DLD Conference - Burda's Digital Summit in Munich - Gathers International Agenda Setters in Germany and Discusses Topics of the Digital World (January 22nd until 24th, 2012)

MUNICH, January 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

"Europe's hottest conference invitation" WIRED UK calls Burda's international digital conference DLD (Digital, Life, Design). Since its foundation in 2005, DLD discusses the transformation of markets, media, culture and society through digital technologies and the internet. Meanwhile, DLD has developed into an international conference network, producing summits in Munich and Tel Aviv, Palo Alto, New York, London, Rio de Janeiro and Beijing. Conference content is published via DLD's own media platforms alongside with partners.

Following global trends, DLD drives debates and discussions about the digital future. Key aspects of DLD12 are data, commerce, mobile, social and the questions: Which rules apply to the data economy? What do social media and mobile devices mean for brands, retail, lifestyle and art? What makes cities attractive places for digital entrepreneurs? Which data protection do we need? What is happiness? What does the new content ecosystem look like? Will we still drive cars ourselves or control computers just with our thoughts? Are founders the new rock stars? Is there life beyond earth? Does Europe have a chance on the digital world stage? What effects do social entrepreneurs have on our society? How does one internationalize internet companies? What makes social games so successful? India, Turkey, Africa - the markets of
tomorrow?

DLD12 takes place from January 22nd until 24th, 2012. Chaired by publisher Dr. Hubert Burda and investor Dr. Yossi Vardi, DLD attracts about 800 participants from all over the world to the HVB forum in Munich, setting the digital elites' agenda. More than half of the guests comes from abroad and again a large delegation from the USA, Israel and Asia. No other event gathers more key representatives of the digital industry in
Germany.

In the past years, digital entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg, Eric Schmidt, Sean Parker, Marissa Mayer, but also Lady Gaga, Nobel laureates Martti Ahtisaari and Dan Kahneman, Craig Venter, Deepak Chopra, Paulo Coelho, as well as the architects Norman Foster and Rem Koolhaas took part in DLD.

Stephanie Czerny and Dr. Marcel Reichart bring together those worldwide leading thinkers and pioneers from different areas like digital industry, media, politics, economy, finances, science, society, art and design, and organize talks via interviews and panels during this three-day program in Munich.

Expected speakers are, among others:

Business, Digital & Political Leaders

• Bernd Beetz, CEO Coty
• Marc Benioff, CEO Salesforce
• John Donahoe, CEO eBay
• Jack Dorsey, Creator Twitter
• Christoph Franz, CEO Lufthansa
• Arianna Huffington, co-Founder Huffington Post
• Barbara Kux, Chief Sustainability Officer, Siemens
• David Lauren, VP Marketing Ralph Lauren
• Peter Löscher, CEO Siemens
• Hiroshi Mikitan, CEO Rakuten
• Yuri Milner, Managing Partner, Digital Sky Technologies
• René Obermann, CEO Deutsche Telekom
• Nicolas Princen, Digital Advisor to France's President Nicolas Sarkozy
• Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship
• Alec Ross, Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton
• Renzo Rosso, Founder Diesel
• Sheryl Sandberg, COO Facebook
• René Schuster, CEO Telefonica 02 Germany
• Rupert Stadler, CEO Audi
• Robert Stephens, CTO Bestbuy
• Arkady Volozh, CEO Yandex

Start-ups

• Michael Acton Smith, CEO MindCandy
• Andreey Andreev, CEO Badoo
• Jens Begemann, CEO Wooga
• Troy Carter, Investor & Manager Lady Gaga
• Brian Chesky, CEO AirbnB
• Lisa & Ben Donovan, Founder Maker Studios
• Casey Fenton, Founder Couchsurfing
• Dave Goldberg, CEO Survey Monkey
• Phil Libin, CEO Evernote
• Hilary Mason, Chief Scientist at bit.ly
• Sean Parker, Partner Founders Fund
• Hosain Rahman, Co-Founder Jawbone

Culture, Life & Science

• Freeman Dyson, Albert Einstein Chair with techno-historian George Dyson and investor Esther Dyson
• David Agus, Professor of Medicine at the University of Southern California
• Peter Diamandis, Founder X-Prize Foundation
• Lidewij Edelkoort, Trend Forecaster
• Thomas Goetz, Managing Editor, WIRED
• Victor Halberstadt, Professor of Public Economics Leiden University. Formerly: Crown-Member, Netherlands Social-Economic Council
• Andrew Keen, Author, Digital Vertigo
• Jenn Lim, Chief Happiness Officer, Zappos
• Lisa Randall, Harvard Physicist
• Dimitar Sasselov, Professor of Astronomy Director, Harvard Origins of Life Initiative
• Kevin Slavin, Algo-Culturalist
• Alison Smale, Executive Editor, International Herald Tribune
• Sebastian Thrun, Google Driverless Cars Project Leader

Artists & Designers

• Edwin Chan, Partner Gehry Partners
• Olafur Eliasson, Artist
• Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Curator, Serpentine Gallery
• Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky
• Yoko Ono, Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist
• Josua Prince-Ramos, Principal of REX
• Nick Rhodes, Keybordist Duran Duran

Program highlights are the Chairmen & Speaker Dinner at the Jewish Community Centre (January 22nd, 2012), the DLD StarNight at Haus der Kunst (January 23rd, 2012) as well as the bestowal of the "Aenne Burda Awards for Creative Leadership". Former awardees have been, among others, Natalie Massenet (Net-a-Porter), Marissa Mayer (Google) or Mitchell Baker (Mozilla Foundation). Thanks to the DLD Nightcap during the World Economic Forum in Davos (January 25th, 2012), the DLD conference 2012 finds a traditional closure.

For the very first time, there will be a DLD Public Lecture with Skype founder and investor Niklas Zennstroem (January 23rd, 2012) at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Additionally, several studies by Telefonica O2 Germany, Siegenheim & Cie, ComScore, Buddymedia as well as the DLD Survey about market-relevant digital trends will be introduced.

All those interested can follow the sessions via live streaming und blogging. To participate at DLD, an invitation of the organizers is obligatory. For the final tickets for DLD12 all those interested can apply under http://www.hbm-events.com/dld12/application/. The costs for the three-day ticket are 2.750 € Euro, plus VAT.

DLD12 is supported by notable partners and sponsors like Audi, HP, Google, Lufthansa, Microsoft, Siemens and O2 Telefónica.

Further information can be found at http://www.dld-conference.com.

About DLD:

DLD is a Burda Digital company, one of the leading European Internet companies related to a media group. The group with managed revenues of Euro 1.2 billion contains the companies Tomorrow Focus AG, Burda Consumer Tech Group, Burda Direkt Services and Xing AG as well as a venture business with holdings in, among others, Zooplus, Glam Inc. and Ubermedia.

For further information:
Michael A. Pries
Corporate Communications
Hubert Burda Media
Tel.:+49-89-9250-3784
Mail: michael.pries@burda.com