Overview

Spheres of Passion
You’ll have the opportunity to experience more than 80 speakers on nine stages at the International Festival of Brand Experience. In addition to the area surrounding the main stage, the setting consist of four themed areas that whisk visitors away to various “spheres of passion”.

The BrandEx Award is a creative award for successful live communication and will be presented for the second time at the BrandEx Festival 2020. It honours outstanding brand experiences, i.e. international benchmarks in encounter communication as well as in temporary and permanent architecture. The central evaluation criteria are creativity and successful implementation. The winners were selected by a competent and independent jury and now receive an award on stage.

Moderation: Aljoscha Höhn

The BrandEx Festival will conclude with the great BrandEx Aftershow Party and Dinner by LECA. The band “The News” and DJ Isabell (rheinrythmik) will provide the right sound.

Moderator Anja Backhaus with Karin Ruppert, Head of Association Communication FAMAB e.V.; Spokeswoman of the BrandEx Board of Trustees

What does the current change in societal values mean for everyone who is responsible for and designs communication? This change is followed by huge shifts: in content, in formats and especially in budgets.What does this mean for agencies, for customers, for brand experiences?

Prof. Roland Lambrette, Founder of Atelier Markgraph and Rector of Hochschule für Künste Bremen

Disruption:
What developments are currently leading to radical changes in our industry?
Investment:
What are the potentials of brand experiences and where will investments be made as a result?
Engagement:
What makes the heart of the industry beat faster, what ignites our passion and what measurable energy is released in brand experience formats?

As an introduction and starting point for the discussion, Johannes Plass, CEO at MUTABOR, will present a brief market survey that throws light on the all-important themes of sustainability, digitalisation, the knowledge society, and the next generation from the perspective of the industry.

Dr. Jana Dewitz, Marketing Director and Head of Marketing & Media, Messe Berlin GmbH
Stefan Ponikva, Vice President Brand Experience BMW Group
Jeannine Koch, Director of the Digital Conference re:publica

The panel discussion will be moderated by Anja Backhaus.

Dance as an optical illusion. Poem as a 3D mapping synopsis. Music as a holographic projection. Sila sveta likes to break physical laws, invent new technological tricks, translate classical stories into multimedia language. Senior Vice President Polina Zakh provides insights into the work of Sila Sveta. You can look forward to breathtaking productions by the award-winning creative agency with offices in Moscow and New York.

Polina Zakh, Senior Vice President Sila Sveta

Cesy Leonard presents the operations of the Center for Political Beauty and provides a look behind the scenes. ‘In the times in which we live, everyone has to decide for themselves whether they can afford to be unpolitical.’

Cesy Leonard, Chefin des Planungsstabs, Zentrum für Politische Schönheit

Wrap-up with representatives of the board of trustees

Jan Kalbfleisch, CEO FAMAB e.V.
Karin Ruppert, Head of Association Communication FAMAB e.V.
Johannes Plass, CEO, Mutabor
David Korte, Chief Digital Officer, DGT AG
Vera Viehöfer, Director Live-Marketing EREIGNISHAUS
Simon Stahl, Creative Director, fischerAppelt live marketing GmbH

Moderation: Anja Backhaus

Immersion is the magic word intended to spark our passion. Modern technologies enable us to immerse ourselves in parallel worlds and promise mind-blowing brand experiences. That’s the theory, anyway. But what does it look like in practice and how will it work in the future? The study entitled ‘Beyond Realities’ provides answers to these questions. After an entertaining introduction, experts from the fields of psychology, technology and art discuss the results of the study and give their opinions on our opportunities for using augmented realities in corporate communications. Moderation: Frank Sonder.

Frank Sonder, Entrepreneur, Speaker and Management Consultant
Prof. Susanne Krebs, CEO, PHOCUS BRAND CONTACT GmbH & Co. KG
Fritz Strempel, Architect, Artist and Entrepreneur

CX is every interaction, or touch point, your customer has with your brand. It not only includes the interactions (WHAT), but also the perceptions and feelings (HOWS) the customer experiences. Great CX is all about exceeding customer’s expectations, their expectations align with a brand’s value proposition, and this understanding of CX is transparent across the brand’s entire organisation. At an EVENT, brands enable participants to experience the brand’s promise. CX and experiential marketing meet in the creation of dynamic, rich, and emotional connections with brand followers and potential consumers that can generate FANS. At a particular event these connections occurring tend to be transactional and tactical; with CX, the connections occur continuously, consistently, and seamlessly at multiple touch points across channels along a Customer’s Journey.

Angeles Moreno, Founder & Managing Partner, the Creative dots

The LiveCom Alliance European Industry Survey captures the major trends and economic impact drivers for the live communication industry. Founder and managing director Maarten Schram will reveal the outcome of the 2019 edition, executed by R.I.F.E.L. Institute.

Maarten Schram, Founder & Managing Director, LiveCom Alliance | European Institute for Live Communication

In buyer markets, we are hardly moved by the actual product characteristics to buy, but by the multi-sensual experience associated with the product. Do we realize this in live communication at the booth or do we present products? A look at the best and worst-cases!

Prof. Dr. Gernot Gehrke, Professor for Management and Marketing in the Event Industry, Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts

ISPO as the world’s largest tradeshow in sports turned into a global network of services. This transformation is now serving as a stepping stone for what’s urgently needed in our age and what hopefully brings a new understanding of trade shows.

Christoph Beaufils, Brand Manager ISPO, MESSE MÜNCHEN GMBH

… especially as a start-up. That’s why this format offers three young disruptors in live communication and related disciplines a stage to explain their business model briefly and precisely in order to find potential business partners. The rules: 5 minutes of elevator pitch, 5 minutes of Q&A.

Sven Wissebach, Founder & Managing Director, store2be GmbH
Kaddie Rothe, Co-Founder, Creative Director, goalgirls, co-creagency GmbH
Thomas Teichmann, CEO, SCALUE GmbH

My passions are aroused when I expand my design space to include human perception and start to design with this in mind. We creatives should always be aware of the huge impact the experiential elements we design can have on people. Then everything is design. The free will of the individual is not as free as he thinks.

Philipp Dorendorf, Creative Director, EAST END COMMUNICATIONS GmbH

With a clear focus on process optimisation, automation and measurability, online marketing is increasingly expanding its share of the marketing mix. The effectiveness of live marketing is never called into question, but the industry still needs to provide quantitative evidence for it. Learn how new technologies from the Internet of Things (IoT) and the increasing digitalisation enable the live marketing industry to automate processes, enhance efficiency and measure the effectiveness of the measures implemented. Do we really want to leave the stage to Google & Co.?

Dr. Christian Coppeneur-Gülz, Managing Director, ExpoCloud GmbH

Do digital links and customer service really get consumers into stores? The Japanese department store chain Don Don Donki takes the opposite approach: It has made chaos its strategy, presenting back scratchers right next to tomatoes – and is successful.

Steven Cichon, Director Brand Spaces, Peter Schmidt Group GmbH

By ensuring that creativity is the core of our work, we channel the passion of our people to tackle every challenge. Whether its sustainability, our relationship with clients or how we perceive the future of brand experience, it boils down to maintaining our ‘idea-led’ ideology.

Julien le Bas, SVP, Executive Creative Director, Jack Morton Worldwide
Jens Mayer, Managing Director, Jack Morton Worldwide

Franz Kafka wrote, ‘All talk is pointless without trust.’ But what have we seen in marketing in recent years? A focus on automation, target-group-driven standardisation, and the reduction of budgets for trade shows and events. Business KPIs (order entry, leads, etc.) are used as ‘currency’, and everything is subjected to the drive for efficiency. Clients are bombarded with automated zombie e-mails on a daily basis, or pestered by telemarketing agents with product information. It’s time to talk about the most crucial factor in business: trust – and how we can establish authentic trust.

André Gebhardt, Tribe Lead Major Events & Communities, T-Systems International GmbH

Experiential marketing has grown up. Our culture of knowledge needs a new freedom. An important accelerator in the „visible area“ of brand development is spatial communication. Today, our work serves many levels and caters to multiple new additional tasks. It is rarely this vulnerable, since it is always excellently strategically derived, professionally designed and, of course, success-measurable afterwards. But how do we still spark passion in this situation? How do we create „outstanding“ work that gets under your skin and which people do we need for that?

Michael Ostertag-Henning, Managing Director, SCHMIDHUBER Brand Experience GmbH

The Food Line-Up and GiantLeaps have joined forces to serve delicious meals that are within the limits of the Paris agreement and raise awareness amongst their guests at the same time. During BrandEx they will share what they have learnt on their journey.

Laura Heerema, Founder, GiantLeaps
Willem Treep, Co-owner, The Food Line-up
Georg W. Broich, Broich Premium Catering GmbH, Spokesman of LECA

The mis-conceptions usually perceived when you speak about ‚creativity‘ is usually that ‚some people are creative, and most aren‘t‘ and ‚it‘s not required in business‘. That‘s just not true. As a leader, you don‘t want to ghettoize creativity; you want everyone in your organization producing novel and useful ideas, including your financial people not just the R&D, marketing, and advertising departments. Thanks to social networks, companies now have new opportunities on how to connect with their customers and these are undoubtedly the fastest growing channels bar none! You can project the message to an audience instantaneously but at the same time you have only a few seconds to grab their attention. In a sea of ‚mediocre information‘ creativity is what sets you apart from others. In our block „Future of Creativity“, we will introduce you to world trends, backed up by successful case studies which will show you the way to the ‚successful future of communication‘.

Yemi A.D., JAD Productions

The strong competition for awareness demands innovative ways to engage with your audiences. This presentation talks about the current trends in social media and how brands can leverage technology to create innovative ways drive awareness and engagement for live events.

Frank Ditz, Head of Entertainment & Media, Facebook Deutschland GmbH

We’ll talk about global projects based on promoting the responsible cleaning habit – similar to the healthy lifestyle – by promoting pro-ecological behavior, education, establishing cooperation with environmental organizations and by creating public available cleaning tools. This projects presupposes involvement of large brands and companies. Will we use our resources and knowledge of global partners to make real change not only green washing?

Jedrek (Andrzej) Nykowski, Creative Director, Mea Group Sp. z o.o.

Sometimes money (big budget) is not the thing that will bring big success and big audience. How to set up the creativity to make your event having bigger impact and wider communication results. Pope visit in Tallinn.

Lehari Kaustel, Creative Director, Royal Experience

9 out of 10 brands are no longer relevant, the customers either like you or don’t care. Let’s look at the brand experience as the only religion that will affect the relationship and the loyalty to you as a company, brand or partner to the most important employer tomorrow. I will bring all my experience and everything i learnt during my years in the mission to create interesting brands, products and services in a world full of equal alternatives. I have no proposal in my back pocket, no pitch. Just a big ambition for us as partners and colleagues to be prepared for a new conversation with our business. Communication is a business critical skill, and brand experience have never been more important.

Janne Björge, Friend first, partner second, Heyman & Friends

The labour market is undergoing a fundamental change. Megatrends such as sustainability, digitalisation and demographic change are increasingly prompting companies to rethink their business models and restructure their organisation. Everyone is talking about the concept of ‘New Work’, and recruiting passionate high potentials for one’s own company is becoming more and more difficult. This change also affects the agency as an organisational model. Is the agency an obsolete model or is it actually the organisational form of the future?

Detlef Wintzen & Guests, CEO, insglück, Gesellschaft für Markeninszenierung mbH

Gain insights into the latest trend in marketing and how data can be used to create results, drive success and ensure even more promising campaigns.

Colja Dams, CEO, VOK DAMS Events & Live-Kommunikation

‘Our goal is to sell no more cigarettes one day,’ explained André Sorge, Managing Director, Sales at Philip Morris Germany. In his presentation, Sorge will explain how it came to this change of course, as well as the challenges accompanying such a comprehensive change process.

André Sorge, Managing Director Sales, Philip Morris GmbH

The term “Artificial Intelligence” has come of age in 2019. But are we really clear on what can be termed AI and what can’t? What factors should businesses consider? Join Kai Ebert as he dispels a few myths, shares some best practices, and beats the worst buzzwords.

Kai Ebert, General Manager, Fork Unstable Media

Multitouch, AR, VR and digital tools as far as the eye can see. In the wake of the digital transformation, the amount of interactive technology has rapidly increased. Partially, or primarily, in the context of brand experience design. So far, so good. However, the problem is that a large number of these applications look nice and cost a lot of money, but in the end, they aren’t worth much. Till Beutling, the managing partner of FLUUR, talks about the potential and genuine added value of interaction and presents strategies for the sustainable and sensible use of interactive solutions and digital tools.

Till Beutling, Managing Partner, FLUUR

In April 2019 two agencies merged – both of them positioned in the experiential segment, but with two very different profiles. Creative and visual minds met strategists focussed on implementation. Great solutions met detail-obsessed wonkiness. And two creative directors with almost two decades of industry experience had to figure out how they would develop concepts together in the future. Each with his own strong opinions. Each with passionate commitment. In our presentation we give you a glimpse of how each of us found our calling over the years, how presentation styles and qualities developed, what creative processes we use and how we found the path to a shared signature style. In the workshop we will assign several small tasks to the participants. The presentation is aimed at the established young concept developers who want to see how the old hands fumble around time and again. Because concept development entails risky adventures and sheer passion.

Mario Nicolosi, Managing Director, METZLER : VATER live GmbH
Pat Kalt, Managing Partner, tisch13 GmbH

INFORMATION + VALUE= KNOW HOW
So secret that hardly anyone has noticed, a paradigm shift in trade secret protection took place. Pitch documents, customer lists, etc. – this may now be freely passed on. Unless you become active. Let me explain to you how that’ s done.

Simone Bötcher, Specialist in Intellectual Property Rights, Attorney, GREENFIELD IP Stoll Schulte Rechtsanwälte

In the Directors’ Lounge, we’ll speak with directors Pit Weyrich, Hans-Christoph Mücke und Lutz Heineking Jr. about their passion for their profession, their individual careers and their experience in the various subjects. We want to know what skills you need as a director and how important talent, hard work and discipline are. What influence do directors have today on a brand experience? Has digitalisation generated new areas with which we should familiarise ourselves? Using exciting best-case examples, we show how good directing facilitates brilliant staging and campaigns.

Pit Weyrich, Regisseur and Moderator
Lutz Heineking jr., Film producer and Director
Hans-Christoph Mücke, Direction, Show Design, Conceptualisation

Moderation: Vera Viehöfer, Director Live-Marketing, EREIGNISHAUS

Seen everything? What actually still blows you over when you go out? There’s a simple formula: everything you don’t expect. We call it the ‘micro-amusement park’ – it’s the digital antidote to boredome.

Kristian Kerkhoff, Founder & Managing Partner, DEMODERN – Creative Technologies

I see a world where people don’t hold back to live their passion. – We need the “others” to prevent us from drowning in the ocean of conformity. People with Down-Syndrome are a lighthouse for freedom.

Mareike Fuisz, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Social Activist

A match burns 20 seconds – the time left to inspire a visitor to the German Pavilion for German culture. How the Expo motto „Connecting the minds and creating the future“ helps and how you can help.

Markus Illing, Managing Director, VOSS+FISCHER GmbH

Designing emotional triggers into events to create behaviour change for brands equals success and a positive ROI on an event budget. But how do you build in these triggers? The session explores various emotions and how trigger them to create positive consumer behaviour at different types of events.

Dr. James Morgan, Founder, Event Tech Lab

Kay Voges describes his work at the intersection of theatre, stage and digital media, and names the institutional boundaries for this necessary work in the current theatre system.

Kay Voges, Director & Artistic Director, Schauspiel Dortmund

China is considered to be a market with unlimited possibilities, but it also has its own rules. What factors are currently important in successful experience marketing? What is the key to productive client and employee relationships? Christian Zimmermann sheds light on the Chinese agency business.

Christian Zimmermann, CEO, Uniplan GmbH & Co. KG
Andrea Barcaro, Director of Corporate Communications, Uniplan Shanghai

‘Nowhere is the encounter between brand and customer more intense than in brand experience formats.’ This opinion, frequently shared in our industry, refers to the strength of multisensory stimuli, all the senses and the direct feedback from event visitors. But how measurable are these stimuli? And what precisely is required to generate positive feedback? Compared to the digital channels, the brand experience format is still in its infancy for the most part. In many places, event visitors are only counted and surveyed; new technologies are used only cautiously. This panel aims to clarify customer expectations and embark on the search for the key performance indicators that we as an industry really should deliver to ensure that customers invest in brand experience formats with conviction in the future as well.

Kerstin Dahnert, Head of International Fairs, Porsche AG
Stefan Ponikva, Vice President Brand Experience, BMW Group
Ralph Herrmann, Head of Corporate Communication, Würth Group
Christoph Beaufils, Brand Manager ISPO, MESSE MÜNCHEN GMBH

Opening and moderation: Johannes Plass, CEO Mutabor

Diversity and demographic change are transforming society and causing companies to focus more intensively on the issues of gender equality and the promotion of women. Even though diverse management teams are frequently more innovative and more successful, women are still woefully underrepresented in executive management and earn  less than their male colleagues. What will it take to advance gender equality in society, in companies and in the event industry? What role does the visibility of women play? What does it look like on the stages and behind the scenes at events? We want to discuss these issues with female leaders in the industry, who will present their perspectives to the guests in a 30-minute Pecha Kucha format prior to the discussion.

Pecha-Kucha Gender Equality:
Natascha Hoffner, Founder herCAREER, Managing Director messe.rocks GmbH
Regina Mehler, Serial Founder, Founder, 1ST ROW und WOMEN SPEAKER FOUNDATION
Brigitte Nußbaum, Managing Director, trendhouse event marketing GmbH
Ulrike Tondorf, Graduated Engineer – Interior Design, Head of Live & Experience Branding, Bayer AG

Talk Gender Equality:
We will also be welcoming the singer, actor, musical performer and television
presenter Isabel Varell to the discussion.

Moderation: Kerstin Wünsch, Editor-in-Chief, tw tagungswirtschaft

The market is undergoing dramatic changes, both with regard to customers (in-house knowledge, direct commissioning in packages, budget reduction and bundling [PR, brand, market, event, online], etc., as well as implementers, consultants and service providers (new players, network structures, budget vs. quality, positioning, etc.), and themes (agile, co-created, interactive, global, etc.). We will conduct a discussion with customers, agencies (event, strategic, liaising, digital, PR, new work, etc.), technology, construction, media producers, etc. in order to illuminate and reflect on the complex interrelationships of the transformation. a discussion from which each participant can draw their own individual conclusions and which we can use as a basis to further develop our industry.

Petra Lammers, CEO, onliveline GmbH – Büro für Konzeption & Inszenierung
Thomas Ziwes, capacity gmbh
Stephan Schäfer-Mehdi, Studio Bachmannkern and Freelance Creative
Thomas Junk, wysiwyg* digital product & brand design
Georg P. Huber, Allianz
Jörn Kubiak, PRG AG
Simon Stahl, Creative Director, fischerAppelt live marketing GmbH

Mirror, mirror, on the wall … Agencies have a maximum of 5 minutes each to present 5 charts and themselves to young creative talents.

Timm Wilks, Creative Director at Schmidhuber Brand Experience GmbH
Alexander Nogolica, Senior Project Manager, METZLER : VATER live GmbH
Melanie Piorek, Creative Director, VOK DAMS Events & Live-Kommunikation
Petra Lammers, CEO, onliveline GmbH – Büro für Konzeption & Inszenierung
Isabell Rütten, Concept Designerin, insglück Gesellschaft für Markeninszenierung mbH

Who’s going to be your date? Analogous to the well-known TV format, agencies compete for the attentions of a young project manager or concept developer.

Michael Veidt-Molzberger, Freelance Creative Director Live-Communication, FEDERFREI
Hendrik Zilien, Teamleader, fischerAppelt, live marketing GmbH
Verena Laetsch, Inhouse Coach, MUTABOR
Anja Osswald, Managing Director, PHOCUS BRAND CONTACT
Andreas Horbelt, Creative Director, facts and fiction GmbH
Christopher Werth, Director Strategy & Concept, VOK DAMS Events & Live-Kommunikation

‚I’m from Fridays for Future and am attending the festival as a climate activist. I will be speaking on the topic of climate activism and how it can change young people’s lives, but also on why this kind of activism is so important.’

Hanna Zoike, Student & Climate Activist with Fridays for Future

Now be honest: Would you go beyond your comfort zone? Our candidates do! In a lively round with Adone Kheirallah, Managing Partner at STAGG & FRIENDS, and Simon Stahl, Creative Director at fischerAppelt, answer your 10 questions that you would never ask an agency head or creative director.

Adone Kheirallah, Managing Partner, STAGG & FRIENDS GmbH
Simon Stahl, Creative Director, fischerAppelt, live marketing GmbH

Score against a real goalkeeper from the touch of your phone. We connect millions of gamers around the world on one stage at the same time.

Pavel Kacerle, CEO & Founder, Live Penalty & smashbuster Inc.

ROUND 1
Why I got into the boxing-as-entertainment ring after a trip to the United States.

ROUND 2–9
How ‘The Night of the Raging Bulls’ was a hit with everyone, but forced me to my knees after ten years.

ROUND 10–12
I’m groggy, but nowhere near a knockout. Instead, I create the KOBUM boxing format. Now it’s only a question of defeat or victory!

Sönke Andersen, Initiator and Boxing Promoter, KOBUM

Two speakers – two paths In a dialogue with the audience, we explore what drives us. Are we dutiful service providers or advisors, subjective and trustworthy? Is it passion that drives us, or rather the love of checklists? Storytelling or meeting minutes – what do clients need, and what do agencies want?

Detlef Altenbeck, Director m.next Denkwerkstatt, marbet Marion & Bettina Würth GmbH & Co. KG
Moritz Schmidt, Student Messe-, Kongress-& Eventmanagement, marbet Marion & Bettina Würth GmbH & Co. KG

Effective use of the trendy platform Instagram for event professionals, companies and self-marketing based on the example of the influencer Lia.

Christoph Müller-Girod, Social Media Specialist

Mediocrity rules! Subjective perception or fact? And if mediocrity actually rules, why? Incompetence? Is there a lack of appreciation? Recognition? Appropriate goals? Or is the problem simply a lack of willingness to suffer, a lack of willingness to dedicate oneself passionately to a cause? Even if – and especially when – it becomes arduous? Bettina Otto, the creative director at BLAUEPFERDE and a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, will take up this theme in her Interactive Impulse presentation. Using her own biography as an example, she demonstrates impressively how passion makes itself known, what it can achieve and what the causal relationship is between the willingness to commit yourself passionately to a goal and achieving success. So why is it still worth it to push yourself to your limits?

Bettina Otto, Creative Director and Member of the Executive Board, BLAUEPFERDE Design & Experience Communication)

Where do all the good mottoes come from? Are pictures really worth more than a thousand words? The fascination of good copy in live communication lies in the art of condensation, or in other words, its simplicity. Forty-five minutes during which Michael Veidt-Mozberger will be happy to take you at your word!

Michael Veidt-Molzberger, Freelance Creative Director Live Communication, FEDERFREI

Top event, but something’s not right … Time to unfuck the experience. In an interactive workshop, participants will learn to think about live communication from the perspective of the user. Those who are aware of the users’ needs have the basis for holistic concepts for interaction that will captivate all the participants.

Irene Menke, Freelance Conception Designer

The Creative Playground Concept offers access to a full toolbox to increase your creative output. Use this impulse session for a brief insight into tried and tested methods and tools of creative and structured thinking, including fun factor and aha effect.

Jürgen Preiß, Consultant and Freelancer of Marketing, PR, Text und Events