On the occasion of the 150th jubilee of the Bayer AG, the company let the future take centre stage in the form of 189 budding scientists. The talented youngsters qualified out of 11,411 participants for the final from the 30th May to 2nd June . They presented 108 projects. Their visionary ideas ranged from a robot modelled on a jet ski to a training bicycle which can be stopped using a smartphone, and through to a process of early cancer detection by increasing the luminosity of the florescent colours. The versatile layout concept in the VIP Area West was most definitely up to the challenges the event presented.

The announcement and presentation of award for the national winner in a ceremony attended by 1,200 invited guests including the Minister for Education Prof Dr Johanna Wanka and the Bayer board chairman Dr Marijn Dekkers was without doubt the highlight. For the final ceremony a steel pipe construction with a video wall in the background was erected in the West Stand. The elaborate construction measured more than 3m in height, 30 m in length and almost 10m in width. The VIP seats were used as the assembly. In this way we created prospects for the closing event which were just as good as the prospects for the future the participants had shown us.