Since its initiation in the 1990s, the Itzehoe innovation region has developed into one of the most important technology hubs in Schleswig-Holstein and the Hamburg metropolitan region. Around the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology (ISIT) and the IZET Innovation Center, numerous companies have developed, settled and successfully established themselves on an area of 50 hectares. And the location continues to grow dynamically. Despite this success story, external perception still lags somewhat behind. To increase its visibility in the region and beyond, the business and research community developed the "InnoQuarter Itzehoe" brand in a cooperative process. An attractive innovation quarter has ultimately been created in the north-west of Itzehoe, which is not always easy to experience due to its peripheral location in the urban area and "separated" by the A23. This is precisely why the location partners are using the new brand to become even more visible, and not least for urgently needed skilled workers.

As part of the go-live event on February 22, 2024 in the IZET Innovation Center, around 70 location partners and regional stakeholders gathered to launch the "InnoQuarter Itzehoe" location brand and the associated online presence "innoquarter-itzehoe.de".
In their welcoming addresses, Marko Förster, First Vice District Administrator of the district of Steinburg, and Ralf Hoppe, Mayor of the city of Itzehoe, emphasized the importance of InnoQuarter for the city and region. "The future of our region is based on innovative ideas and technologies, some of which are created here at InnoQuarter Itzehoe," said Marko Förster. Ralf Hoppe points out that "the innovation quarter has developed dynamically. A strong brand that takes this impressive process into account is the logical step. The InnoQuarter will bring even more national attention to the companies based here as well as the city of Itzehoe. We can benefit from this together, as our technology location is an important driver for the structural development of the region.

When introducing the new location website innoquarter-itzehoe.de, IZET Managing Director Christoph Kober praised the initiative of the companies in jointly developing the new brand and turned his attention to the future. "The website is a first visible step. Together, we now want to set out to develop and implement a successful and sustainable communication campaign for the location." In the subsequent moderated panel discussion featuring the four location representatives Lutz Bitomsky (Walter-Otto-Müller GmbH & Co. KG), Claudia Buschmann (Fraunhofer ISIT), Leif Henningsen (Vishay Siliconix Itzehoe GmbH) and Karsten Reinholz (REINHOLZ Technologies GmbH), the opportunities and challenges of the joint location community were discussed.

One example of the already successful cooperation between the locations is the "InnoQuarter Itzehoe Thesis Prize Competition", which promotes career opportunities at local players to young academics in the university environment. Before the launch of the third edition of the annual competition, last year's winner David Westerhoff (graduate of Kiel University of Applied Sciences) gave an insight into his bachelor's thesis "Electrothermal instability of power MOSFETs", which he wrote at Fraunhofer ISIT.