Disruptive Technology and a Confetti Party - these are the highlights of day 2!

A three-day festival feels like an intensive trip. The second day of the new.New Festival was an unforgettable one packed with panel discussions, workshops, impressive cool demos from corporate partners and pitches from some of the most daring worldwide gamechangers transforming entire industries with digital business models – our CODE_n Top 10 startups. It was the day we revealed our CODE_n Awards Winners. Read all about it and enjoy the third day of the festival!

And the winner of the new.New Festival CODE_n CONTEST 2018 is … ?!

Yesterday was the big day! At the CODE_n Award Show we finally got to know which promising startup won our CODE_n CONTEST this year. Drum rolls for… Airfox! The USA-based company left 300 competitors from 42 countries behind and secured the grand prize of €15,000! With their business model, they left a great impression on our VIP jury: Klaas Bollhoefer from Birds on Mars, Ulrich Dietz, the initiator of CODE_n, Moritz Gräter, Managing Director of CODE_n, Susanne Hahn, Head of Lab1886, Philipp Hennig, Professor of the University of Tübingen, Carsten Knop, Editor-in-Chief at the Frankfurter Allgemiene Zeitung, Tanja Kufner from Dynamics at MHP, Marika Lulay, CEO of GFT Technologies SE, and Christian Roth, Managing Partner from LEA Partners GmbH.

Airfox, our new.New Festival 2018 winner is on a mission to provide more than two billion unbanked people in emerging markets with mobile access to financial services. Their proposal? Creating new banking solutions for undeserved low-income consumers using blockchain technology. They have developed a new mobile financial ecosystem and ultimately, a revolutionary microloan program, giving millions of people unprecedented access to affordable financial services.

A big round of applause to all of our winners:

• Best Business Model Airfox from the USA
• Best Tech Innovation Six Degrees Spacefrom Israel
• Best Industry Disruptor thingsTHINKING from Germany
• Overall Award Winner Airfox from the USA

< Our fabulous VIP jury of the new.New Festival 2018 “IntelligenceX.0.”

And the rest?

The second day of the festival brought us stellar keynote speakers from renowned companies, such as Accenture, GFT Technologies SE, McKinsey and Partner as well as researchers and academia from all corners of the globe and artists who proved us once again that artificial intelligence breaks new records every day.

In an insightful fireside chat with Tim Wagner, the Silicon Valley Leader for Accenture Ventures and Igor Jablokov, CEO of Pryon – an artificial intelligence startup that is innovating how businesses interface with decisions, knowledge, and workflows, we discussed about the role of “voice” interfaces and how they will massively impact human productivity and enablement. Marika Lulay, CEO of GFT Technologies SE spoke about what it means to be a leader in the digital age. We were also blown away by cutting-edge technology and augmented reality tools that allow doctors to virtually transport themselves into any clinical setting to interact in a live situation regardless of geographical location – thanks to Proximie co-founder and plastic surgeon Nadine Hachach-Haram’s inspiring keynote speech.

Startup-corporate collaboration

Just as quickly as startups are founded, the issue of finance arises. Daimler is always scouting different countries for different types of startups coming up with innovative ideas, which could satisfy the upcoming needs of the Daimler customers. Gaurav Magoo from Daimler Financial Services emphasized that collaborating with startups will propel Daimler into the future. Different regions of the world are known for different types of advances respecting the startup scene and this is an advantage they are seeking to incorporate. Borders don’t matter, creativity does!

‘Artificial Intelligence Will Democratize Healthcare in Africa’ – that was the keynote speech of Steeve Odhiambo, Founder and CEO of ukowapi UG and Co-founder and COO of QoL-MA UG, gave on our Tech Stage yesterday. QoL-MA UG finds highly technical solutions to support people in the poorest parts of the world to improve their living and healthcare standard. They do this by collecting data where people have little access to new digital technologies through mobile usage, machine learning and blockchain technology.

Is the startup-center a hype or a help? We discussed the risks, issues and benefits of entrepreneurship with an excellent panel of experts: Andrea Diewald, Steen Donner, Nils Högsdal, Sean Branagan, and guests, Michael Raschke and Lukas Kauderer. For those willing to take chances and think-out-of-the-box, the challenge lies in overcoming adversary through passion and resilience.

“Going the extra-mile means getting out of your comfort zone,” Andrea Diewald said. Sean Branagan added, “It boils down to making good decisions, maintaining focus and drive, and knowing that making mistakes is part of the process.”

Psst! Sneak Peak for today:

• Challenge professional gamer Dr. Erhano from VfB e-Sports in a “beat the pro” match.
• Participate in the Recruiting 2025 / Workplace of the Future workshop powered by MHP – A Porsche Company.
• Tune in to Electronic Arts founder Jeff Burton describing ‘The Silicon Valley Mindset’ and his advice to those interested in pursuing a similar path.
• Don’t miss the talk with Moshe Raines, General Partner at OurCrowd, the most active venture capital firm in the cybersecurity space in Israel over the ‘The Israeli cyber security landscape’
• Lastly, don’t forget to follow us on all of our channels.