As Chief Economist of HSBC Germany, Stefan Schilbe has been responsible for "Economic Research", the Bank's economics department dealing with economic, interest rate and foreign currency analyses, since 2001. In this function, he advises companies and institutional and private investors on capital investments and financing. Mr. Schilbe is a member of the "Committee for Economic and Monetary Policy" of the Association of German Banks (Chairman from 2012-2014), the "Chief Economist's Group" of the European Banking Federation EBF and a sought-after speaker at national and international conferences. In addition, he has many years of experience as an advisor in a medium-sized family office, is a member of various investment committees of special funds and is a lecturer at the Private Finance Institute of the European Business School (ebs) in Oestrich-Winke.

Dr. Stefan Carsten is a futurologist and urban geographer. He was project manager in the future and environment research department of Daimler AG in Berlin, where he designed new mobility services such as car2go and moovel. Currently, he is an advisory board member of the Federal Ministry of Transport for "Strategic Guidelines of Public Transport in Germany", the IAA Mobility in Munich and the Reality Lab Radbahn in Berlin, among others. Since 2019, he publishes the Mobility Report in cooperation with the zukunftsInstitut. He works with diverse stakeholders in the mobility sector in Germany and abroad: the bicycle industry, public transport companies, the automotive industry, and cities and municipalities. He is married, has two children and lives and works in Berlin.

About HPP Strategie- und Marketingberatung

HPP is one of the leading medium-sized strategy and marketing consultancies in Germany. Today, HPP has about 40 employees and is headquartered in Frankfurt. Together with our clients we develop tailor-made, future-oriented concepts and implement them.

Since 2018, Jens Dorn has been working at OTTO on and with technologies on which offerings such as ChatGPT are based. In collaboration with huggingface.com, he has contributed to the democratization of these models with OTTO, opening the way for medium-sized companies to train and use these models for themselves as well.

He established business intelligence for logistics at OTTO and played a key role in the development of overarching logistics management in 2020. In 2021, he was able to demonstrate the potential of data science-driven search technology at OTTO. In the last two years, Jens Dorn has been developing effective approaches to supply and demand management for assortment based on new technology. His focus is on integrating new enterprise technological capabilities into a new operational operating system. #OwnYourAI

As a teenager, Jens Dorn helped repair bikes at the bike store around the corner and later built his own bike frames. At the age of twenty, he founded an idea agency and began studying business administration in parallel. In 2006, the agency was refocused on the topic of digitalization. In this context, he supported Klever Mobility, an e-bike provider, in their market entry into the European market for several years and got to know the bicycle industry in the process.

With over 25 years of experience in not only technical & commercial positions but also managerial and leading roles in a variety of companies and countries spread over 5 continents, Gert Hendrickx joined Materialise now 1.5y ago as Global Sales Director.

In this role, Gert is responsible for the global development, implementation and follow up of the sales strategy and growth within the Core Manufacturing BU.
This BU represents over 50 mio EUR turnover per year.

Gert is a Master in Science, graduated from the University of Leuven, will be 50 this year, married with Sophie and proud father of 3 teenage daughters.

During his free time, Gert rides the mountain bike, likes skiing and in the little time that remains, the old-timer BMW comes out for a ride or to fix it before the ride

As a designer, Adrian Wenzel develops design concepts with artificial intelligence. He designed the first branding design with an AI in 2023. 
As a co-author and graphic designer, Adrian publishes extensively in international magazines and at exhibitions.
While studying at HAWK in Hildesheim, he began working for the Kochstrasse agency in Hanover.
Here, he develops AI designs and establishes artificial intelligence in design processes. As a guest in interviews and at conferences, he inspires the advertising industry with his experiences in dealing with creative AI.

Christiane Varga

Christiane Varga works as a trend and futurologist in Vienna and deals with the different facets of the question "How will we live in the future?". She is a lecturer and author of numerous publications. She studied sociology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and today teaches the subject "Design Research" at the FH Joanneum in Graz. She is convinced: In order to deal with a complex present - and future - silo thinking is passé.

Elsa Homann, GfK

Elsa Homann, Mobility Expert at GfK, analyzes current macro trends and provides data-based insights on how retailers and manufacturers can set themselves up for success in these volatile times.

Frank Föge, Zuora

Frank Föge is Country Manager Germany & Austria at Zuora. His expertise in the consulting environment and his IT and software know-how make him a sought-after contact for digital transformation. Zuora is a specialist for cloud-based subscription management solutions that enable companies to manage their subscription data. 

Tyler Benedict, Bike Club

Tyler created and built Bikerumor.com into the world's largest cycling tech blog. Now, he's bringing his deep industry connections, digital content expertise, and years of consumer product marketing experience to Bike Club. As co-founder, Tyler is leading the charge on the first-ever fully decentralized global cycling community, leveraging WEB3 tech to create the future of cycling clubs, free & open to all, without gatekeepers, where riders own their privacy & build value by riding their bikes.  

SUPPLY CHAIN

Moving production back to Europe is a widely-discussed topic that has gained traction during the coronavirus pandemic. Rising transport costs, longer delivery times, raw material shortages or broken agreements with suppliers – there is a long list of acute problems. Not to mention political changes, such as Germany’s new supply chain legislation whose implications remain as yet unclear, rising wages in Asia and China’s environmental policy. Production in Portugal, Slovakia, Poland and Bulgaria is expected to solve many of the problems. However, will these changes be able to cope with the next major impact? What is the economic outlook for raw materials and production trends? 

MOBILITY AND MOBILITYMIX 

Is there still potential to develop bikes further? Digital networking is now a major factor in the world of two-wheeled transport. Digital natives are connecting bikes in new and innovative ways. Mobility is a service, and bikes need to be in the right place at the right time. Bikes and e-bikes are just one ingredient in the new mobility mix. Sharing is the future! But who will be behind it? Is the automotive industry going to discover bikes? And what role will bikes play in the world of autonomous transport? The future is wide open – to be discussed.

MOBILITY 2025

The various restrictions in the general mobility behaviour in the wake of the CORONA pandemic have brought many people back on their bikes. Even during the lockdown, in various countries many bicycle workshops were allowed to be open, to at least secure bicycle mobility. During this time the bicycle infrastructure was adapted and modified in many cities and municipalities in an unbureaucratic and uncomplicated manner. Development, planning and implementation that would otherwise have taken month and years were done within a couple of days. The bicycle has now gained system relevance. How will this development change mobility overall in the next few years and what will it look like?  Read more about the increase of traffic here.

BIKE BIZ 2025

Supply and demand - even during the CORONA pandemic, bicycle sales continue to climb steeply. And the stationary bicycle retail is experiencing a small renaissance - long queues in front of the bicycle shops are not uncommon. Whether it is the small stationary specialized retailer, online retailers, marketplaces, direct-to-customer retailers or other platforms, many of them have difficulty coping with the increasing demand. At the same time, Decathlon is opening one megastore after another, regardless of the current situation. Anyone looking into the future will ask themselves about who will be the winners and losers of the crisis. How will retail change in the coming years? Which distribution channels and platforms will establish themselves and who will use them and how - Decathlon, Rose, BICO or even Google, Amazon, Alibaba or will the stationary bicycle retailers prevail? Read more about the cycling retail in times of CORONA here.