Excellent digital ideas for the garden The GARDENA garden award for innovative startups will be presented for the first time in Cologne at the trade fair spoga+gafa “We have created this award to provide a creative platform for gardening ideas and to promote the spirit of open innovation in our industry,” says Pär Åström, President of Gardena, explaining the prizemaker's motivation. The nominated start-up teams were first identified from six different topics: smart gardening, irrigation technology, city gardening, e-commerce in the garden environment, mobile apps in the garden environment and garden technology. The Gardena jury initially selected three candidates for innovation and sustainability, who can present themselves and their concepts with a stand at spoga+gafa. At 4:00pm on Monday afternoon of the fair, the placements will be announced at the booth of the German Garden Industry Association (IVG) and the winner will be announced. The prize is endowed with a total of 10,000 euros and material prizes. In addition, the German Garden Industry Association (IVG) will give the winners the opportunity to present themselves to the trade public as part of the “IVG Forum Gartenmarkt”. In addition, the first winner will be presented in detail in the trade magazine diy, issue 12/2019, within focus topic “smart home & garden”. Innovations for the garden industry “In times of digital transformation, spoga+gafa is the meeting place and trend platform of the green industry. As such, it is about identifying and naming trends, and bringing them across to our industries through various formats,” explains Catja Caspary, Business Unit Manager, Trade Fair Management at Koelnmesse GmbH. “The GARDENA garden award is a perfect opportunity for this.” “For BHB and the industry, innovations of every kind are important and meaningful. Today, we are not just thinking of products, but increasingly of processes as well. However, we often think too narrowly and then we are always surprised by new ideas – which often turn into solutions – that really help us and the customer. That's why I'm personally looking forward to the GARDENA garden award,” says Dr. Peter O. Wüst, Managing Director of the German DIY and Building Trade Association (BHB). "Digitization has long since begun in the gardening sector, as the current trend topic smart gardening impressively demonstrates. In addition to the established manufacturers, a whole range of young startups are showing very innovative here. The potential for clever ideas is far from exhausted," emphasizes Anna Hackstein, Managing Director of German Garden Industry Association (IVG). “Whether it's a DIY retail or a specialist garden center – the gardening trade needs exactly such innovations to show just younger target groups: digital and green are a perfect match,” says diy editor Rainer Strnad.