) to research institutes at the Technology Park and international companies at Bremen Airport-Stadt. Or perhaps you are looking for more of a mix of sectors to stimulate creativity? We can show you the right business park to suit your needs.