preliminary Programm *
December 1, 2026
8:00 - 9:15 am
Check in & Welcome Coffee
Participant check-in, networking, and first discussions with clusters and associations.
9:15 - 9:30 am
Opening words by the organisers

Gerd Kielburger
Vogel Communications Group

Hannes Robier
youspi Consulting

Clemens Lutsch
swohlwahr
9:30 - 10:15 am
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Cognitive Sovereignty in the Age of Permanent Mutation
A Strategic, Cognitive and Temporal Framework for Navigating Multi Present Realities and Systemic Complexity

Alberto Longo
European Commision
10:20 - 11:00 am
DISCUSSION
Society & Industry 5.0 Challenges

Roland Sommer
Plattform Industrie 4.0 Austria

Alberto Longo
European Commission

Matthias Menke
Allianz
Moderation:

Clemens Lutsch
swohlwahr
11:00 - 11:30 am
Coffee Break
Networking and visit of the exhibition
11:30 am - 12:00 pm
Abracadabra In-a-box: Questions to ask about an AI system to ensure quality, usability, and yes, fairness
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The field of AI is booming – also with hype. This talk will focus on the black-box narrative, and take it apart. From “should we even use an AI system” to “does it work”, and stopping by “what’s happening with my data”, “what’s the environmental footprint” and “is it biased” along the way – questions are not taboo and many answers are well within reach.
Learnings:
- what are the various technologies that fall under “AI”
- what are their capabilities, limitations, and risks
- where to find answers, and how regulations and standards can help

Rania Wazir, Ph.D.
leiwand AI
12:00 - 12:30 pm
Transform the Tomorrow: When Strategy Meets Execution Reality
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Most transformations do not fail because the strategy is wrong.
They fail where execution becomes difficult: unclear priorities, slow decisions, competing agendas, overloaded teams, and a lack of ownership.
After years of working at the intersection of strategy, portfolio management, product business and large-scale transformation programs, I have learned one lesson:
The real challenge is not defining ambition. It is translating ambition into action.
In this session, I share my personal experience as a leader from transformation environments shaped by international business dynamics, portfolio decisions and performance improvement programs.
Rather than focusing on theoretical frameworks, I will discuss what actually works in practice:
- creating clarity when complexity is high
- turning strategic choices into executable priorities
- collaborate and connect to create true ownership and execution discipline across organizations
- building governance that accelerates decisions instead of reporting
At its core, the talk explores how leaders can help organizations move from analysis to action, from alignment to commitment, and from strategy to measurable impact.
Because in the end, transformation is not won in the strategy workshop. It is won in the thousands of decisions that follow.

Stephan Gröger
Bosch
12:30 - 1:30 pm
Lunch Break
Networking and visit of the exhibition
1:30 - 3:00 pm
PARALLEL WORKSHOPS
Focus: Future Skills
1:30 - 2:00 pm
Technical debt isn't born in the code. It's born in the boardroom.
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Everyone talks about technical debt - and means the solution portfolio, the legacy stack, the refactoring that's long overdue. Almost everyone misses the most expensive kind: the debt that doesn't originate in the technology, but at the leadership level. Every "why" that gets skipped, every decision delegated to "the board" with no owner, every leader who makes themselves indispensable - that's leadership debt. At first it doesn't hurt; it feels minimally invasive, almost homeopathic. The bill arrives late. With interest. And it doesn't land on IT - it lands on the entire company.
Michael Gstach, Group CIO/CISO of a technology group operating in more than 20 countries, shares the view from the inside - including his own hard-earned lessons - on how leadership produces technical debt, how to spot it, and why making yourself dispensable isn't a loss of control but a way of paying that debt down.

Michael Gstach
Designa-Axess Industries Holding
2:00 - 2:30 pm
Topic will be announced shortly

Matthias Menke
Allianz
2:30 - 3:00 pm
Topic will be announced shortly

Olav Carlsen
SPRIND - Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation
Focus: Resilience
1:30 - 2:00 pm
Topic will be announced shortly

N.N.
Dassault Systems
2:00 - 2:30 pm
Topic will be announced shortly

Vanessa de Leon
Stellantis
2:30 - 3:00 pm
Topic will be announced shortly

N.N.
IBM
3:00 - 3:30 pm
Coffee Break
Networking and visit of the exhibition
3:30- 4:15 pm
BOARDROOM OF THE FUTURE
Voices of the future: Young talents in Management & Leadership
4:30 - 5:30 pm
PANEL DISCUSSION

Bruce Horn
Apple

Alberto Longo
European Commission

Michael Gstach
Designa-Axess Industries Holding

Vanessa de Leon
Stellantis
Moderation:

Hannes Robier
youspi Consulting
5:30 - 11:00 pm
Networking & Evening Event
December 2, 2026
8:30 - 9:30 am
Check in & Welcome Coffee
Participant check-in, networking, and first discussions with clusters and associations.
9:30 - 9:40 am
Opening words by the organisers
9:45 - 10:30 am
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Multisolving the Polycrisis: How Business can Build the World that Science Says is Possible
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The World Inequality Lab's 2026 Global Justice Report, Mark Jacobson's Still No Miracles Needed, the Earth4All scenarios, and the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk have each, from different scientific vantage points, arrived at the same conclusion: the polycrisis — the simultaneous convergence of climate breakdown, extreme inequality, political instability, and technological disruption — is not inevitable, was predicted 50 years ago, and the tools to address it already exist. What stands between the world we are in and the world we want — that science says is possible — is not technology, economics, or time. It is political will and a coalition needed to sustain it. Businesses are the institutions best positioned to supply this will at speed and scale. This talk explains why we are in the polycrisis and how business can, and must, lead the way out.

Bruce Horn
Apple
10:30 am - 12:00 pm
WORLD CAFÉ
In this interactive format the conference participants discuss in small, relaxed, café-style groups. Participants rotate between tables every 20 minutes, building on the ideas of previous groups. This allows everyone to share their thoughts and hear new ideas.
Group moderators for each focus topic:
Resilience:

Yang Yang, Ph.D.
China Robot Industry Alliance (CRIA)
Sustainability:

Alberto Longo
European Commission
Human-centered Approach:

Michael Gstach
Designa-Axess Industries Holding
Future Skills:

Rania Wazir, Ph.D.
leiwand AI
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Lunch Break
Networking and visit of the exhibition
1:00 - 1:30 pm
World Café findings
Moderation:

Moderation:
Clemens Lutsch
swohlwahr
1:30 - 2:30 pm
PARALLEL WORKSHOPS
Focus: Human-centered Approach
1:30 - 2:00 pm
A Practical Guide to Industry 5.0 - Results from the BRIDGES 5.0 Project
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Human-centricity is a core element of Industry 5.0, a concept that sets the worker in the center of activities on the shop floor. Currently many companies struggle in implementing these concepts in their daily production routine. The practical guide, that was created within the EU-funded BRIDGES 5.0 project addresses this problem and provides concrete steps how to implement these concepts into a company setting.
Key learnings are how to enable a successful transformation, using inclusive leadership models and participatory design processes and how to rethink skills development.

Roland Sommer
Plattform Industrie 4.0 Austria
2:00 - 2:30 pm
Topic will be announced shortly

N.N.
Focus: Sustainability
1:30 - 2:00 pm
Topic will be announced shortly

N.N.
2:00 - 2:30 pm
Topic will be announced shortly

N.N.
2:30 - 3:00 pm
Coffee Break
Networking and visit of the exhibition
3:00 - 3:30 pm
KEYNOTE
The Future of Robotics

Yang Yang, Ph.D.
China Robot Industry Alliance (CRIA)
3:30 - 4:15 pm
CLOSING DISCUSSION

Yang Yang, Ph.D.
China Robot Industry Alliance (CRIA)

Rania Wazir, Ph.D.
leiwand AI

N.N.
NVIDIA

N.N.
4:15 - 4:30 pm
Summary and Outlook 2027

Gerd Kielburger
Vogel Communications Group

Hannes Robier
youspi Consulting

Clemens Lutsch
swohlwahr
* Subject to change






