Yesterday saw the launch of DLDsummer, the summer offshoot of Burda’s DLD ConferenceThe DLD is considered one of the most successful innovation and digital conferences in Europe. Around 500 participants and over 40 speakers gathered at Munich's Haus der Kunst to discuss the impact of digitalization on all relevant social areas.
Large corporation meets social enterprise
“What brings us together today is the future!”
With these words, DLD founder and managing director Steffi Czerny the conference.
"How will digitalization continue to change our world? What impact will artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and blockchain have on all areas of our daily lives? We're bringing people to the stage who are ahead of their time and helping to shape our future. Mark Zuckerberg, Marissa Meyer, and Sheryl Sandberg have all been guests at DLD."
Czerny continued.
“DLDsummer brings the executive ranks of German DAX companies to the stage with Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser,”
added DLD Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief Dominik Wichmann.
“At the same time, through our cooperation with Ashoka, the world’s largest network for social entrepreneurs, we are focusing on social issues.”
Artificial Intelligence in the Financial Industry
The increasing importance of artificial intelligence for both consumers and companies was made clear right from the morning of the first day of the conference. Alexander Del Toro Barba from VisualVest explored how artificial intelligence can optimize financial processes. He explained that banks are already investing heavily in the further development of this technology:
“It’s not just about simple banking transactions, it’s also about supporting customers with a wide range of financial issues.”
One of the industry's goals is to recognize customers in stores by their faces in the future – and to process payments automatically using biometric features. He predicted:
“In five years, cards for identifying customers will be a thing of the past.”
Siemens plans Innovations AG
Dominik Wichmann (DLD) discussed innovations in companies with the Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser.
“Unlike many experts, I believe that the most important factor in the digitalization of companies is not speed, but adaptability,”
Kaeser explained. To keep pace with technological change, Siemens plans to establish an internal innovation company that will act as a venture capital provider for startup companies.
The future of cities and mobility
Telekom board member took a look into the future of our cities Claudia NematTo approach the goal of a "smart city," it is essential to evaluate existing data using mathematical algorithms. A massive portion of urban traffic, for example, is caused by vehicles driving around looking for parking. Digital services and real-time analytics could solve this problem relatively easily.
Hildegard Wortmann, new Head of Marketing at BMW, spoke on the DLDsummer stage about the challenges in the automotive industry.
“Technological change is happening at a rapid pace – the changes that lie ahead in the next ten years are equivalent to the changes of the past 30 years,”
Wortmann, who has been with BMW since 1998, stated that a global company like BMW must be innovative and constantly evolving. BMW is therefore looking for exceptional ideas:
“Only in this way do we as a company have the motivation to continue moving forward.”
From IoT to wearables to the microbiome
Other speakers on the first day of the conference were Deon Newman (IBM Watson), who outlined the opportunities of cognitive computing and IoT (Internet of Things), industrial designer Gadi Amit, who spoke about new technology designs, the German internist Michael Hallek, who addressed the ethical dimension of digital medicine, as well as the gastroenterologist Berndt Birkner, which was dedicated to the topic of microbiology.
Startup battle with SevenVentures
For the first time, the SevenVentures Pitch Day The large startup competition counts with a Prize money of 3 million euros for TV media is one of the most highly endowed awards in Europe. Hosted by Steven Gätjen, six finalists competed on the DLD stage for the favor of the jury consisting of Luciana Lixandru (Accel Partners), Nikolaus Röttger (Wired Germany) and Sascha van Holt (SevenVentures). In the final round, the audience voted for the startup Tinkerbots, which impressed with its toy construction kit for the construction of robots.
Photo credits: Daniel Grund, Jason Andrew, DLD
