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Pierre, what has been fascinating to you during your journey to Baden-Württemberg?

Well, I have been fascinated by how welcoming the people in this region are, even towards a French speaker. I also appreciate the energy and the willingness of people starting a new business regarding natural fibers. They are willing to reform the fiber world axis in the direction of the new resource for high technology products. Perhaps something I discovered concerns the region, that these institutes and companies are state-of-the-art regarding modern industrialization. In France, we would say they are “usines 4.0”, the new factories for tomorrow and are using natural fiber. So yes, I'm impressed that there is a joint here around Stuttgart concerning natural fibers and the people that are willing to bring natural fibers into the future and not stick in the past and continue with them using new technologies.

What insights have you gained? What is the result of this journey?

I need a KUKA robot. There were a lot of KUKA robots in the startup we visited today. I think it's a new way to perform hemps fiber structures in order to integrate it into any industry. Facing the current lack of skilled workers, this can be a solution for the automotive industry with its mass production and for the construction sector, where hemp oftentimes is only used for special buildings instead of the broad masses. So, it was very interesting and educational to see these more modern inventions that are also suitable for hemp. I recognized that high technology could help us even with natural fibers better than low technology.

How did you like the companies and research institutes we have been to?

Well, I enjoyed them. All of them. Once again, I was very impressed by how welcoming the institutes and companies were. The employees engaged with the visitors and explained their job in detail.

And did you make any contacts during your stay here?

Yes, there is a bus full of contacts. During making these contacts I discovered the dynamic in Tirol and the approach of new players in the hemp-sector who launch a new hemp-value chain. I was also able to deepen the connections with people I've only met a few times. It was nice to reunite with some pioneers that I met years ago. At Bafa, Bernd himself wasn’t there, I have met him long years ago, but Uwe did his job very well introducing everithing to us. I also met Mishal again, who I know already for 15 years on the hemp topic. So yes, I made a lot of new contacts and deepen old contacts at the same time with the help of this exchange.

What was your favorite experience? What was your highlight of the whole trip?

Well, I'm not sure I have a favorite experience out of all the areas we got to know. I think the whole journey is an experience and I enjoyed it whether I was working or traveling. I had all this time to exchange ideas and talk to other participants. Especially the discussions we had during the bus rides were very interesting because we had all the time in the world to talk. Finally, it's a good opportunity to network and exchange ideas.

Pierre Amadieu, HEMP-ACT, France, https://hemp-act.com/

I am sitting here with Lucy from Hemp the Climate and I would like to ask you some questions. How did you like your travel here to Baden-Württemberg and your visit to the companies and the research institutes?

I really loved my visit to the research institutes and the companies. It was really great to have the expertise of the different researchers who explained what they were working on. It was also great to have the more on the hand and pragmatic look at the actual machines that they're working with and the materials that they're developing.

Did you learn something special, or did you have any personal highlights you especially enjoyed?

It was really interesting for me to see the different machinery for the textile production, for example all the automated shuttle machines at Topp Textil GmbH this afternoon, the large scale braiding machines. I mean it was all very interesting, seeing the paper heat molding yesterday was a big highlight for me as well. I think that's something that has a lot of potential for the need to replace plastics. I think there are a lot of uses when it comes to removing the plastic that was added out of ease during the last decades, since paper is actually quite sufficient and has the necessary qualities. So I think that's really interesting for a sustainable future.

Was it the paper molding that was found at the University of Media?

Yes, it was at the University of Media. The students were working on that, I think Mr. Schickler, Mr. Schneider at the tour of Prof. Franz. This has been a super opportunity to meet other people who are working in much different fields related to natural fibers, and to exchange expertise and have a common learning experience. You learn both from the people that you're visiting with and from the people that you're visiting. So it's a great opportunity and really super well organized. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the organizers for doing such a wonderful job in giving us a great experience.

Lucie Salmon, Hemp The Climate, France, https://www.hemptheclimate.com/

Maren, what been fascinating on your journey to Baden-Württemberg?

For me it was actually a real honor and also a first time to be included in an industry cluster since I am not really an insider of the hemp industry but a climate impact storyteller, photojournalist and author. I use go to conferences that are open but usually I don’t get to participate to insider industry events. This was the first time and it was interesting to see how people communicate, what they communicate about and how these exchanges are facilitated.

What are your learnings from this trip?

I learned once again that collaboration, collaboration, collaboration and joining forces are essential to get the hemp industry going and make it bigger. It was helpful to see that the same discussions are taking place on these insider conferences as they do on more representative industry events for the greater public. I learned a lot of new facts on the company tours to which I normally have no access. It was extremely interesting to see state-of-the-art of technology in the automotive and aeroplane industry. And that all was linked back to the natural fiber topics, which has been quite inspiring.

How did you like the visits to the companies and research institutes?

I was really impressed to have a look at the state-of-the-art automotive industry but also how technology and AI is finding its way and is gaining ground. On the other hand, it was interesting to see humans will never going to be completely superfluous in technology and high-tech. Technology can be very well advanced, but at the end it needs a human to fix arising problems. Furthermore, I was especially impressed with the visit at Deutsche Institute für Textil- und Faserforschung Denkendorf, which was definitely a new world for me. It blessed me in the most sense of something I had not seen from the inside before.

How many new contacts could you gain during this trip?

I was surprised how many new people who I got to know. But there where many players I have met before and this trip was perfect to deepen the connection over these three days. There has been a lot of space to exchange one on one, to have deeper discussions to take it further. Usually during conferences there is very little time to take the thoughts down the full line. About 60 % of the people met during the trip were new to me, 40% I already knew, but both connections felt very fruitful. It was fantastic.

Would you name your favorite experience?

The paper company Scheufelen and Fibers365 we have visited was probably the most impressive experience personally, since paper had been my pet peeve topic. I developed the paper for my book. It is a special developed hemp paper, that took me two years to develop together with a German paper manufacturer. I got a lot of insights already there from one industry player. But being able to take such a deep dive into the entire paper process after going through developing my own paper and having learned a lot about supply chain and technical issues, and then having somebody who approaches the paper process in a complete different way than what I have seen, was extremely inspiring and opened a lot of new ways to think about hemp fiber and its possibilities, also brought up a lot of questions, but in total it pulled together the big puzzle of hemp and paper a little bit more for me.

Maren Krings, Maren Krings Photography, Austria, https://marenkrings.com/

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I am sitting here with Raquel from EIHA and I would like to ask you some questions. What has been fascinating for you during your journey to Baden-Württemberg?

Germany is a new world for me, because I had never been here before to check out the Hemp world and the cluster that is dedicated to fiber. So it was very enlightening from the beginning, I came in touch with some new sectors and new products. Everything I did until now was very enlightening.

Did you make new and helpful contacts?

Yes, I absolutely did. I met people from Tirol that are very welcoming and nice. At AFBW cluster it was very interesting as well because you work for the technical part of the textile industry, which shows that textile is more than just fashion. So this is an important sector for the industry and for a new industry which is sustainable. It was interesting to see how they produce the carbon textile or to watch a company create paper yesterday. It is a new vision that is being created here, completely without chemicals, which is my focus as well. Right now, we produce hemp in Italy without chemicals and I'm against using conventional chemicals because green chemicals exist and they are the future. It's a great thing.

And what was your special highlight so far, after visiting all the companies and the research institute?

The technical textiles were very new to me. I had never seen that, and it was so interesting to understand it. The learning visit on the management of your cluster is also new to me. So it was interesting to understand and see that there are a lot of people in Europe who share a new vision regarding the bioeconomy.

Rachele Invernizzi, South Hemp Tecno srl, Italy, http://www.southemp.it/

Maria, how did you like your journey to Baden Württemberg and the companies and research institutes you visited here?

I really enjoyed the program here with our colleagues from AFBW and also SATH, our partner, who kindly organized this for us. It was very interesting because natural fibers are not a part of the core business of Produtech, but nevertheless, our aim is to transform manufacturing through natural fibers. That's one of the things that made it very appealing to us, but also to our partners that joined this cluster exchange. I really enjoyed the visits to the companies, especially Topp Textil GmbH since my interest is more focused on the machinery side rather than the hemp. But I also enjoyed the other companies and we learned a lot regarding the institutes. All of them were interesting in different ways. I really enjoyed Deutsche Institute für Textil- und Faserforschung Denkendorf and how they explained and showed people all the different processes for the fibers. I never thought about the process of how to get from raw fibers to carbon fibers, the way how it is created. It was super interesting to be shown all the process and to understand how to get the end results. We made a lot of contacts and exchanged some very nice ideas for the learning visit with the hosting cluster AFBW. Thank you for hosting us. I think the companies that joined us also liked this cluster exchange and we were able to get some interesting contacts for future projects.

Maria João Samúdio, PRODUTECH, Portugal, http://www.produtech.org/