As every year, Handelsblatt is hosting its ENERGY SUMMIT 2023, image source: Handelsblatt.

Themed “The dawn of a new era”, the Handelsblatt ENERGY SUMMIT will take place from January 16-18, 2023.

Themis Foresight Founder and CEO Jan Berger joins the list of speakers – renowned experts from business and politics – and talks, among other things, about Themis Foresight’s energy report, which will be published shortly.

In her keynote speech, Carina Stöttner (pictured right) showed how housing companies can successfully position themselves for the future with the right investments.

The BBA Immobilienakademie dared to experiment and invited 20 executives from housing companies to the Bildungsbergtour 2022 in Saxon Switzerland for a sustainable professional exchange.

The openness of all participants was already proven when they signed up for this format. After all, this was not your typical conference with workshops, lectures and coffee breaks. It was in fact a tour over the mountains, where everyone knew everyone else at the end – combined with a broadened horizon in both the visual and professional sense. Nevertheless, there was no with like-minded people was still out of the question. Intensive mental work and physical exertion were on the program. were on the agenda.

The new offers opportunities above all

“Relationships are the commodity of the 21st century. That’s why we wanted to use this format to people into the foreground and network them with each other, not their functions and organizations,” says Sandra Niedergesäß, managing director at the BBA Immobilienakademie. “The new working worlds and methods offer great opportunities for the housing industry. We have incorporated them directly. Already in the run-up to the three days we got to know each other through the wonder.me platform and were therefore able to jump right in.”

A look into the future sets the rough direction

And this introduction had it all: Futurologist Carina Stöttner from Themis Foresight called her input Future as Opportunity. She presented the big questions of this time not only as challenges, but positioned the real estate industry as part of the solutions. “With more courage and will, the real estate industry can help create its own opportunities from challenges such as the shortage of skilled workers, migration, climate adaptation, and energy and water shortages”. Today it’s an investment, tomorrow the housing companies will be glad to have to have invested in this way,” says Carina Stöttner.

[…]

Housing companies are more than just housing providers

Solution orientation, exchange and being human are the keys to success under changing conditions. Housing companies are not only housing providers, but also employers, social actors and institutions with weight and influence on members and tenants. That is why they are so important for the transformation of society with their external impact and their internal life. After all, most people live with a housing company. At the same time, housing is something that touches all areas of society. And that is why courageous housing companies not only face challenges, but are part of the solutions.

Excerpt from BBA Immobilienakademie press release, Christin Hering, September 2022.

Looking into the future of the municipal economy together with the approximately 100 participants: (fLTR) Norbert Hillinger (futurologist), Jonas Thiede and Sascha Bocksnick (Managing Directors of ZAKB), Steffi Brauer (Fujitsu Services GmbH), District Administrator Christian Engelhardt, Tobias Küfner (Fujitsu Services GmbH), Dr. Nico Schulte and Dr. Heinz-Josef Dornbusch (INFA Institute).

Anniversaries have always been an occasion to look back. Not so at the Zweckverband Abfallwirtschaft Kreis Bergstraße (ZAKB). The association used its 20th anniversary celebration to take a look into the future.

The focus was on the question: What opportunities and challenges does digital transformation bring for the municipal economy? Answers were provided by renowned speakers such as futurologist Norbert Hillinger. He drew a big picture of global megatrends, technological developments and innovative new developments. In addition to overarching themes such as mobility, health, consumption and communication, Hillinger also addressed applications that could already be in use in the foreseeable future: Buildings and food from 3D printers, autonomous vehicles and autonomous robots, as well as artificial intelligence that optimizes processes, improves organization and makes decisions at lightning speed.

It became clear that not only companies but also public institutions such as municipalities need to take advantage of these forecasts in order to position themselves optimally for the future.

Recording of the keynote by Jan Berger on Youtube.

It is one of the key technologies of the coming years and decades: quantum technology. Given its potential applications for solving combinatorial problems that are not yet fully tangible, on the one hand, and the underlying mechanisms with elementary particles that follow their own laws, on the other, this technology exerts an immense fascination.

This was also evident at this year’s Quantum Summit on May 11 and 12, a virtual event with 50 speakers, including Themis Foresight CEO Jan Berger, and 1,000 audience members.

Quantum technology to solve global problems?

We are guided primarily by the question of how quantum technology, and specifically quantum computing, can help policymakers, business and society address challenges in the coming decades. One of these global challenges is climate change and its associated consequences, as well as the question of how to ensure a sustainable supply of food and energy for people in all parts of the world. Can quantum computers make a contribution here?

Jan Berger ventures in his talk titled “Quantum Green: How Can Quantum Computing Help to Achieve the UN Climate Goals?” some forecasts, partly formulated as visions. According to estimates, the worldwide energy demand for computer computing power will triple by the year 2030. Quantum computers could help save the increased energy demand in other areas. He sees approaches above all in the transportation sector and in the optimization of traditional, energy-intensive industries. Completely new possibilities are conceivable here, for example

• Researching emission-free alternatives for industrial fertilizer production, such as through microorganisms
• Development of new materials based on quantum technology / quantum physics
• Generation of predictable results in scientific (medical) research without animal testing

Knowledge instead of data

It is important to emphasize to Jan Berger that the use of quantum computers cannot be about producing even larger amounts of data that will ultimately never be used, but about achieving a linkage of data, a flow of data, and thus generating knowledge, similar to the way our brain works. That is the real vision.

Our report: “A quantum vision for Germany”, which was produced in close cooperation with the Bundesdruckerei, will also be published shortly.

In his keynote, Norbert Hillinger takes the audience on a journey into the future of commerce. © Copyright: Benedikt Weiss.

The retail sector has not had it easy in recent years. On the one hand, Corona brought many store owners to the brink of extinction, and on the other hand, in view of the competition in online retailing as well as technological and social developments, retail has been on the threshold of a complete reorientation for years anyway. 5D shopping, supermarkets automated by artificial intelligence or self-driving kiosks, some of these trends may still sound like the distant future, but are already reality in many places.

The 24th Retail Symposium of RegioPlan® Consulting in Vienna on May 11, 2022 made this change clear, but at the same time showed ways to meet the challenges. “Face the Change” was the motto of this year’s event, which has a long tradition and is considered the most important think tank of the industry in Europe.

Future trends in retail

But to face the change, statements about the future environment are needed. What will retail have to adjust to in the next few years, what will change and how? This was precisely the question addressed by the speakers in their presentations and in a stage discussion. Our colleague Norbert Hillinger, futurologist and Senior Associate at Themis Foresight, was also present with his presentation ‘Future Retail: A journey into the future in three chapters’. He took the guests on a trip to the year 2035 and showed how we ourselves can contribute to the future, namely with courage for new perspectives, innovative and visionary thinking.

But what are the trends for retail from his point of view? To this end, Norbert put forward a number of theses, including:

1. Customer segments will shift – the premium and economy segments will continue to grow at the expense of the standard segment.
2. The economy segment will also be characterized by data-supported business models, and points of sale will be transformed into automated showrooms complete with delivery services.
3. In the premium segment, simple points of sale will become worlds of experience.

Finally, Norbert Hillinger discussed the topic: ‘Next Level Retail 2025: A 4-eye view into the future’ with Barbara Graf, Expansion Manager AUSTRIA of PEPCO Austria GmbH.

fLTR: MMag. Markus Figl (District Head Vienna Innere Stadt), Jan Berger (Founder and CEO Themis Foresight GmbH), Dr. Agnes Kügler (Austrian Institute of Economic Research, Department of Industrial Economics, Innovation and International Competition), Dr. Martin Kocher (Federal Minister of Labor), Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sabine Köszegi (Chairwoman Austrian Council for Robotics and AI, Professor TU-Vienna), Karl Mahrer (City Councilor and Provincial Party Chairman).

While some fear for their jobs, others are fascinated by the transformation that is currently taking place in our working world. Which jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence in the future? Will I soon be working with a robot instead of a flesh-and-blood colleague? And what does this transformation mean for our economy and society as a whole?

It is these critical questions and different perspectives that make the topic of the working world of the future seem more controversial than almost any other. And while the opportunities are apparent at first glance, the accompanying challenges are often still opaque in their full breadth.

This makes it all the more important to understand the complexity of Working World 5.0 and to engage in discourse.

This was also the aim of the panel discussion with political analysis held by the City Academy of the People’s Party of Vienna at the end of April. Under the slogan “Working World 5.0 – Between Opportunities and Challenges for Vienna and Europe”, scientists, economic experts, futurologists and politicians used the example of Vienna as a business location to discuss the many aspects of a working world in transition – also representative of other European cities.

Our CEO and founder Jan Berger was represented as an expert in the field of AI and digitalization and discussed the topic of artificial intelligence and the labor market together with Federal Minister of Labor Dr. Martin Kocher and City Councilor Karl Mahrer.

We are looking forward to a continuation and further discussion forums of this kind to allay fears and proactively shape change in our working world.