The aim was the exchange of ideas with a view to the creation and utilisation of innovative and sustainable market opportunities. The various modes of working at the conference provided the opportunity for the exchange of ideas, networking and mutual inspiration. Many participants also made use of the opportunity to complete the Syntens sustainability scan.

Herman de Boon, the TransForum chairman, argued that we can only overcome the present sustainability crisis by means of systemic breakthroughs; simply improving current processes was totally inadequate. De Boon saw many possibilities for breakthroughs by means of cooperation by the agricultural sector with partners from unexpected quarters, e.g. other industries (such as healthcare, the chemical industry and the energy world). In this regard he considered intensive and lasting cooperation with governments, societal organisations and knowledge institutions as indispensable for genuinely sustainable steps were to be taken. By way of illustration of the different path that the parties should strike down collectively, De Boon showed fragments from the TransForum film concerning metropolitan agriculture.

Download the talk by Herman de Boon as a PDF document

Look at the fragment on Youtube

Meiny Prins, Managing Director of Priva, Businesswoman of the Year 2009, and recently declared a Clean Energy Technology Star by the WNF, considered above all that producers should take responsibility themselves for their strategic choices and the marketing of their products. The government could however do much more by way of facilitation than at present; the structures it had created tended to be obstructive rather than constructive. The current innovation subsidies provided via research institutes, for example, are according to Prins highly partial in effect. They tempt entrepreneurs to participate in scientific projects leading to new scientific knowledge, all sorts of patents and scientific publications – the sorts of things by which researchers are judged. In this way, however, the subsidies do little if anything to assist successful market launches by the entrepreneur, instead often leading to results of no help to them. “Entrepreneurs are not looking for free money,” stated Prins. “They need solutions to cover the relatively high risks they run as pioneers.” For this reason Prins called for a Green Investment Fund on which entrepreneurs could draw for a subordinated loan, to be repaid later. Such a fund would help innovative ideas get off the ground.

Download the talk by Meiny Prins as a PDF document.

Ruud Koornstra, CEO of Tendris and known for its LED lighting, put it to the entrepreneurs present that even though you might have a good product bringing real sustainability benefits that did not mean you had made it. The product also needed to be seen. He had had the good fortune that Bill Clinton had shown his company’s LED light to the world. A valuable aspect of the event was that the Director of Knowledge and Innovation at the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV), Mrs Janneke Hoekstra, participated actively throughout the programme. She made use of the afternoon session to hear from the entrepreneurs themselves what they valued about the Ministry's innovation policy and what obstacles they were encountering.

Download the talk by Mrs Hoekstra as a PDF document.

Mr Chris Buijink, the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, called on the entrepreneurs at the event to continue finding ways of developing even greener, smarter and more competitive products and services.

Herman de Boon concluded by promising that the points made by the participants would play an important role in the final report to be produced by TransForum in 2010, and that TransForum will continue to discuss these points with the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. Examine here the photos for an impression of this event.

Download the documents describing the TransForum projects that were represented at the project market. Download the PDF for an impression of the participants.