Schwäbische Post 24 June 2010

LOBO electronic GmbH receives the special award worth 10,000 Euros as part of the VR Innovation Award

During the VR Day of SMEs under the motto “Environment and Energy”, the VR Innovation Award was given out for the tenth time. For its new laser projection system “sparks” (we reported), LOBO electronic, one of the leading manufacturers and service providers of the laser show industry, received the special award worth 10,000 Euros.

SASCHA KURZ

Heilbronn/Aalen. On a big screen, Lothar Bopp, managing director and 28 years ago founder of the company from Aalen, explained to more than 1000 guests and visitors from the large cooperative bank family how the specialist for laser systems had accomplished the invention, consuming only one percent of the output power, but delivering nine times the total brightness. “This was made possible with a better bundling of the beam and fundamentally different conception with air-cooling and light generation. The only reason for the development to take two years was that the color component red was not technically available yet,” Mr. Bopp explained enthusiastically. He was particularly happy to receive a cross-industry award. Michael Bux, head of the department for corporate clients of the consulting VR Bank Aalen, showed his appreciation for his client LOBO: “LOBO will always be one step ahead of its competition.”

“Lothar Bopp and his company are among the talents of the region Ostwürttemberg and important clients of our bank,” Hans-Peter Weber, board spokesman of the VR-Bank, emphasized. He attended the award ceremony together with board member Ralf Baumbusch. Gundula Gause, presenter for the German TV station ZDF, asked Lothar Bopp how such exceptional innovations came into existence. Bopp explained: “New developments must be possible on the side. In these fast-moving times, you cannot take creative breaks as an SME.”

For the VR Innovation Award, 99 entries were submitted, ten of which were put on the shortlist. Gerhard Roßwog, president of the Baden Wurttemberg Cooperative Association, described the award as an acknowledgment of the banking association’s innovative commitment. In his keynote address, he criticized the bank levy, which “cannot and will not be accepted” by the cooperative banks. Not enough was done for risk avoidance in the finance system: “We need more transparency and cross-national regulation of financial markets,” he demanded.

The association of VR banks had placed the focus of its SME Day on “Environment and Technology”. Klaus Töpfer, former Federal Environment Minister and now professor at the University of Shangahi, saw “the renaissance of the cooperative system” as a result of financial and environmental crises. He said that crises were the oath of manifestation of short-term thinking and demanded regulations to tighten the supply of resources, so that new technologies would be developed. Bernd Hense, e-mobility developer at Daimler, presented new drive concepts.

In addition to Mr. Töpfer and Mr. Hense, Ernst-Ulrich von Weizsäcker and the twelve-year-old Felix Finkbeiner, founder of the initiative “Plant for the Planet”, also participated in the discussion moderated by Gundula Gause. All participants demanded more sustainable actions as well as the definition of future technologies to solve fundamental problems. LOBO’s development should also be viewed in this context.