Germany’s leading Interim Management Event in cooperation with FIR at RWTH Aachen University

“Trends. Visions. Future.” was the motto of a digital event in a class of its own: the DDIM.kongress // 2021. On November 19th, more than 400 Interim Managers, Interim Management Providers and multiple leaders from business, economy and science got together to share their expertise, analyze current market trends and network. For this year’s event, Germany’s Interim Management Association, Dachgesellschaft Deutsches Interim Management e.V. (DDIM), found the perfect partner: FIR e.V. an der RWTH Aachen. FIR is the Institute for Industrial Management, a non-profit, intersectoral research and educational institution at the renowned RWTH Aachen University. FIR specializes in business organization, information logistics and corporate IT, aiming to establish the organizational basis for the digitally integrated “company of the future”.

The event revolved around the following pivotal questions: What trends have the most influence on our businesses? And how do companies and Interim Managers benefit from it? “I am thrilled about the high-profile event agenda, which was to a great extent enabled by our partners: With more than 400 participants and 30 workshops, we have set another record for our annual meeting”, says Dr. Marei Strack, Chairwoman of the DDIM Board. After DDIM broke new ground with the first virtual DDIM.kongress in 2020, this year, the association took it to the next level with an even stronger focus on interaction: The participants used the Chat to ask questions and networked with providers, partners and colleagues on the Virtual Marketplace and in the Wonder Space, a networking platform where the participants can navigate their own avatars and videochat with up to 14 participants at a time.

Beside a variety of inspirational workshops, seven keynotes enriched the event with late-breaking topics around future trends and opportunities. In a captivating speech, Professor Dr.-Ing. Volker Stich, CEO of the FIR and Director of the Cluster Smart Logistics, shared his ideas on the potential of corporate data and how it is to be used to create Tomorrows Business. Furthermore, the participants learned how to set up new digital businesses on the base of conventional corporate structures, from Dr. Philipp Jussen, Head of Industry 4.0 Portfolio & Product Management at Schaeffler Monitoring Services GmbH. Dr. Gerhard Gudergan, Head of Research Division at FIR, said in his speech that “gaining trust” is an essential leadership skill that can be trained – provided leaders and employees have a “growth mindset”.

Dr. Karsten Sontow, Chairman of the Board at Trovarit, told his listeners about the importance of ERP software for customer-related processes. According to Sontow, especially cloud systems contributed to the added value of manufacturing companies. Systems grow together, data gets homogenized, and processes get automated, says Ralf Vinzenz Bigge, CEO of the EICe GmbH at the RWTH Aachen Campus. At the Cluster Smart Logistics, more than 350 researchers and economists elaborate solutions for information and product flows in a future cyberphysical world. Another highlight was presented by Christoph Assmann, Head of Growth of OneTwoSocial, who postulates that social media is much more than just likes, range und leads. According to the Social Media Specialist, scalable and reproducible social media measures enable us to predict the future.

The closing event highlight was the keynote of Cyber Crime Specialist Cem Karakaya. With a lot of charm and in a very entertaining fashion, the expert taught everyone a lesson on cyber security. Visual hacking, fishing mails and digital blackmailing, to name a few, are a daily threat that needs to be taken seriously. Karakaya considers digital competence the key to a safe online experience. According to Rafael Apélian, Member of the DDIM Board, the DDIM.kongress // 2021 was yet another proof of how much digitization depends on the development of human skills and mindsets. The Board Member and Marketing Expert concludes that “regardless of the personal role, every Interim Manager needs to act as an enabler in today’s digital transformation across all businesses. This DDIM event provided a lot of know-how and specific insights for Interim Managers to serve company clients even better going forward”.