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[Translate to Englisch:] ©fotografin Sandra König

MAKING SHARED EXPERIENCES: TAKEPART HONOURED AS START-UP IDEA OF THE YEAR

2024-11-08 To give people the opportunity to organise their free time in a meaningful way and expand their circle of friends by using a digital tool- that is the idea behind the app takepart . Eric Schneider, Lukas Thiée and Johannes van Deest were honoured for their concept as Leuphana Start-up Idea of the Year at this year's Lünale.

Despite the high usage figures for social media applications, many people now miss the social relationships they actually have. Studies reveal that the feeling of loneliness is increasing. Based on these observations, Eric Schneider, Lukas Thiée and Johannes van Deest want to work with takepart users to offer a digital approach that makes it easy to organise and participate in both spontaneous and planned activities in the real world.

The plan is for users to use the app to look for fellow travellers for planned activities or to find inspiration for joint activities from other people's requests. ‘Whether hiking, bouldering, book clubs, game nights or much more - takepart promotes the development of real relationships based on interests and effectively combats loneliness,’ the founders write in their project outline. The app aims to strengthen individual quality of life and a sense of community and help people to rediscover the people and opportunities in a region.

The application is aimed at people who are looking for company or curious about new everyday impulses, possibly newcomers to a new place of residence or travellers in an unfamiliar location. takepart wants to connect people through shared activities and, at best, reshape regional leisure activities and networking by forming long-term communities and interest groups.

The three founders see spontaneous shared experiences as having a positive social effect by reducing loneliness and promoting real interpersonal connections. This strengthens both mental health and social cohesion. They were able to convince the jury with this concept and were honoured as Leuphana Start-up Idea of the Year.

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Video of the Lünale on the founding idea takepart (in German)

Background

Every year, the Lünale awards the most important business prizes in the Lüneburg region. The gala is organised by the Wirtschaftsförderungs-GmbH for the city and district of Lüneburg.

The ‘Leuphana Start-up Idea of the Year’ prize is one of four prizes awarded on the evening of the event. The competition is organised annually by the Chair of Start-up Management at Leuphana under the direction of Prof. Dr. Reinhard Schulte and is aimed at students, graduates and employees of the university. The award is endowed with prize money of 3,000 euros, provided by the Rainer Adank Foundation with the support of the NBank.