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Thomas von Hammel has been Head of Marketing Banks at Germany’s largest regional cooperative association since 2021.
Together with his team of around 30 employees, he is responsible for implementing regional marketing campaigns, planning, organizing and executing target group-specific events in the B2B and B2C sectors as well as the brand-specific design of marketing and sales measures. For the Business Day of the Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken in North Rhine-Westphalia and the Rhineland, he was responsible for many years for finding topics, designing the program and designing and producing all communication measures for one of the largest corporate events in the region.
communication measures for one of the largest business congresses in Germany.

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Timo is an architect, lives in Berlin with his family and has been working in the interplay between people, brands, space and communication for over 20 years. He feels at home in dynamic projects with many complex interfaces. His profile has expanded along his interests from classic spatial communication towards software, technology and their creative use.
Together with his partners at morgenluft.jetzt GmbH, he specialises in individual agency support for their clients and their brands.They see themselves as a high-torque creative engine in the second row.
With consulting, conceptualisation and also complete solutions as a general contractor, they support their customers in making people happy at Rexroth, BMW, ABB, Deutsche Telekom and VW, among others.

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Tanja Schäfer is the managing partner of FISCHERANDFRIENDS. She took over the company in 2019. Previously, she held several positions at Axel Springer, including Head of Marketing, Regional Publishing Director and General Manager Brand Solutions of the BILD Group. Before that, she worked at the media network OMG for several years. She started her professional career at Ströer with Out of Home Medien.

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Since May 2023 Chief Creative Officer at Voss+Fischer Frankfurt, Hamburg, New York
As Creative Concept Director & Brand Strategist, previously active in various CEO, team lead and site management functions at digital agencies, networks, brand experience agencies as well as design thinking and management consultancies, and for over 30 years always on the lookout for the one differentiating idea, the involving narrative, the unforgettable experience.
Member of ADC Germany, D&AD and founding member of the ADC Diversity Board.

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Nina Celik is responsible for the hybrid brand experience under the GROHE X umbrella as Leader Hybrid Brand Experience at LIXIL EMENA. GROHE – a leading global brand for holistic bathroom solutions and kitchen faucets – employs over 7,000 people in 150 countries – 2,600 of them in Germany. In 2021, GROHE has added another dimension to its trade fair and event strategy: digital. With “GROHE X”, a dedicated brand for hybrid brand experiences has been created that focuses on both physical and digital experiences. Under the GROHE X umbrella, different target groups will find ideas and information tailored specifically to them – in multiple languages. This allows end consumers as well as professionals and members of the press to have a very individual GROHE brand experience. Now that real encounters are finally possible again, GROHE X is opening the new GROHE X Brand & Communication Experience Center in Hemer (NRW) in addition to its digital offering. It houses a visitor centre and five state-of-the-art studios for training, content development and hybrid events. This innovative brand experience is rounded off by three GROHE X Motion Trucks, which bring the GROHE X offering directly to the customer.

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Starting out as a designer and event organiser, Frederik Nimmesgern arrived in the brand experience agency world after studying advertising communication. As a conceptual designer and creative director at Jung von Matt and Uniplan, he led numerous interdisciplinary teams in a wide variety of live communication projects. Since 2022, he has been creative managing director of the insglück agency.

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Chris Cuhls is a director and conceptualiser of corporate and public events. With over 20 years of experience in the TV and event industry, he counts companies such as Mercedes-Benz, SAP and Telekom among his clients. For well-known formats such as The Dome, Ein Herz für Kinder and Wetten, dass…? he worked as a recording manager and producer. Curiosity, creativity and relevant ideas drive him to stage encounters effectively. He has published specialist books on the subject of event design and runs a blog and podcast. He studied media management at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences. He lives happily in Cologne with his wife and three children. His credo: detail, timing, excellence.

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As Founder and CEO of the internationally active live communication agency what when why, Carsten Knieriem and his team won the BrandEx Award 2023 in Gold. The project even received bronze in the “Best of Best” jury assessment.
The father of four children entered live communication while still studying economics, philosophy and psychology and founded his first agency. After finishing his studies, he immersed himself even deeper into the field in 1996 as Unit Director Events at VOK DAMS. This was followed by positions as managing director at the TC Group, vice president Europe for PGI Inc. and managing director at MCI Germany.
In 2009, Knieriem returned to self-employment and founded his company what when why in 2013 to further advance his own vision of live communication.
In 2022, Springer-Gabler published the book “Smarte Events – Das Eventmarketing der Zukunft: Onsite und online wirkungsvoll kombinieren.” (Smart Events – Event Marketing of the Future: Combining Onsite and Online Effectively), which he published together with his co-author Prof. Stefan Luppold. He condensed his agency’s formula for success into the slogan Emotion Engineering.

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As the strategic head of the multi-award-winning creative agency PHOCUS BRAND CONTACT, Anja Osswald has been advising, designing and implementing brand experience projects worldwide since 1998.
The focus of her work is always the encounter between people and brands.
Together with her 32-strong creative team, she opens up new spaces for thought and experience at the interface of science, culture and business, building bridges between the permanent and the ephemeral, between the analogue and the digital, between the well-founded and the experimental.

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Aliki Heinrich has been working in the tourism and events industry in France for 30 years. Her role as Director of Business Tourism at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, is to lead the sales team of the Cannes Convention Bureau and promote cooperation with local partners. As a German of Greek origin in France, she lives and experiences international cooperation, inspiring mobility and motivating flair. And she thinks Eleanor Roosevelt is absolutely right: “You have to do exactly what you think: You can’t do that.”