F/List – which manufactures interiors for business jets, yachts and residences – held its first TechDay at its headquarters in Thomasberg, Austria, at the end of January 2020. The day saw four start-ups pitching their ideas to a jury made up of F/List experts.
In 2019, F/List launched a company-wide game-changing process and started to deal extensively with future-related topics and new technologies. F/List founded the TechDays initiative as part of this transformation, to prepare for the future. “There are many start-ups promoting game-changing technologies, but they have no markets,” said Katharina List-Nagl, CEO of F/List (pictured above). “We do have markets and we are eager to adopt new technologies.”
Four start-ups were invited to present their technologies, products and services. Each had eight minutes in which to introduce their product and demonstrate its use. This was followed by a 15-minute discussion round, during which the jury asked questions and tried out the products. Around 40 F/List employees – from departments such as research and development as well as marketing and sales – joined the event and the discussion was enriched by questions and opinions from the audience.
“The inspiration for this day was a dialogue about corporate strategy, about where we are going as a company,” said Markus Inäbnit, executive director, corporate strategy at F/List. “We asked ourselves what technologies would be needed in the future – that was the initial spark for our TechDay.”
Alongside List-Nagl and Inäbnit, the jury included Andreas Aigner, COO, Michael Groiss, CFO, and Ulrich Gehling, vice president for aircraft interior projects. “I thought it was absolutely brilliant,” said Gehling. “There were great topics, and for all four cases we immediately had application fields in mind.”
In the coming weeks, there will be further exchange between F/List and the start-up selected as having the greatest potential for future cooperation.
The next TechDay is already being planned. Gehling is sure it’ll be a regular event. “We’ll definitely keep the TechDays going,” he said. “It was a great start for us.”
Photo: F/List/Matt Observe
