Living Exhibition Vienna 2024
About the Export Day
The Vienna Living Exhibition took place on 18 June 2024 from 10:00-21:00 at the 22nd Austrian Export Day, the second year this event was chosen for this purpose. The Export Day is Austria’s largest information and networking event on the subject of export and internationalisation under the motto: ‘Inspiration – Innovation – Future (Zukunft)’.
Given the success of the event in 2023, Urban Shift again had an exhibition space in the ‘Innovation Jungle’, with a 30m² booth in the repurposed WKÖ car park to display all prototypes. The start-ups had the opportunity to meet potential cooperation partners, customers and investors. Overall, 2,500 visitors were in attendance during the Export Day.
Open Stage
The Urban Shift project was presented at 13:00 on the Open Stage of the Export Day. A trainer from WIFI delivered an overview of the project and the start-ups. Following this, one member of each start-up presented their project idea and challenge solution in front of an audience of industry professionals and to encourage them to visit the Innovation Jungle to learn more about the prototypes.
Innovation Jungle – An artistic performance
The Innovation Jungle, located in the WKÖ garage, was transformed as before into a creative ‘oasis’, with colourful lighting and furnishings, exotic plants, comfortable seating arrangements for networking in the Future Lounge, as well as a DJ booth. Visitors to the Innovation Jungle were guided down a neon-lighted, pink-carpeted aisle, lined by palm trees and rainforest sounds. Therefore, on entering the ‘Jungle’, attendees are greatly aware of the contrast to the rest of the more ‘traditional’ set-up of the rest of the exhibition, demonstrating that the exhibitors located are modern, out-of-the-box thinkers.
Visitors had the opportunity to wander through the prototype exhibition and physically engage with the carefully crafted prototypes, for example trying on the cooling vest of the Zephyr Project. These professionals also had the special opportunity to engage with the creative minds behind these innovations, asking them about the process of coming up with their idea, developing the prototype, and plans for next steps of their start up.