A great last day at the new.New Festival - highlights of day 3

10/11/2018  |  CODE_n Alumni, CODE_n18 Startup CONTEST, Digital Transformation

Can you believe it’s already over? We hardly can! The new.New Festival 2018 was a melting pot of ideas, conversations and exchanges on the role that technology will play in the daily lives of each and every one of us. The accelerating pace of innovation demonstrated by the Top 50 CODE_n CONTEST Finalists as well as by all of our festival partners was truly inspiring and proved that digital transformation is one of the greatest opportunities of our time. It is all about mindset, cultural change and working closely together.

There was no shortage of fascinating keynotes, announcements, workshops and interactive sessions on the last day of the new.New Festival. Here are some of the most important takeaways.

 An impressive lineup on the Main Stage

The Main Stage was, again, the place to be at the new.New Festival for renowned speakers, visionary leaders, entrepreneurs and academics.

We kicked off the morning with a presentation by Data Scientist, Martin Musiol who spoke about Generative AI – a new powerful tool for producing content. In a few words, algorithms will make it possible for machines to use text, audio files and images to create and generate content. The technology will drive the next generation of apps for auto-programming, content development, visual arts and other creative engineering activities.

Later on, we continued with a panel discussion led by Tim Wagner from Accenture Ventures – Silicon Valley and Iba Masood, co-founder and CEO of TARA.AI on the ways to overcome human bias in hiring with the help of artificial intelligence.

In the afternoon, the stage was populated with inspiring visionary leaders and entrepreneurs, such as Electronic Arts founder, Jeff Burton who spoke about entrepreneurial thinking and the importance of finding and keeping the right values in business. He advised: “Give back. You are the most privileged and fortunate person in the world to have the experience of being an entrepreneur. Share it.” Afterwards, Moshe Raines, General Partner at OurCrowd, the most active investor in the cybersecurity space in Israel, introduced the audience to the Israeli security landscape– a global leader in the field.

Stay tuned! All the Main Stage keynotes will be soon made available online.

Lab1886 Design Challenge

 Lab1886, the innovation laboratory of Daimler organized a three-day challenge during this year’s new.New Festival, inviting students from all over Europe to use design sprint methods to turn an idea into a marketable business model or product involving technologies, such as blockchain, machine learning or artificial intelligence. Throughout the three days, the international participants were coached by Lab1886 experts. The winners of the Lab1886 challenge (“Team Carrot”) convinced the jury with their innovative solution to urban air pollution – an app developed to change people’s transport behavior using blockchain and artificial intelligence.

Future of work – is there work in the future?

The conclusion of this fascinating panel discussion was that the new era of exponential learning is creating countless opportunities for new jobs and fields of work. However, the tasks that we will have to master are much more complex than what they used to be. Specific, in-demand technology skills will matter more than having a traditional bachelor’s or master’s degree. Furthermore, big companies will have to reshuffle their processes in order to be as fast as startups. Being able to adopt and implement new ways of working will be some of the most sought-after skills in the future.

Organizational Mindfulness: A necessity in the digital age?

We learned from Alexander Hobbach, Daimler’s Senior Manager Digital Change and Mindful Leadership that for companies to be at the forefront of innovation, they need to introduce mindfulness initiatives which can train employees to be more effective, improve focus, creativity and collaboration. In our digital age, there is a need to create a work environment that fosters employee well-being and high performance. Mindfulness programs can teach employees how to deal with stress and the need to perform and meet workplace demands.

All in all, the new.New Festival was a blast! There was an incredible buzz and energy this week at the Hanns-Martin Schleyer Halle in Stuttgart, which became a unique communication platform for partners from the worlds of business, research, politics, art and education, eager to successfully drive innovation to benefit society and envision the workplace of the future with digital technology.

The new.New Festival showcased the great potential of collaboration in the digital age and it was a massive source of inspiration for the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg as well as for the international audience.