20.8.2024
20.8.2024
Participating in the first Innovative Leaders Conference in Mainz as a guest of honor is definitely a special feature. I, Kristian Kraft, shared this pleasure together with Michael Louis on 10.10.2023. We were selected as a finalist for the KI Innovation Award with nele.ai and are therefore looking forward to the event. The theme of the conference was “Learning from Germany's best” and took place on the premises of Schott AG, a place of innovation.
The conference was hosted by the F.A.Z. Institute and FAZ, which already indicated a high-quality event in advance. And in fact, she didn't disappoint. The opening speech was given by Dr. Frank Heinricht, Chairman of the Board of Management at Schott. He impressively demonstrated how innovative Schott is and what role innovation plays in this company.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Kropf from Bosch then spoke about implementing innovation in a company. He shared his experiences and presented interesting insights into processes at Bosch. It was particularly impressive to see how innovation is systematically integrated into the corporate culture there.
Another highlight was the presentation by Stefan Bauer from Lilly Pharma. He is an extremely exciting speaker and charged the room with an energetic atmosphere. His presentation covered topics such as collaboration on equal terms and how this can drive innovation forward. His suggestions were inspiring and opened up new perspectives for us.
This was followed by Torsten Albig, the former Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein. He spoke about the transformation of the Philip Morris company and how they had to realign themselves in the face of social change. His insights were extremely insightful and showed that innovation is inevitable even in established companies.
Alexander Barion from Fidelity then spoke about innovation in marketing and presented various use cases of generative AI. His presentation illustrated how AI can revolutionize marketing and offered interesting examples.
In addition to the talks mentioned above, the event was enriched by panel discussions and other lectures, from which we were able to draw on new insights time and again. The variety of topics and the expertise of the speakers made the conference a valuable experience.
We are particularly proud that with nele.ai, we were one of the 12 selected projects out of over 70 applications. Even though we did not win the KI Award, we are honored to have been nominated as a finalist. The atmosphere among the participants was great and everyone was excited about the opportunities that AI has in store for our future.
The conference made it clear that AI has already arrived in large companies. The challenge now is to implement AI in small and medium-sized companies as well. We must ensure that Germany continues to stand for innovation and that SMEs also have access to the latest technologies.
My personal conclusion of the conference is extremely positive. I learned a lot, made interesting contacts and was inspired to continue working on the innovative development of our company and our customers. I am already looking forward to the next Innovative Leaders conference and I am sure that it will be an enrichment again.
