From Google and Cyborgs to Game of Thrones: new.New Festival guarantees unbridled excitement for everybody

“It’ll be a thrilling mix,” says Ulrich Dietz, initiator of CODE_n and CEO of GFT Technologies SE, mysteriously. And if you’re still wondering what he’s referring to, it’s really time you check out the CODE_n new.New Festival, which you can easily do by reading this blog post. We’re proud to officially announce some of the highlights, ranging from our up-to-the-minute pitches and keynotes from our high-class speakers to networking and side events like workshops, exit games, concerts, after work and pub crawls. But let’s start out with what the CODE_n partners have on display:

The innovators’ area

GFT will be portraying the innovation process for the financial world on 2×5-meter LED floor, enabling visitors to playfully walk through the five phases. The Holocube installation by Accenture, which is only one of their highlights, has been created especially for the festival, challenging three-dimensional imagination and design skills in the context of a virtual reality experience.

With the electric Streetscooter, four of our CODE_n partners – HPE, GFT, TRUMPF and Vector Informatik – will be showcasing cross-industry future scenarios for convenient processing. At the same time, EnBW will be providing a glimpse of the networked city of tomorrow with its multi-functional streetlamp. The virtual operating theatre at the B.Braun booth will put the present and the future of the HealthTech world on display. Painting in 3D? No problem, thanks to virtual reality: Google is presenting digitalization formats such as the brand new Tiltbrush VR Experience.

The Conference Program

For three days, CODE_n will bring together selected pioneers, digital visionaries, innovation teams from established companies, scientists, and of course inquisitive visitors. So far we are proud to say that 65 speakers and more than 100 sessions are already ligned up! Needless to say, a conference program lives and dies with the quality of speakers, which is why we made sure that – on three stages (Main, Innovation and Side), we bring you the best of the best. We’ve collected some highlight examples, which we’ve already announced through our social media channels. To get even more information on them and find out all about our 65 speakers, visit our special Speaker Blog Post.

Networking and side events – something for everybody!

Day 1

All along the festival, we made sure you have as many networking opportunities and fun side events as possible. Want to find out if you can beat time? The Exit Games by our partner TRUMPF offer a challenge for your whole team. Find tracks, combine clues and use your own intelligence to solve a thrilling mission. In their workshop, our partner HPE enables you to identify, define, test and iterate your ideas in their “Ideas Transformation Box” and with it offers you a complete Digital Transformation Journey including Design Thinking, Trend Research, Business Modelling, Prototyping and Testing!

At the EnBW booth, you can join workshops on the networked city of tomorrow, electro mobility or Big Data, the Design Thinking Workshop in which the user’s perspective becomes relevant, are run by our partner Accenture – just register at their booth.

The first festival day will be rounded off with an After Work event and you shouldn’t miss it: Highlight of the evening will be a keynote speech by Winfried Kretschmann, Minister of the state of Baden-Württemberg, right before everyone is invited to join our Pub Crawl Session starting at Alter Schlachthof.

Day 2

party.Party on the second day? Yes! In his keynote, FOCUS chief correspondent Dr. Holger Schmidt will let you know which role platforms play as gamechangers in the digital economy, right before the winners of the CyberChamions Award will be announced and celebrated at the Substage Club – all organized by our friends from Cyberforum!

Ever wondered about innovation in the context of digital transformation? You can now do that profoundly by visiting a Workshop powered by WIRED, also on day two, letting you know what SMEs can learn from startups. Alternatively, or additionally startups can join an intensive and interactive one-day interactive GoogleDesign Sprint Workshop by our partner GFT, which combines and compromises what is usually learned in five days! The number of participants is limited and application mandatory, so be fast!

Also run by GFT: the FinTech talk on Wednesday afternoon with high-class speakers such as Julie Lake – Founder of FinTech City, Lothar Meenen – Managing Director at Deutsche Bank, Matthias Hornberger – Kizoo CFO and Cyberforum CEO, as well as figo CEO Andre M. Bajorat and GFT COO Marika Lulay.

Day 3

The Photonic Strategy Summit 2016 will commence at 10 a.m. on Thursday, organized by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. TRUMPF Vice-President Dr. Peter Leibinger will launch the forum with his keynote speech on tomorrow’s world of photonics, in the afternoon photonic experts will join festival visitors in the Cube to talk about the agenda for research over the next few years.

Also on Thursday, right before the last main events, CyberLab invites you to join the Foundersnight at Hopfner castle, where you get the chance to meet the most promising founders of the IT Accelerator Baden-Württemberg.

The grand finale of three days of innovation, ideas, and excitement pretty much stands for itself: For the most part of the festival, we brought in the newest of the new, but we’ve also kept the best elements from the past alive: Once again, the electro-pop group Claire from Munich will be live on stage for CODE_n and it’s not just a story of a wonderful friendship. It’s actually two stories aligned: Like CODE_n, Claire has developed over the years and finally set out on fresh adventures. Afterwards, everyone should join the final showdown: Karlsruhe’s famous and spectacular light show “Schlosslichtspiele”.

The CODE_n Award Show

Our 52 CODE_n CONTEST finalists – chosen out of 385 entrants from 40 countries – are not only presenting the four clusters “Applied FinTech”, “HealthTech”, “Connected Mobility” and “Photonics 4.0” throughout the festival, by exposing their innovative business models at their booth and with constant live pitches, keynotes speeches and panel debates on our several stages – they are also all vying for the CODE_n Award: The winner will be announced by the panel of judges on the evening of September 21st – definitely worth a markdown for your calendar.

As you can see, the festival guarantees unbridled excitement for everyone! We’re looking forward to welcoming you from September 20 – 22 in Karlsruhe.
You still need a ticket? Get it here!