At the evening gala for the Querdenker Awards 2013, the Austrian TV presenter Mirjam Weichselbraun celebrated her comeback following the birth of her daughter, and hosted the evening, together with the "Querdenker" club's founder and chairman, Otmar Ehrl. "Here it isn't so much about glitz and glamour - what's important for us is to award and promote unusual ideas, and out-of-the-box thinking", says Ehrl.
Almost 30,000 kilometers, just by solar energy
The award in the "future" category was won by students from Bochum University, with the SolarCar project - they built a car which is powered only by solar energy. The great adventure with this was that the students were also happy to get stuck in to the practical test. Their around-the-world trip in the solar car gained the students an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for "the greatest distance covered in a solar-powered electric vehicle (29,753 km)". And innovation in vehicles seems to be in fashion at the moment. The automotive supplier Dräxlmaier Group has managed, for the first time, to offer components with natural fiber surfaces made from renewable commodities, and to position these successfully on the market. For this, they received the Querdenker Award in the "sustainability" category. However, that wasn't enough - their new construction material, which aims to release the industry from petroleum-based materials, is already in use today in cars such as the BMW i3, Mercedes-Benz SL and Porsche Panamera.
"Service providers, too, must keep exploring new perspectives"
"This evening we have seen the fascinating inventions of individuals who haven't simply contented themselves with what they can find in our world. Why does a car necessarily have to be powered by petrol, when we have an inexhaustible supply of sunlight? Ingenuity and innovation are, of course, not only drivers for industries which produce tangible products. Service providers, too, must keep exploring new perspectives and ask themselves what they can offer, and what people need locally. Be it cars, real estate or services such as insurance, tomorrow's world belongs to today's lateral thinkers," commented Helga Jung, one of the judges and a member of the Allianz SE Board of Management, following the official part of the celebrations.
