"Baden-Württemberg has always attached great importance to innovations and technology. Our state is characterized by forward-looking industries and an unbroken spirit of invention. We are delighted that ThyssenKrupp will be staging the Ideas Park 2008 in Baden-Württemberg, where together we will be aiming to arouse enthusiasm for technology, particularly among young people," said State Premier Günther H. Oettinger on Wednesday (December 6, 2006) in Stuttgart following a meeting with ThyssenKrupp Executive Board Chairman Ekkehard Schulz at which the partnership was officially sealed. (Pictures Ideas Park)

After North Rhine-Westphalia in 2004 and Lower Saxony in 2006, ThyssenKrupp will thus be continuing its "Discovering future technology" initiative in Baden-Württemberg in May 2008. The Ideas Park will be held at the Neue Messe Stuttgart exhibition center, where numerous engineers, researchers and inventors will be on hand to explain fascinating technological innovations, exhibits and experiments to visitors from all over Germany.

"We are pleased to be taking our initiative to Stuttgart. Following the great success of our events in Gelsenkirchen and Hanover, there must be no letup in our efforts to fire young people's enthusiasm for technology and attract them to technical education," said Ekkehard Schulz. "Only if enough young people decide to pursue technical careers will we be able over the long term to produce the technical innovations we need to keep our economy successful and create new jobs."

The "Discovering future technology" initiative was launched by ThyssenKrupp in 2004 and is an open platform for partners from government, science, society, business and the media. The initiative has a strong sociopolitical and educational focus and aims to promote technical and engineering professions. Under the motto "Discover technology. Shape the future", ThyssenKrupp staged Ideas Parks in Gelsenkirchen in 2004 and in Hanover in 2006 in conjunction with more than 70 partners to show how innovations are created. Above all, the events en-couraged families with children to discover technical innovations and develop their own ideas for the future. To date, the Ideas Park has attracted over 266,000 visitors - roughly 20,000 each day.

In each case, the Ideas Park was staged in close collaboration with the host state. The initiative has also received strong political support: German President Horst Köhler visited the Ideas Park 2004, while Chancellor Angela Merkel was a guest in Hanover in 2006. Günther Verheugen, Vice President of the European Commission, was an active participant at the Ideas Park 2006. Numerous federal and state ministers along with well-known figures from the worlds of business, science and the media have supported the initiative through their presence and their active participation.

Admission to the Ideas Park will be free.

Further information is available online at www.zukunft-technik-entdecken.de.