Two days of hands-on, hands-on, and hands-on digitalization: DIGICON 2017 brought together decision-makers from medium-sized businesses and global corporations in a sold-out Allianz Auditorium on November 23 and 24. The crowning conclusion of the two-day event was the presentation of the Munich Digital Innovation Award.
On the first day of the event—the so-called Best Practice Day—panel discussions and presentations dominated the agenda of DIGICON 2017. For example, Dr. Michael Müller-Wünsch, Head of Technology at OTTO, spoke about the extent to which data influences the form and outcomes of customer relationships. “Knowing today what the customer will buy tomorrow – OTTO on the way to becoming a data-driven, real-time company” illustrated the value of data in a tangible way for everyone. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sami Haddadin, Director of the Institute of Automatic Control, Leibniz University Hannover, secured the following lecture “Humans and Robots in the Digital World” His undivided attention. Thanks to his presentations, the participants were able to experience the future of robotics firsthand and learn a new approach to the technology. For many participants, this was a first highlight of the Best Practice Day.
In the following panel discussion, moderator Margit Dittrich brought together three visionary digital strategists on the topic of “Business Intelligence – Learning from Experience and Seizing Opportunities Sebastian Wiese, CDO of Zeppelin GmbH; Clarissa Käfer, patron of the Clarissa and Michael Käfer Foundation and the Ronald McDonald House Munich; and Dr. Marco Maier, Head of Artificial Intelligence at HYVE AG, highlighted how far from abstract digitalization is in current business structures. And that a hands-on mentality is essential for success. “Failure is part of success”, Sebastian Wiese summed it up.
Winner of the Innovation Marketplace: Sitago
The evening program centered around the Marketplace of Innovations at Café Reitschule: networking, inspired by the presentations, and in an atmosphere of innovations and innovators. From Allianz and Cisco Systems to V SPACE, participants were able to thoroughly understand the benefits of the individual innovations and evaluate them immediately. In this vote, metafinanz Informationssysteme GmbH emerged as the winner of the Marketplace of Innovations. The prize for its solution Sitago – the app for the modern workplace: a media volume of 10,000 euros in the business magazine on digitalization DIGITALE WELT.
Highlight on Day 2: Battle for the Digital Innovation Award
One of the highlights on Strategy Day — the second day of DIGICON — was the second Munich Digital Innovation Award, which was finally presented to eBlocker with its plug & play solution for online privacy protection. Eight nominees used every second of the pitch battle to convince the jury of the innovative power of their concept. The selection of four large corporations and four small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) delivered what it promised: a highly exciting competition in which success was determined solely by the idea, implementation, potential, and added value of the solutions, not the sheer investment volume. €10,000 in media performance and the City of Munich Innovation Award were the well-deserved awards for eBlocker, which City Councilor Sabine Pfeiler presented to great applause. Second place went to Holodeck VRThird place went to glomex and Provenzial Rheinland. Spendit AG secured the additional prize for "Das Digitale Bild" (The Digital Image).
