With our additional course “Introduction to digital tourism” we had the pleasure to visit the NEXT Vertriebs- und Handels GmbH, also known as NEXT-Incubator, in Graz. NEXT-Incubator, an affiliated company of the Energie Steiermark, is an open innovative lab and supports people with great ideas for the future and visions on the digital field.

After a short introduction with some basic facts and impressive figures we got a guided tour through their creative and unconventional office. The entrance lobby was furnished with a dartboard and a football table – obviously the team is spending the creative breaks very well. All in all the light-flooded office invites to sit down and start getting active and creative straight away.

Top innovations on the touristic field

One of NEXT-Incubator’s most prestigious projects is getcarv – a thin insole for ski shoes, that is analyzing the skier’s performance in order to improve the skiing style. That way the skier has a personal skiing instructor provided with a bluetooth tracker and a coaching app for the smartphone.

Another exceptional product for tourist companies is the digital board solutions of WESUAL. Within the work of a moment the board’s display is turning into a chalkboard or info board that is showing today’s menu or other guest news.

Know-how, networking and company structures

NEXT-Incubator support ideas with their expertise, their network, financially and supports especially with general company structures in order to develope each vision in the best possible way.
We got truly inspired by this “outside of the box”-thinking. NEXT-Incubator will definitely be our first address to turn to in case of a groundbreaking idea!

Marina Kühlinger, student, 2KAB