IO+'s week: new year's resolutions
Our weekly overview offers an overview of the most interesting stories around key innovations every Sunday.
Published on January 5, 2025
Bart is the co-founder and co-owner of Media52 (publishing IO+) and a Professor of Journalism at the University of Groningen. He is responsible for all the branches of our company—IO+, events, and Laio—and focuses on commercial opportunities. A journalist at heart, he also keeps writing as many stories as he can.
Happy New Year!
Perhaps a bit cheesy, but no less heartfelt: we wish everyone reading this newsletter and the articles on IO+ a happy and healthy 2025. Since a large part of our audience is active in high-tech innovation, we like to add a lot of inventiveness and entrepreneurship. May it be a beautiful and impactful year!
In addition, of course, we wish you strength in fulfilling your own New Year's resolutions. Ours align closely with our central mission: to bring attention to the people and organizations that are innovatively tackling the biggest challenges of our time. Through our bio+, chip+, data+, green+, and community sections, we continue to provide a daily overview of that through the articles that appear on io+ and that we reference through our social channels:
Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/en.ioplus.nl
Threads https://threads.net/@ioplus.nl
Mastodon https://mastodon.social/@ioplus
Linkedin https://linkedin.com/company/ioplusen
Events and Laio
We pursue that mission I just mentioned (bringing attention to the people and organizations that are innovatively addressing the biggest challenges of our time) not only through io+ but also with our events and, to some extent, with the tools we build. Our community events (mainly under the brand name Gerard & Anton; see also below) are coming up fast this year; the thematic meetings need more preparation time than we thought last year. Therefore, we unfortunately had to postpone our events around agrifood innovation and 3d medical. More on that later.
Laio, the tool that helps journalists make responsible use of AI and thus make their productions more complete and efficient, is gaining momentum. After a successful first year in which Laio was mainly used internally, we were able to help various external parties with this service in the second half of last year. We are fully committed to further growth. Take a look at laio.pro for a first impression. You can also sign up there as a user. For larger companies, we have Laio Feed, a completely automated newsfeed around a specific theme. For example, see this website about American business and finance. Also interested in such a platform, for example about flexible electronics, korfball in Friesland, mechanization in the livestock sector, or AI in journalism? Let us know, and we will gladly engage in a conversation!
Gerard & Anton High Tech Peak Awards
The Gerard & Anton High Tech Peak Awards are a fixture in our expanding event package. Next Thursday, we will have our eighth edition. It's all about the individuals who mean something special to our high-tech ecosystem. The people who, often behind the scenes, make so much possible. Everyone knows them, and again this year, we had a wide range of nominations to choose from. We're completely sold out for this event, so if you don't have a ticket yet, you'll have to make do with the reviews from the other attendees (and the highlights we'll share later via this newsletter).
Speaking of Gerard & Anton ... at gerardanton.com/news, we track the achievements of all former G&A Award winners daily. These startups combined the smartest innovations with the most effective entrepreneurship and built the best teams to do so. Of the 100 former winners, 93 are still active today, an excellent score in startup land. So check gerardanton.com regularly, follow us on Linkedin, and read the G&A newsletter.
Meanwhile, there was plenty of news. Check it out:
- WRR: Netherlands must review its economic dependence on China - and not just for security reasons
- An air fryer that eavesdrops on kitchen conversation - a growing privacy concern
- 2024: Power in Europe is cleaner than ever before
- 2025 will be the year AI agents will transform your workplace
- European solar sector calls for billions in public-private effort
- Smart glasses, brain therapy, and battery materials - 5 investments from last month
- Central heat storage offers lower energy bills and eases congestion on the power grid
- Future thinkers: 'We're all a bit of a director of the future'
- Future thinkers, part 2: 'Understanding the future starts with knowing yourself'
- Biggest obstacle for Dutch startups: bringing in venture capital
- International horticulture: get ahead or get caught up?
- AI literacy among doctors and nurses must rise quickly
- Netherlands will become the hub of the European photonics sector. 'This moment is comparable to the early days of the semiconductor industry'
- The first twelve companies in Brainport Partner Fund contribute 219 million euros to social causes in coming years
Happy week! And make it an innovative and entrepreneurial 2025.