Blog

The first time in the short history of Cropster participates at a panel discussion of Zukunftszentrum Tirol in Innsbruck.

In Cooperation with the German Genesis Institute the Zukunftszentrum Tirol organised a kick off meeting with the topic “Social Business/Sozialunternehmen”. Well known social entrepreneurs opened the very successful event as key note speakers with the following program (German).

The most important goal of the event was starting to spread the idea of social business/entrepreneurship in Austria and founding a platform for (potential) social entrepreneurs/enterprises for networking and getting in touch for the exchange of ideas.

About 150 participants from different countries in the region were extensively discussing the “new” upcoming topic of sustainable entrepreneurship. New events were discussed and the start of different network-initiatives in the near future has been focused.

Necessary information:

Zukunftsstiftung Tirol (German): http://www.zukunftszentrum.at

Genesis Institut (English/German): http://www.genisis-institute.org

Vision Summit (English/German): http://www.genisis-institute.org/125.html?&L=0

Muhammad Yunus (English): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Yunus

“A social business is designed to meet a social need. I believe that many kinds of enterprises can be created as social businesses in order to serve the poor” Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank, Nobel Peace Prize Winner 2006

Our team is growing. We are happy to announce that Matthias joined our team in Austria. He is a skilled software-engineer and brings valuable experience to Cropster. And even more: He shares our spirit about How and Why we do things.

I am happy to announce that the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) financially rewarded our cooperation with the Research Studio iSPACE with an Innovation Check. iSPACE  is specialized in georeferenced technologies to support strategic decisions and operative planning.

During this cooperation we will evaluate the integration of embedded modules for mobile use of sensor measurements into Cropster software. Furthermore we target to create a cheap yet robust hardware device. The idea is to enable our customers to capture “live” weather data from virtually anywhere in the world. This data is then made available through our online systems.

We are excited about this project and the possibilities that may arise from it. If you are interested, then please stay in touch for more updates on this or contact us directly.

Cropster participates at the SCAE Cologne 2009 conference in Germany. The event is taking place in the Koelnmesse conference center. Please consult the SCAE conference page. You will find all necessary information there.

Cropster is based at the Coffeestar Berlin Stand D018 in Hall 8, where Karl Heinz Rieser is hosting us. Mr Niederhauser and Mr Idl are awaiting you there. If you are interested in meeting us, please contact us via info@cropster.org or just drop by.

Useful links:

Speciality Coffee Assication of Europe (SCAE) http://www.scae.org
Koelnmesse http://www.koelnmesse.com

Andreas Idl presented our work on the 3rd Genisis social business event in Munich (Germany). Interested people from Munich and around participated and showed a growing interest in social business. Alternative ways of making business become more important and the topic is spreading quickly.

The program was an interesting mix of different aspects of the social entrepreneurs and supporters. We are very happy to be a part of this movement. Thanks to the Genisis Institute and especially Michel Aloui for hosting and supporting us!

Links related to presentations:
Genisis Institute: http://www.genisis-institute.org

LMU EC: http://www.entrepreneurship-center.lmu.de
Ashoka: http://www.ashoka.org
Utopia: http://www.utopia.de
Pegasus GmbH: http://www.pegasusgmbh.de
Microfinance AT: http://www.microfinance.at

In case of any question send me an e-mail: andreas.idl@cropster.org .
I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Cropster participated in the 1st Annual Extraordinary Coffee Workshop in Popayan, Colombia. This was an Intelligentsia hosted four-days event, held from 7th to 11th June 2009 in Cali and Popayan. With twenty speciality coffee growers from all over South & Central America, which made it to an incredible source of knowledge and expertise about the direct trade market. It included workshops, presentations (one held by Cropster), cupping sessions and many, many interesting conversations during the days (and nights).

My congratulations go out to the lovely people at Intelligentsia and the coffee growers I met. You truly made this a unique experience and I hope to see more of such events coming up in the future.

Am Donnerstag, 14. Mai laedt das Genisis Institut ein:

liebe freunde, freunde von freunden,

vor 8 monaten haben wir in berlin den think tank genisis gegründet. seine aufgabe besteht 
darin, das spannende & innovative thema „social business“ im deutschsprachigen raum bekannt zu 
machen und die entwicklung von sozialunternehmern zu fördern.

social business bedeutet die lösung relevanter sozialer probleme auf unternehmerischem weg! analog 
zu prof yunus´ armutsbekämpfung in bangladesh über mikrokredite.

am 2./3.11. fand der von genisis organisierte vision summit mit 1000 gästen in berlin statt & konnte
sich als das wesentliche event zum thema „social business“ im deutschsprachigen raum durchsetzen:

www.visionsummit.org

mittlerweile bereiten wir den nächsten summit vor, der am 7./8.11 erneut in berlin stattfinden wird.

damit die zeit bis dahin nicht zu lang wird, bringen wir genisis auch in andere städte, begannen
mit köln, jetzt wien (14. mai), hamburg & münchen etc. sollen folgen.

am 14.5. um 19.00 findet unsere wiener premiere statt, in der sigmund freud privatuniversität wien,  schnirchgasse 9a, A-1030 wien, festsaal der uni im 2. stock

genisis wird vorstellen:

peter spiegel / institutsleiter genisis: “ein think-and-do-tank für social business”

prof. thomas druyen / lehrstuhl für vermögenskultur: “vermögenskultur und verantwortung“

um das thema plastisch und eindringlich zu präsentieren, haben wir 2 sozialunternehmer aus deutschland & österreich eingeladen:

-      friedrich kiesinger / pegasus / soziales problem: reintegration psychisch kranker / www.pegasusgmbh.de

-      andreas idl / cropster /  soziales problem: informationsmanagement als motor für faire handelsbeziehungen:transparenz und effizienz in internationalen wertschöpfungsketten für landwirtschaftliche hochqualitätsprodukte – beispiel spezialitätenkaffee in kolumbien / www.cropster.org

anschließend wird xaver diermayr von bonventure zu folgendem thema sprechen: “wagniskapital für social entrepreneurs”  /  www.bonventure.de

 
es wird kein eintritt erhoben & es gibt keine schnittchen!

bitte, leitet diese einladung an interessierte freunde weiter

A successful year draws to an end. We hope you enjoyed our work together as much as we did. After days and weeks of hard work, we are now entering a time to relax (even if it’s short). Therefore we wish you, from the bottom of our hearts, pleasant holidays and a happy New Year.

The Cropster office will be closed between 24.12.2008 and 12.01.2009. We are already looking forward to continuing to work with you in the New Year.

Best wishes,
The Cropster Team
Jenny Correa, Andreas Idl, Martin Wiesinger, Norbert Niederhauser

On Saturday October 25th, exactly one day before the Austrian national day, Cropster invited its collaborators to the wonderful city of Innsbruck to celebrate the first Cropster Convention. The idea was basically to spend a nice day together, get to know each other, talk about ideas and life, hear the presentation about what had happenened in Cropster since the beginning, and have good food and drinks.

The starting point was the ride in the new reconstructed “Hungerburg Bahn” (www.nordpark.at), then a little walk to “Arzler Alm” (www.arzleralm.at) where we had great lunch. After a little sunbath on the terrace in front of the restaurant the Cropster crowd walked down to Innsbruck city where the Cropster highlights were presented. After that we took the obligatory group picture

Thanks to all participants for that great day - we really enjoyed it! (some came especially for that event and only for one day from fairly far away like Frankfurt, Paris, Vienna, Dornbirn). Thanks also Josef Walder for his support on organizational matters.

We are very excited to present Cropster at RAMACAFE 2007. The yearly conference held in Managua, Nicaragua is a focal point for coffee insiders around the world. On the second conference day, Norbert Niederhauser will talk about “Innovative Information Management Strategies and Tools for the High Value Product Supply Chain”. Peter Laderach, Cropster’s agricultural consultant together with Norbert Niederhauser will be happy to meet you and discuss your questions at the Cropster stand in section “16B”.

Cropster at the RAMACAFE 2007 Conference in Nicaragua