Raising expectations: CODE_n Hall 16 at CeBIT '15

This morning, doors opened at the world’s largest trade fair for IT & Digital Business: CeBIT 2015 in Hanover. For CODE_n, the week began on Sunday already and it started quite promising: the press conference with the CODE_n partners Trumpf, Accenture, EY and Salesforce was very well-attended; the ROBOCHOP installation got lots of attention even before the doors officially opened. This morning, the last of the CODE_n finalists arrived and adorned their boots. First impression? The next five days are set out to be quite spectacular! Let’s have a look at what is yet to come.

To start with an overall proposition: Digitization is everywhere, not just in hall 16. During the opening event, China – the partner country of this year’s CeBIT – presented itself as IT-site. Alibaba founder Jack Ma, for example, introduced a system for online payment. The main topics throughout the whole exhibition are Big Data & Cloud, Digital Transformation, IoT, Mobile, Security and Social Business.

GFT as initiator and CODE_n as innovative platform for startups and established corporations have identified where the trend is headed: Going back to hall 16, it can be said that the pivot of the digital avant-garde is here and it’s massively impressive. The 50 finalists, the partners, the hall design itself – it all revolves around one topic: Into the Internet of Things.

GFT is showing the future of Digital Banking in it’s interactive lab in hall 16 all week. At 4.30 p.m. today, Francisco Amador, Technology Innovation Manager of GFT and Ignasi Barri, Innovation Manager of GFT, will look at the companies approach to driving the digital transformation in retail banking: “Digital Banking at your Fingertips”. The team has now launched a survey which will unveil the secrets of digital banking success, rolled out in five different countries. Jens Redmer, Principle New Products for Google will be talking about opportunities for a Digital Germany this afternoon.

Also today: A panel session presented by Thomas Ramge with Klaus Bauer, Head of Basic Technology Development at Trumpf, Frank Engelhardt, VP Enterprise Strategy at Salesforce, Uli Huener, Head of Innovation Management at EnBW, Marika Lulay, COO at GFT Technologies, Dr. Krystian Pracz, Senior Managing Director, Accenture Dach as experts for the one topic: Into the Internet of Things.

Before that, Werner Köstler, Head of Strategy and Transaction division Interior for Continental will be looking at ways on how to change mobility: “Approach and Cooperation’s with Continental” at 2.30 p.m. – a surly highly recommendable “future mobility” topic. The next couple of days, Accenture will host two hour “sessions” in the conference program, which will revolve around the four topics Digital Life, Smart Cities, Industry 4.0 and Future Mobility, each day dedicated to one theme.

Naturally, the one topic always in the centre of attention: Industry 4.0 – presented through the interactive robotic installation ROBOCHOP by the designer team Kram/Weisshaar, who was again responsible for the look of the spectacular hall, which also had a famous visitor this morning: Sigmar Gabriel, minister for economic affairs was on sight to see ROBOCHOP and also got in touch with Industry 4.0 finalist PTX technical expertise.

The following days the CODE_n partners will present their highlights, based on their ideas for the four topics. The conference program is packed with panel sessions, fireside chats, expert keynotes and special events around those themes. CODE_n will be hosting a pioneers dinner tonight; introduce the top 10 of our finalists tomorrow, before announcing the winner on Wednesday night after a pitch from those 10 finalists in front of the CODE_n jury. We’ll be posting live from stage.

Have a look at our flickr album for further impressions.