Just about 3 weeks to go until Digital X transforms the city of Cologne into a digitalization workshop: Visitors will experience the future live with teleoperated driving on Cologne's streets, smart robots and numerous top speakers. High-tech for everyday business has arrived on the market, and Digital X makes it real.
Food for thought and fresh ideas
In total, more than 250 speakers will speak their minds, discuss controversial issues and share their views and experiences with the 50,000 expected visitors.
The American actor, director and producer George Clooney is politically engaged and campaigns for climate protection and human rights. His numerous distinctions for his humanitarian efforts include the Peace Summit Award 2007, which was awarded at the 8th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, and the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award 2010. In August 2016 Clooney and his wife Amal established the Clooney Foundation for Justice.
As co-founder of the Swedish band ABBA, Björn Ulvaeus has a special insight into the music business and the impact of digitalization on the music industry and its potential.
Amy Webb's appearance at Digital X will mark her first time speaking in Europe. Forbes magazine named her one of the "five women changing the world". The futurist, technology analyst and founder of the Future Today Institute is known for her accurate predictions and analysis of future technology trends such as AI and their impact on businesses and society.
No one embodies the motto "Be digital. Stay human." as much as Neil Harbisson. The British artist and cyborg activist is the first person in the world with an implanted antenna in his skull. It enables the color-blind Harbisson to perceive both visible and invisible colors such as infrared and ultraviolet by means of sound waves.
Constanze Kurz is a computer scientist, non-fiction author and spokesperson for the Chaos Computer Club. She draws attention to security gaps and monopolies in the field of new technologies in her blogs, essays, and in her bi-weekly column in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (2010-2019).
WDR intendant Tom Buhrow has taken on a significant role in promoting digitization at WDR. He emphasizes the importance of public service programming for social cohesion in the digital age.
Trends and innovations
Innovations that were still a thing of the future yesterday have now arrived on the market, available for large companies as well as for SMEs and the public sector. Digital X showcases innovative technologies and solutions that have the potential to optimize business processes and open up new growth opportunities. During live demonstrations, business customers can try out the latest products and services and find out how they can use them in their own businesses.
The Dutch company RanMarine Technology has developed an autonomously floating drone for waters cleaning. Thanks to precise positioning, it can not only collect trash more efficiently on the staked course. It also transmits location-based water quality data.
MIRA and Telekom present what the future of local transport with teleoperated driving could look like. In Cologne, they are taking guests along in a remote-controlled vehicle between Rudolfplatz and Mediapark.
In an operator's cab of a hydraulic excavator from Komatsu, interested visitors learn about the dimensions of such large-scale equipment via VR glasses. In a simulation, they can operate and drive the excavator. Together with other service providers, Telekom MMS developed a 3D application for this on a VR training and collaboration platform.
Drugs from the 3D printer will be showcased by Digital Health Systems. The printed drugs provide access to personalized active ingredients in individual doses, optimizing effect and tolerability for patients.
On a discovery tour
Digital X offers information and inspiration: business customers and private individuals alike expand their knowledge and discover new technological possibilities - in a playful and easy way:
At the Robotic Playground, people can interactively engage with robots: A robot dog pack reacts to people. A robot arm moves to a sound installation and creates soap bubbles. Nearby, robotic arms swing a jump rope. Another robot chisels a marble sculpture live.
In the AI Gallery, artificial intelligence is used to create a work of art. The viewer creates a sketch in a selected subject area. It is then described by a GPT4 variant and transferred into an artificially generated image by means of stable diffusion. The lighting and background music are controlled by AI to match the mood of the image.
And whoever walks along the Kinetic Walkway in the Stadtgarten Quarter helps to generate usable electricity with their movement. The electric paving stones consist of electromagnetic induction generators that shift vertically under the weight of human footsteps to generate energy.
Forum of exchange
The event offers business customers the opportunity to think outside the box and develop new perspectives on their own digital strategy when networking during the "Kölsche Nacht" (Cologne Night) with appearances of local bands such as Brings, Cat Ballou and Kasalla. At the Telekom Street Gig, U.S. global stars Thirty Seconds to Mars exclusively present their new album. With the Equal eSports Festival, Cologne's Rheinterrassen will become a hotspot for the eSports scene on September 20 and 21, 2023. With its initiative, Telekom is sending a clear signal for more equality and diversity in the gaming world. Parallely, DMEXCO will take place in Cologne on September 20 and 21, 2023. This year, the two events are cooperating and offering visitors to the respective event the opportunity to attend both events with their ticket.
