Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser at DLDsummer: "Speed is Not the Most Important Factor in Digitalisation"

MUNICH, June 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Yesterday saw the start of DLDsummer, the summer spin-off of Burda's DLD conference, which is one of Europe's most successful innovation and digital conferences. Around 500 participants and over 40 speakers headed to Munich's Haus der Kunst to discuss the effects of digitalisation on all socially relevant areas.

Major corporation meets social enterprise 

"The future has brought us together today!" declared DLD founder and managing director Steffi Czerny as she opened the conference. "How will digitalisation continue to change our world? What effect will artificial intelligence, virtual reality and blockchain have on all aspects of our daily lives? We bring people to the stage who are ahead of their time and helping to shape our future. Mark Zuckerberg, Marissa Mayer and Sheryl Sandberg have already appeared at DLD events," Czerny continued.

"At DLDsummer, Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser will provide a perspective from the management of German DAX companies," added Dominik Wichmann, DLD managing director and editor-in-chief. "At the same time, we will focus on social topics by collaborating with Ashoka, the world's largest network for social entrepreneurs."

Artificial intelligence in the financial industry 

The first morning of the conference made it clear how important artificial intelligence is becoming for both consumers and companies. Alexander Del Toro Barba of VisualVest tackled the question of how artificial intelligence can optimise financial processes. He explained that banks are already investing lots of money in developing this technology further: "It's not just about simple banking activities, but also about supporting customers with a wide range of financial topics." Another industry aim is to identify customers by their facial features - and to process payments automatically using biometric characteristics. He predicts that: "In five years, cards to identify customers will be a thing of the past."

Siemens plans Innovations AG 

Dominik Wichmann (DLD) discussed innovations within companies with Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser. "In contrast to many experts, I believe that adaptability, not speed, is the most important factor in company digitalisation", declared Kaeser. To keep pace with technological developments, Siemens plans to set up an internal Innovations AG, which will act as a venture capitalist for start-ups.

The future of cities and mobility 

Deutsche Telekom Board Member Claudia Nemat provided a glimpse into the future of our cities. She explained that to close in on the goal of the "smart city", it is essential to evaluate existing data using mathematical algorithms. For example, a huge proportion of urban traffic is caused by drivers searching for somewhere to park. Digital services and real-time analyses could solve this problem relatively easily.

Hildegard Wortmann, BMW's new Marketing Head, took to the DLDsummer stage to discuss the challenges in the automotive industry. "Technology is developing rapidly - the changes that will come in the next ten years are comparable to those of the last 30 years," stated Wortmann, who has been with BMW since 1998. A global company such as BMW must be innovative and constantly developing, which is why it is looking for unusual ideas: "Only in this way will the company have the impetus to progress further."

From IoT to wearables and microbiomes 

Further speakers on the first day of the conference included Deon Newman (IBM Watson), who presented the opportunities offered by cognitive computing and IoT (Internet of Things), industrial designer Gadi Amit, who talked about new technology designs, German internist Michael Hallek, who discussed the ethical dimension of digital medicine, and gastroenterologist Berndt Birkner, who focused on microbiology.

The second day of DLDsummer (Friday) will welcome speakers such as Gregor Hackmack, CEO of the Change.org petition platform, neuroscientist Frederike Petzschner, Michael Gleich (author and founder of the Culture Counts Foundation) and Solveigh Hieronimus of McKinsey & Company.

Start-up battle with SevenVentures 

Yesterday, DLDsummer hosted its first SevenVentures Pitch Day. With prize money of 3 million euros, the major start-up competition is one of Europe's most generous awards for TV media. Moderated by Steven Gätjen, the event saw six finalists battle it out on the DLD stage in front of a jury comprising Luciana Lixandru (Accel Partners), Nikolaus Röttger (Wired Germany) and Sascha van Holt (SevenVentures). In the final round, the audience ultimately voted for the start-up Tinkerbots, which impressed them with its toy kit for constructing robots.

For more information about the speakers and topics at DLDsummer, visit: http://www.dld-conference.com/DLDsummer16

Royalty-free images are available at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hubertburdamedia

Background
DLD is the international conference and innovation platform of Hubert Burda Media. DLD Media organises DLD (Europe's leading digital conference) as well as the DLDsummer conference in Munich, DLD New York City, DLDeurope in Brussels and DLD Tel Aviv. The DLDsalon format also runs worldwide networking events in locations such as Palo Alto, London, Istanbul, Barcelona, Moscow, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro and Beijing. In over ten years, DLD has welcomed many prominent speakers, including Reed Hastings (Netflix), Jan Koum (WhatsApp), Travis Kalanick (Uber), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Eric Schmidt (Google), Sean Parker (Napster), Marissa Mayer (Yahoo!), Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook) and architect Zaha Hadid. It is managed by Stephanie Czerny, who co-founded the DLD conference in 2005, and Dominik Wichmann, who joined the team in September 2015 as an additional managing director and editor-in-chief.

Further information
Dorothee Stommel
Hubert Burda Media
Corporate Communications
Arabellastraße 23
81925 Munich, Germany
Tel.: +49-89-9250-2065
E-mail: Dorothee.Stommel@burda.com