The annual ZIE 2024 took place on April 4 in the Van Nelle Factory in Rotterdam. Collaborations between companies and sectors in the South Holland industry are necessary to solve today's major social challenges. This year's theme was therefore 'New technology for the manufacturing industry'. SEE was organized by Hi Delta and Mikrocentrum.
Security and Defense as a growth engine
Security & Defense can become a new growth engine for the region if the armed forces are helped to become truly future-proof. It is impressive how Hans Kuijper and his MIND team are fighting to transform the Ministry of Defense so that it can mobilize knowledge and innovation together with SMEs to win the war of tomorrow.
Let us be careful with hotspots such as Technology Park, Scale Smart Campus Leerpark, TU Delft Campus and NL Space Campus and not assume that they will be self-sustaining. These places must be cherished so that we can effectively use the scarce space for the manufacturing industry and stimulate innovation through smart clustering.
SEE 2024, this edition also had a scoop: the launch of the Cyber Resilience Center Manufacturing Industry South Holland. This center will be the central place for knowledge and experience with cybersecurity throughout the entire chain and is aimed at increasing cyber resilience by helping companies with IT and OT security.
In addition to ZIE as an annual anchor point, sector-wide initiatives are very important, such as the activities of Hi Delta, Digitalzh, RoboCrops, and national initiatives such as Einstein Telescope and NXTGEN Hightech - fortunately all present on the exhibition floor.
Erik de Jong from H2L Robotics talked about his robot for detection and treatment of sick tulips that are now driving around everywhere. They solve 90% of the problems remotely, and they almost always know the diagnosis of the last 10% before they drive there. Zepp.solutions, Skelex, Kalpana Systems, Battolyser Systems, Villari and SPECTRAL Industries were given a stage at the IQ pavilion, all pearls to cherish and help grow.
ZIE 2024 is a networking activity aimed at promoting networking and knowledge sharing between SMEs through Holland High Tech's MIT program.
