SPEAKERS 2023

Elina Åkerlind is CEO and co-founder of Nordic Node, connecting Nordic startups with global venture capital. She has 15 years of experience in business development, finance and growth strategy, as entrepreneur, as financier and as advisor. Elina is an active part in the Nordic tech eco system.

Hanna Marie Asmussen was Female Founder of the Year in 2022 and is currently on the list of Soonicorns - a list for start-ups that could soon become Unicorns. Together with Franziska Löw and Lisa Dahlke, she founded the all-in-one software Localyze and supports companies with challenges related to t

In total, I have co-advised about 150 nanocap listings, which makes it safe to assume that I am one of the most experienced nanocap advisors in the world. Over the years, I have met more than 3,000 nanocap companies and invested in more than 300 of them. What drives me today is to make successful in

Selda Morina works as an innovation manager and has been managing the Start-up Lounge - a platform that supports start-ups entering the grocery trade - for five years. She completed her high school diploma at REWE and also successfully completed her commercial diploma. As a store manager at REWE sto

Elevating the Nordic housing experience to new levels

Claus Ruhe Madsen is the first foreign minister in a German state government. Since the end of June 2022, the non-party Dane has been responsible for the economy, transport, labour, technology and tourism in Schleswig-Holstein. He was previously the first foreign mayor of a major German city, the Ha

EQUALIZER Podcast, Entrepreneur, Executive Advisor (Capital Markets, Transformation), Angel, Speaker, Author // House of Beautiful Business Resident, Designing Your Life Certified Coach (Stanford)

Janina Lin Otto is a philanthropist, entrepreneur, speaker and podcaster. With her Holistic Foundation, founded in 2018, she wants to empower people to courageously and empathically go their own way and to contribute self-effectively to the collective.

I am an outcome-driven entrepreneur that loves pushing limits and inspires people to break new ground together! As an expert in Management of Lithium Ion Battery production (Technology, Cost analysis, Processes, production and development) we are striving towards empowering a #greenfuture.

Julia Rosteck has been a manager in the Employer Branding Team at NEW WORK SE since 2022 and is responsible for the area of strategic employer brand positioning.

Erdem is CoFounder of Donkey Republic, bike- and ebike sharing service present in 60 cities in Europe with more than 20k bikes and ebikes. The company offers a responsible, sustainable and collaborative bike sharing service to cities as a part of their public transport. Donkey has been an innovator

Daniela Marzavan is a 'pracademic': practitioner and academic in the field of Innovation and Design Thinking. She teaches 'Design Thinking for Business Innovation' for the executive MBA program at the ESCP Business School Berlin and 'Design Research for Innovation' within the MIDI at ELISAVA Desi

Dr Matthew Gardiner is an artist most well known for his work with origami and robotics. He coined the term Oribot 折りボト and then created Oribotics, a field of art/science research that thrives on the aesthetic, biomechanic, and morphological connections between nature, origami and robotics.

Sven is a co-founder of Gitpod. After serving as CEO for over three years, he decided to step down and work on the product as a technical fellow again. Before Gitpod, he founded the company TypeFox in Kiel and initiated several open-source projects related to developer tools.

I have a passion for using technology to disrupt industries and create innovative solutions. I am on a mission to enhance programming education in schools to help the younger generation influence the future's tech. I want to change the status quo and drive positive change in our society.

Doris Wessels is a professor of business informatics with a focus on project management and natural language processing, a trusted lecturer of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and head of the AI Competence Centre.

Startup storyteller and 3-time founder. With his latest startup, the Europe Think Factory initiative, he has organised a panel discussion as part of our festival. With him will be Elina Åkerlind, the founder of Donkey Republic, Erdem Ovacik, and the founder of CodeEasy, Sakina Turabali. The Think Ta

Norma Jensen has been a passionate entrepreneur for over 30 years. She shares her experience as a sparring partner for entrepreneurs. MentalCoach | Supervisory Board Member | Executive Board Member | Mentor

I think, write and talk about sustainable digital transformation

Jasmin, aka JayKays designs gamification and games for life & business. She is dedicated to the topics of emotions, psychology & designing digital/analog "serious games" & gamification applications.

Max Haarich is artistic researcher, conceptual artist, and ambassador of the Lithuanian artist republic Užupis. He combines arts and tech to challenge predominant paradigms and explore unthinkable ideas. His current focus lies on the social implications of Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain.

As founder and managing director, I am responsible for our maritime natural cosmetics Oceanwell and ensure that our customers enjoy them.

Alexander Graf , born 1980, is a serial founder and e-commerce entrepreneur. As CEO of Spryker a digital commerce software company, he is shaping the disruption of transactional business of all kinds. Whenever it comes to the digitalisation of commerce, Alexander Graf is always at the forefront as h

We manufacture industrial baking machines for the production of sweet wafers and snacks. In addition, we are active in special machine construction. We also produce ear candles (a wellness product) and distribute them worldwide.

Alexandra Antwi-Boasiako is a moderator from Hamburg. In various discussion formats with people from public life, politics, culture and literature, she sheds light on socially relevant topics, current trends and innovations. In the context of communication, she sees herself as an architect who desig

Sophie founded inKlub, a Germany-wide, barrier-free start-up incubator for people with and without disabilities and chronic illnesses - a hotbed of innovation to create inclusive companies for the primary labour market.

Journalist with a track record in innovative storytelling, investigative reporting, content development and team leadership. Worked for online media, tv, radio, news agencies and newspapers. Won some awards. Published in German and English. Interested in tech, business, politics, human rights and co

Gregor Schmalzried writes and consults on digital media and technology, among others for BR, Brand Eins, ZDF and his newsletter coolgenug.de (winner "Best Newsletter" at the Golden Bloggers 2022). He is also the producer and author of the fiction podcasts "Mia Insomnia" and "Flüsterwelt".

The fight against climate change is a central task of our society and economy. With Kraftblock, we want to make our contribution to decarbonization and energy recycling.The fight against climate change is a central task of our society and economy. With Kraftblock, we want to make our contribution t

Project Manager at SPRIND - Federal Agency for Leap Innovations

Studied biology and marine biology, Piost Doc scholarship in Israel 1990-1992, scientific employee at IfM (Geomar) 1992-1995, founded CRM 1995, founded oceanBASIS 2001, founded Rewind 2022, since 2013 teacher of aquaculture at the University Centre of the Werstfjords in Isafjördur, Iceland.

Anne Wichmann aka She's Excited! is a music producer, sound artist and performer based in Munich & NYC. She produces interactive showcases that break down the barrier between audience and artists. Anne is the co-founder of the collective XRE (Extended Reality Ensemble) and the ARora network.

Benjamin Huss is a German entrepreneur who lived and worked in several countries in Europe and Africa. Since spring 2020 he is back in his hometown Leipzig. At the age of 14, he started developing and marketing Lasergame equipment in Germany and later in different countries in Europe. Since 2017 Ben

Lilith Boettcher is co-founder of Futures Probes, a Berlin-based futures collective. As a social scientist and futurologist, she works at the interface of human-centred design and critical futurology and accompanies processes around future design.

Katrina Günther is co-founder of Futures Probes, a Berlin-based futures collective. As a studied futurologist and communication designer, she places visual thinking in the focus of participatory design processes and thus opens up new spaces for imagining alternative futures.

Industrial experience in the field of automotive, it and life science. +20 years of experience in venture capital (VC) and multi corporate venture capital (CVC) as fund manager, board member, adviser, fundraiser, scout, angel, keynote speaker, consultant

Jens programmed his first game when he was 12. Starting out in the Flash game scene in the mid-2000s, he founded his own studio “Off The Beaten Track” after finishing his studies in Computer Science. Off The Beaten Track is a six person game development studio that focuses on emotional experiences a

Julian studied industrial engineering at the University of Hamburg. He worked as a research assistant at HAW Hamburg for three years, where he researched and published on the topics of blockchain and European emissions trading. The idea for CarbonStack came from this research.

Isabella Hermann is an independent analyst and speaker in the field of science fiction. With a PhD in political science, she focuses on how the genre reflects new technologies, socio-political value systems and global politics.

Daniela Stahl is professionally active in controlling and e-sports. In 2021, she co-founded the podcast Brain Bites, in which trend topics from the areas of business, digitalisation and innovation are brought to the point.

Business Consultant: Change Management & Recruiting

As an engineer by training, Klaas moved into strategy consulting for 6 years after his PhD in medical sensor development. He founded 3 companies in the past and is now CEO of his fourth company, Scalania AG a corporate finance company specializing in IPOs for nanocaps.

Passionate networker and organiser of various event formats. She is co-founder of Black Female Business and THE NOC. As a systemic coach, she accompanies individuals and offers consulting and organisational development in the corporate context with a focus on DEI.

Low-Latency Creative Technologist

Tanja leads the research activities and academic network of Morphais VC. Morphais is an early-stage Quant VC funding outstanding founders with a data-driven and research-based investment approach.

Coming from Kiel, not in the Netherlands, Julia is connecting game development students to the industry.

Till is a business analyst and project manager at SPRIND. SPRIND's goal is to create new disruptive innovations from Germany. Till is responsiblefor the Long-Duration Energy Storage Challenge, among other things, and supports several teams in the CleanTech sector.

Janina is Co-Founder and CEO of GAIA, a legal management system for SMEs.

digital fashion artist

Together with Marit Kock, Mariella Benkenstein founded a company out of school to develop an environmentally friendly and affordable long-term electricity storage system.

Together with Mariella Benkenstein, Marit Kock founded a company out of school to develop an environmentally friendly and affordable long-term electricity storage system.

Simon Graff is an experienced expert in metaverse technologies - such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (MR) - and creates added value at the interfaces between technology, trends and relevant use cases in his roles as consultant and strategist.

I am leader at a project based school in Southern Denmark. I believe school is much more than books and homework. Our kids needs skills to handle a changeable furture.

Christoph Haß is Director / Authorised Signatory of Possehl Digital GmbH and has made it his task to accelerate the digital transformation of the Possehl Group with Possehl Digital through M&A transactions, among other things. Possehl Digital is one of 10 economically independent business units o

Marketing Manager @ SPRIND - Federal Agency for Leap Innovations I We do what we do because we love it. We want to support innovators who think the same way in their work and in their progress.

Content Marketer & Podcaster @Brain Bites | Passion for Online Marketing

Mariam is a self-care expert and advocate for women in business.

Co-productively and at scale, we at Urban Catalyst develop livable and climate-smart visions of the future for spaces in transition. My focus is on designing processes, strategies, maps or working and thinking formats in strategic planning.

Daniel Lingenhöhl studied geography, geology and biology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and has worked as a science journalist and editor for Spektrum der Wissenschaft since 2005.

You don't know how to get funding and investors? Find out here! I have worked in the funding sector myself and helped to establish the Baltic Business Angel Network SH. I have also successfully raised funding after my own startup. In my session ve

founder, innovator, and digital native

Lean maniac with a great passion for digitalization, "business unplugged" podcast host, Founder, Professor & Advisor in the field of Operations for SMEs and startups.

Tim is an experience designer working in both physical and digital domains. He's the product owner at Miljn, a technology startup creating universal access to expert knowledge through web3, and the German partner for the Kaospilot Experience Design professional training program.

Dr. Malte Krohn is a Faculty Innovation Fellow at Stanford University and a mindful changemaker by heart! Supporting changemakers to thrive in a dynamic world, he combines his expertise in innovation management with his passion for mindfulness and creative collaboration on www.mindfulstartup.school.

Lisa Buddemeier has been accompanying teams and organizations in change processes for 17 years. In keynotes and process support for a social-ecological transformation, she has inspired numerous people in recent years to embark on the path of a common good-oriented development.

Patrick Rupert-Kruse is professor for media theory and immersion studies, head of the Institute of Immersive Media and chairman of the Society of Immersive Media. His research areas are theory and conception of immersive media, virtual embodiment, transmedia and immersive storytelling.

Dirk Semmann is a professor at the University of Göttingen. His research focuses on human cooperation and social behavior. From his research, he has developed a consulting model that he has been using since 2016 to support companies and organizations in their everyday work.

The Schleswig-Holstein start-up grant supports you in the pre-seed phase with a monthly financial allowance so that you can concentrate fully on your start-up idea. A total of up to 70,000 euros can be made available to you and your team.

Software project manager

Angela KESSELRING enables progress. She is an expert for social impact communication and collaboration management. 2020 she founded PROGRESS BEING MADE, Munich powered by WE ARE NEON GmbH, Hamburg - as a strategy consultancy network in Munich.

Community Managerin | Multimedia Designerin | Design & Illustration

Marcel is the founder of Kiel's first vegan catering service and Cocina CoWorkingKitchen. In addition to CoWorking for food startups, he and his team have been offering courses and workshops on healthy and sustainable nutrition for children and young people since 2017.

Sabine is a trainer, coach, author and speaker on the topic of how we can work better in the future. For her, New Work and Agility are two important attitudes and mindsets that need to be integrated into the corporate culture.

Sabrina is a GDE in web technologies and the co-founder of the Social Developers Club. She has a passion for accessibility and it’s her big dream for every application to be accessible one day.

As an impulse generator for innovation in production and prototyping, Katja makes digital manufacturing technologies available to startups and SMEs on a mobile basis in Schleswig-Holstein with the MakerCube team, an initiative of OpenCampus. She designs workshops, holds lectures and connects compani

Biologist specializing in aquatic ecology, molecular biology and toxicology and since 2020 working at the Institute of Toxicology and Pharmacology at the UKSH Kiel

Björn Schmidt is a communication designer at the KielSCN, where he creates engaging visuals to communicate complex scientific ideas to the public. He'll be presenting on visualizing health sciences and conducting research on user experience in visual science communication at the festival.

I am a postdoctoral researcher at IPN Leibniz-Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Kiel, Germany. My research explores emotions in science education and communication. Specifically, I focus on visualizations and their impact on users’ information behavior, experience, and outcomes like s

Samir Keck connects his own leadership experience with his consulting services at OrgVolution. He served in various leadership roles in agile oganizations (e.g. Zalando, Flixbus) and experienced very different aspects of new work.

International Affairs Executive for cities, megaregions and universities

A Student who wants to make an impact in the world with his team

Biology Student and MySpirulina Inventor

Creative brain and storyteller behind toern - a SaaS company that enables Fashion Onlineshops save tons of carbon emissions by forwarding their returns diretcly to the next consumer

I am a sustainability-focused innovator. As co-founder and CEO of MycoLutions I am passionate about using fungi to upcycle residues into high-value products for a circular future.

Daniel Büning is an award-winning entrepreneur, innovator, researcher, and university lecturer. He is the CEO and Co-Founder of nFrontier, a Berlin based tech-driven innovation company that fuses design, engineering, and prototyping to create impactful products & experiences.

Since 2020, we at Caesekrake have been developing vegan cheese alternatives made from sunflower seeds. In this way, we combine the tradition of cheese making with a holistic lifestyle.

Axel Koch has headed the Transfer division at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel since 2021. He is also chairman of TransferAllianz e.V. (German association for knowledge and technology transfer). In addition to his own start-up experience, he has supported countless other early stage start-ups

Thijs Lucas is a vehicle technology engineer and expert on transport policy networks, with a focus on urban development and cycling policy.

Paul helps organisations, teams and individuals improving their efficiency by incorporating an agile mindset, coaching and focus on strategy.

Co-productively and at scale, we at Urban Catalyst develop livable and climate-smart visions of the future for spaces in transition. The focus of my work is on process design at the interface of the built environment and social change, as well as on visual

Piet Mahler is co-founder of the startup "holi". Together with users and partners, the holi app aims to create a digital infrastructure for social change. He also advises the Holistic Foundation and is responsible for the foundation's digital impact investments.

Felix Gaedtke, co-founder of NowHere Media, is an immersive artist, honored with awards like the Storyscapes Award at Tribeca and 'Best Use of Immersive Arts' at SXSW. A Sundance New Frontier alumnus, Felix's work has been showcased at Venice Film Festival, SXSW, United Nations and beyond.

Director Hamburg Investors Network 🤝 StartAperitivo 🎤 Female StartAperitivo

Stefanie's research background and her own experience in commercialisation is supporting scientists to develop their entrepreneurial ideas into world-changing climate tech solutions at Carbon13.

In times of transformation, it is of upmost importance to act. Therefor I am leading today a company implementing integrated hydrogen hubs. The mission is to decarbonize traffic, industries, and buildings with green hydrogen.