KEY FACTS
DARWIN’S CIRCLE 2019, SEPTEMBER 19
400+
Top Executives
50+
Digital Leaders
80+
Journalists
15
Countries
OUR TOPICS FOR DARWIN’S CIRCLE 2019
OUR SPEAKERS AT DARWIN’S CIRCLE 2019
Jimmy Wales
Wikipedia
Founder
——
“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge”
Philipp Rösler
Former Vice-Chancellor Federal Republic Germany
——
"We are living in times of GeoEconomics. There is no economic development without political and even geopolitical impact and the other way around. But many companies are knowing only a little about the environment in which they are maneuvering."
ChaoBin Yang
Huawei
President of 5G Product Line
——
"Europe has made great progress in the fields of digitalization and 5G. Thanks to an open and competitive marketplace in Europe all operators and consumers could realize the benefits of affordable 5G."
Anahita Thoms
Baker McKenzie
Partner, Head International Trade Practice Germany/Austria
——
"Cross-border cooperation and investment is crucial to spur technological progress and economic growth. Therefore, we must maintain investment-friendly, open markets. We should, however, not be naive: it is essential to protect both our national security interests as well as our businesses’ intellectual property through targeted regulation. This is a very fine balance to strike."
Elisabeth Udolf-Strobl
Federal Ministry Republic Of Austria
Federal Minister Of Digital And Economic Affairs
——
"Digital Austria is more than a buzzword, it is a strategic goal for our government. We want to support our companies in the digital transformation and we turn from electronic to mobile government. The main challenge on that path is the balance between necessary regulation and scope for development. Politicians need to act agile, flexible and responsive, in face of global developments."
Sophie Proust
Atos
CTO
——
"As digital transformation accelerates across all verticals, decision makers now face a strategic challenge: Build the next generation business platforms that will help them thrive in a fast changing environment and be ready for the next wave."
Han Xiao
Engineering Lead
Tencent AI Lab
——
"With the AI development outracing one institute, one company and one country, we need more collaborations today rather than competitions to truly advance AI technology. It is an interest and treasure for all mankind. Let’s advancing AI, crossing borders."
Jason Sobel
Airbnb
Head of Infrastructure
——
"Today, building a global scale application requires a significant investment in Infrastructure, despite all the advancements in public cloud and cloud native technology. Over the next ten years, however, Infrastructure and Platform as a Service (IaaS & PaaS) will make it incredibly easy to build global scale applications with almost zero in-house expertise."
Vinay Rao
Youtube
Director, Trust and Safety
——
"We are in an age of platforms that allow content creators to reach billions of users across countries and cultures. We also have highly capable systems and software that can find badness but also create content that are hard to detect. These challenges impose responsibility on platforms to amplify the good they can do and mitigate the bad."
Curt Chadha
Wirecard
Vice President of Group Business Development and Managing Director CEE
——
"Many businesses see digitalization as a challenge, but it is in fact an opportunity. Through digitalization and innovation, businesses in all industries can provide newer, better services. The digital evolution is here and only by fully embracing it, is it possible to reach full potential."
Alexander Biach
Vienna Chamber Of Commerce
Business Location Advocate
——
"To benefit from the chances of digitalization, Vienna´s companies need modern infrastructure. Broadband access therefore is essential and should be part oft he basic infrastructure of a „smart-city“, as well as power-, water- and gas-distribution. Some parts of Vienna still lack the connection to the broadband-net, especially the outskirts, where a lot of enterprises are situated. It is essential to enhance broadband-connections to empower Vienna´s companies to a broad future. "
Martin Winkler
Verkehrsbüro Group
Spokesman of the Management Board
——
"The tourism industry is undergoing rapid change. Yesterday’s markets, habits and customer preferences are no guarantee for future success. That is why we don’t consider digitalisation as an end in itself. The automated answering of simple questions by chatbots and professional advice by an expert in a travel agency complement each other. Our aim is to seamlessly link the offline world with the online experience and to reach our customers in the way most suited to their needs."
Felix Lee
EHang
Overseas Managing Director
——
"Urban Air Mobility is to bring in revolutions on sky and flying for humankind, to transform the time, space and method of using safe, convenient and eco-friendly autonomous aerial vehicles (AAV) accessible for anyone at anytime and anywhere, to profoundly change people’s living styles, and to make a difference to human history of the future century."
Peter Hanke
Executive City Councillor for Finance, Business, Digital Innovation and International Affairs
City of Vienna
——
"Vienna is an innovation leader in the digital age. Through the strong partnership between science, business and government we hope to increase access to technology and promote innovation that truly increases our citizens quality of life."
Jörn Leogrande
Wirecard Innovation Lab
EVP
——
"The future of payment is invisible payment. For this reason, so-called buzzwords like biometrics and AI are not buzzwords at all, but instead a foreshadowing into how we will pay in our daily lives in the near future."
Robert Machtlinger
FACC
CEO
——
"Over the course of the next 20 years, more than 40,000 new aircrafts are going to be needed, the airspace will open up to private transportation and new high-tech materials will hit the market. Despite this strong growth the upcoming innovations are going to lead to greater sustainability, and we at FACC are already working intensively in this direction."
Catharina van Delden
innosabi GmbH
CEO & Co-Founder
——
"The biggest challenge for companies facing digitalization is building the speed they need to quickly adapt to new technologies and bring innovative products to market. This also includes a new mindset that is expressed through greater openness and transparency in corporate culture."
Valentin Stalf
N26
Founder and CEO
——
"Digitalization is the biggest opportunity to completely change how industries work to the advantage of customers, straight away. This is a huge opportunity for new players to emerge as the future leaders."
Andreas Nemeth
UNIQA Ventures
CEO
——
“There is a digital revolution taking place right now and neither the insurance business nor any other sector is going to stay the same – and that‘s just fine! We see this transformation as a great opportunity and invest in outstanding business models and companies that drive the change.”
Andreas Bierwirth
Magenta Telekom
CEO
——
"Europe's international opportunity in digitization is the strength of its medium-sized companies and strong quality in production."
Alexander Wrabetz
ORF
Director General
——
"There is currently almost no other area undergoing such rapid transformation as the media industry, and therefore we need particularly bold innovations. The ORF Player provides an open platform for the ORF content of the future. At the same time, close communication with other platforms ensures that a joint solution is created for Austria's media future."
Loic Claude
Volvo Car Austria
Managing Director
——
"Mobility is undergoing a fundamental transformation and Volvo Cars is leading that change. Our innovation-process do no longer refer only to the development of classical car technology. Digitalization plays a key role in our move from a traditional car manufacturer to a global and diversified mobility service provider."
Maria Zesch
Magenta Telekom
CCO Business & Digitalization
——
"As a 5G pioneer in Austria and a leading telco service provider with a gigabit network, we are a strong digital technology partner for Austrian businesses."
Jochen Borenich
Kapsch BusinessCom
Member of the Board
——
"We strive every day to create business value with and for our customers in a variety of industries. Digital transformation is not a single event, it’s a leadership task. And it needs strong partnerships to be successful. 95% of all digital transformation projects fail to meet expectations. We therefore take responsibility for ensuring the success of digital projects."
Horst Glasauer
Verkehrsbüro Group
Head of IT Strategy
——
"Besides disruption and entirely new business models, we have always seen a huge potential in utilising digitalisation to revise and enhance existing roles and processes. We also see a great opportunity to inspire people within our organizations to participate actively in digital transformation with enthusiasm!"
Clemens Feil
Bain Capital
Vice President
——
"Innovation in FinTech, mobility and logistics have enabled emerging and frontier markets to catch up fast. Smart investments bearing limited technology risk can contribute to local development and prosperity while also creating strong returns for investors."
Christian Rupp
European Joint eGovernment and Open Data Innovation Lab
CIO
——
"Innovations are revolutionizing entire value chains and are more a strategic question than a technical. SME's are the key pillar of the european economy and public sector is often the biggest procurer, so on the one hand digitization is disruptive and on the other hand digital transformation is necessary for the competitiveness of a smart country. There will be no Digital Sovereignty without Digital Competences!"
Fedor Holz
Under the Tree
Founder and CEO
——
"I believe that we are facing more change in the next 50 years than the last 50,000 years and only through actively expanding our consciousness and holistic collaboration will we be able to tackle them."
Kristina Knezevic
XING Austria
Country Manager
——
"Digitalization will shift us from the how to the why, it gives us the chance to focus on making a difference. Purpose will become more relevant. I personally love to work in a job with a higher purpose and to drive change in the current and future world of work. A job I really, really want, that’s New Work for me."
Alexander Schönegger
Philip Morris Austria
Managing Director
——
"The pursuit of the vision of a smoke-free future resulted in product Innovation, breaking with habits and pre-conceived ideas and forced the company to become consumer centric as well as to accelerate the digitalization process. In retrospect, this can be labelled as disruptive."
Danny Rogers
Noveray Media
Founder & CEO
——
"The digital revolution and the implementation of disruptive technologies within the entertainment industry has seen major players who were reluctant to embrace it overwhelmed by its sheer momentum. It is inevitable that the upcoming transition into the 5G infrastructure will advance this at speed, rendering the former business model redundant within the coming years, possibly even within a matter of months."
Sindre Wimberger
City of Vienna
Botfather
——
"We change the City. With the help of AI, natural language input and direct answers we make Vienna more accessible for all."
Ersan Günes
IntraNav
Co-Founder & CEO
——
"Our vision is a fully transparent and intelligent factory where goods are interconnected and vehicles drive autonomously. Real-time data provides us with the necessary transparency to make smarter business decisions and to increase efficiency, productivity and flexibility across all industries."
Felix Ohswald
GoStudent
Founder
——
"The future of education lies in the future role of the teacher. If children have interest education happens. We need to prepare our teachers to trigger that interest."
Edward G. Rogoff
LIU Brooklyn School of Business
Professor
——
"We currently sit at the nexus of two great trends: increasing application of technology to work and the aging of populations in developed countries. Older populations represent great economic potential but only if they are capable in the new technological world."
Jan Kallmorgen
Berlin Global Advisors
Founder & CEO
——
"Geopolitics, ESG/Sustainability and Technology are the three major drivers of the CEO agenda in the 21st century. How can leaders anticipate and manage the impact of GET on strategy, business models, capital markets evaluations and communications?"
Markus Feigelbinder
FINEWAY
Co-Founder & CEO
——
"In 5 years from now, every trip will be planned by an algorithm."
OUR PARTNERS AT DARWIN’S CIRCLE 2019
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