Quickfire Sessions
From 2026 on, four dedicated “quickfire sessions” (QF-sessions) will be organised throughout the year — in March, June, September, and December. These online meetings of 45 minutes offer entrepreneurial teams and KTOs the opportunity to briefly discuss their early-stage venture project with a small group of investors, entrepreneurs, and KTO professionals. Please check the deadlines below.
The objective of these informal sessions is to foster meaningful interaction among participants while exploring the current or future business case.
Registration must be submitted by the respective TTO. While we aim to host as many QF-sessions as possible, they do depend on investor participation. Consequently, scheduling and time slots remain subject to their interest and availability.
Register your QF
Do you want to discuss your early-stage venture project or business case with a small group of investors/ entrepreneurs/ KTO-professionals?
Planning & deadlines
The online Quickfire sessions will be scheduled in the second half of March, June, September and December at 9am, 12noon or 5pm and will last 45 minutes max.
Exact time slots will be communicated several weeks in advance.
| Quickfire submission deadlines 2026 | March 10 | June 08 | September 2 | December 1 |
| Actual online Quickfire sessions (9am, 12pm & 5pm), to be announced |
week of 23 March | week of 22 June | week of 21 September | week of 14 December |
Please note that confidential information should NOT be shared on the nomination/registration form, in the summaries of the selection propositions, nor on the slides of the final pitch, as there is no specific secrecy obligation for investors/attendees or for the HIHR organization.
For whom
Potential spin-outs not ready for a investment pitch yet òr existing companies who want to receive more in dept feed back on their business case, are welcome to register.
Preparation
To secure maximum outcome of these sessions and quality of our offering, we ask you to prepare your session carefully together with your KTO-colleague, in line with the following guidelines:
- briefly present your offer (5 to 10 min max) – 5 slides max
- define the topics that you would like to discuss with the investors, i.e. point their feedback towards possible weaknesses / market strategy / board composition / etc.
- prepare 5 questions you would like input on from investors
One to two weeks prior to your session, we will schedule a call with one of our experts to align on the scope and refine your presentation’s focus.
Format QF-session
Sessions are conducted online (via MS Teams or a similar platform) and led by an HIHR expert moderator. To ensure a smooth experience, we follow a strict agenda:
- 1 minute intro of the Quickfire concept and brief intro of the participants by moderator;
- 5 minute explanation of the business-idea or -case (with max 5 slides) by presenter;
- 5 minute questions from audience, specifically on the introduction (company aim should be clear to everyone);
- floor to presenter to address the questions/topics they would like to discuss with the audience. Presenter to prioritize their own questions and discussion per topic; presenter is in the lead.
Registration
Registration is open to any project of our participating knowledge institutes. Deadline for submission can be found above.
–> Please note that CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION should NOT be shared on the nomination/registration form, in the summaries of the selection propositions, nor on the slides of the final pitch, as there is no specific secrecy obligation for investors/attendees or for the HIHR organization.
Meet your experts afterwards at the live pitch event
Quickfire projects are very welcome to join the live pitch event afterwards, to learn from other spin off projects and meet the people of your Quickfire session. If you are interested in this networking and learning opportunity, then please sign up in person for the event-registration. You can inquire with your TTO contact person if any free tickets are available or whether you can join against a small fee.