The SME forum
for Digitalisation & AI

Responsible for the UK data centre infrastructure and solutions business, overseeing channel and key account operations in the public, industrial, and medium-sized sectors. With extensive experience in sales, management consulting, and leading diverse teams, quickly grasps complex issues and develops effective solutions. Voted number one Channel VIP by Channel Magazine IT Business for the past three years.

Leads sales teams for businesses and SMEs in Central Europe and oversees Sophos’ Go-To-Market strategy in the EMEA region. With extensive experience as a motivating leader, Sven has many years of experience in channel sales and marketing, building and implementing partner programs, direct sales, and business planning to achieve growth in existing and new markets. Before joining Sophos, held senior positions at SonicWall/Dell and Symantec.

Marketing and sales professional with over 20 years of experience serving renowned companies in the IT industry through his advertising and media agency. Focused on lead generation. Noticing that leads were often not professionally qualified or followed up on, he developed acquibee, an easy-to-use lead management tool that addresses the weaknesses of large CRM systems or Excel sales processes and reliably generates new customers.

Founder, majority shareholder, and board member of GRÜN Software Group GmbH, as well as President of the Federal Association of IT SMEs and President of the IT SME European Association, European DIGITAL SME Alliance. Since 2013, he has been a member of the IT Advisory Board of the Federal Government, advising the Federal Ministry of Economics on digital economy issues.

One of Europe’s leading AI researchers, who has been working as a professor, research director, and entrepreneur in the field of artificial intelligence for 40 years. He is a co-founder of several AI startups and a coordinator of numerous international projects. He has conducted research in Germany, the USA, and China. His research results in AI and computational linguistics are documented in more than 250 publications. He was elected a member of the European Academy of Sciences and has received two Google Research Awards.

At IONOS, he is responsible for acquiring, supporting, and expanding the channel and agency partner network, as well as strategically planning and aligning the entire channel and agency business. He is also one of the most well-known and popular channel managers in the German-speaking region. Recently, he was voted among the TOP 10 German Channel Managers by readers of IT BUSINESS Magazine and the ICT Channel trade journal.

News analyst, journalist, host, anchor, and commentator specializing in security, data protection, compliance, and business & IT. He is the face of INSIDER Research, is an editor and author of several textbooks, and has been recognized as one of the ‘Top 10 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Privacy’ and ‘Top 10 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Security.’ He has also been recognized multiple times as an influencer and media leader for technologies such as blockchain, AI, VR/AR, and mobile computing.

Expert in market analysis, sales strategies, and marketing communication – responsible for business development in the storage area of Samsung Electronics and expanding the sales channels for the storage portfolio with his team. He identifies and creates scalable synergies between business areas. As a determined and creative thinker, he focuses on solutions rather than problems.

Innovative mind with many years of experience in top management positions in the IT industry, including at NTT, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and as co-owner of an independent IT consulting and services company. He is also active on the main board of BITKOM and a regular keynote speaker, author and thought leader on the topics of digitalisation, cyber security, artificial intelligence, smart society and digital leadership.