Recap – The German Apartment

At the beginning of November, the German Apartment took place for the third time in parallel to the Web Summit 2022 in Lisbon.

The Web Summit is the world's largest technology conference. This year it once again brought together more than 70,000 visitors, hundreds of companies, brands and start-ups, and offered forward-looking inspiration on topics including Web3, Bitcoin and crypto. "Where to next?" is the question about which technology companies, start-ups and decision-makers engaged in a lively discourse at the Web Summit. Far away from the hustle and bustle of trade fairs and conferences, German marketers, start-up founders and tech specialists came together in our apartment in Lisbon's Santos quarter to sharpen future perspectives together on two theme days based on our key question "How to survive the future?".

Theme day 1

Why is culture a future technology?

The first of our theme days focussed on the interplay between technology, culture and future. The first item on our agenda at the German Apartment was the exclusive workshop "(Re)imagine futures" by Dr. Frederik Pferdt, Google's first and former Chief Innovation Evangelist and Adjunct Professor at Stanford University. The interactive and immersive workshop not only encouraged deep thinking, but also helped to anticipate the possible impact of trends in the future by establishing a future-oriented mindset today.

The impetus of the evening resulted in important lessons being learned about the interplay between culture and technology. Maliha Abidi, Founder of Women Rise NFT, showed us how art can proliferate in the world of NFTs and in this way mutually influence culture and technology. Felix Ohswald, Founder of GoStudent, focused on another section of culture: education. In the impetus he provided, Felix illustrated how virtual and immersive learning environments could democratise education in the future. Together with our host Matthias Wesselmann, Dr. Frederik Pferdt spoke about the challenges we face today and the role future mindstates play in shaping a successful future.

Theme day 2

Who owns the future web?

Our second theme day with our partner agency Boomer revolved around the topics of NFT, blockchain and Web 3 – topics that were also very present at the web summit.

"There is a certain gold-rush atmosphere surrounding the topic. Start-ups with visionary ideas meet consultants who connect with investors specialising in Web3 and blockchain offerings. The innovative spirit and creative power displayed in using the possibilities afforded by the decentralised web for new offerings and products is impressive," says Matthias Wesselmann.

In the German Apartment, Denis Horvat (Co-CEO, Kickz) together with Sebastian Galla (CEO, brandneo) and Jens Taubert (Head of web3, Agentur Boomer) talked about the influence that blockchain technologies are having, taking Kickz as an example. They showed how Kickz, as Europe's leading basketball retailer, is embarking on a journey into the metaverse under the slogan "Never not ballin", and thereby redefining basketball culture. Niels Verlemann (Managing Director, envy) used the Audi case "The Art of Progress" to illustrate how brand innovation ranging from Web3 to NFT can be used effectively to build brands. And the final keynote talk of the evening saw Bianca Höflinger (Innovation Marketing) and Tobias Eismann (Senior Strategist) from Siemens provide insights into exploring technologies around NFTs and blockchain, as well as the industrial metaverse as an extension to human creativity.

Thanks for two great days in the German Apartment!

A special thank you to all our guests and speakers for two great days full of inspiration, networking and optimistic views of the future. Our aftermovie allows you to relive the atmosphere in the German Apartment in Lisbon:

We had great fun and are already looking forward to the next German Apartment – in March 2023 in parallel to SXSW.

See you in Austin!