Russia is one of the fastest growing and leading European digital markets, as demonstrated by the user numbers and the capitalisation of internet giants such as Mail.ru, Vkontakte and Yandex. The digital conference, DLD Moscow, taking place from 27-29 May 2012, is being held in the Russian metropolis for the first time. Among the 40 speakers will be Dmitry Grishin (CEO, Mail.Ru Group), Pavel Durov (CEO, Vkontakte) and Arkady Volozh (CEO, Yandex). Additionally, entrepreneurs, creative minds and experts from the international DLD community, such as Italian designer Lapo Elkann, Matt Michelsen of Lady Gaga's littlemonsters.com or Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima, will also be speaking at the conference.

 

Other speakers (a selection):

 

•          Paul-Bernhard Kallen (CEO, Hubert Burda Media)

•          Yossi Vardi (DLD Chairman, Israeli Entrepreneur and Investor)

•          Viktor Vekselberg (President, Skolkovo Foundation)

•          Maelle Gavet (CEO, Ozon)

•          Lars Hinrichs, (Founder and "Executive Geek", HackFwd)

•          Robert Goldberg (Managing Partner, Crossroads Ventures)

•          Alexander Galitsky (Managing Partner, Almaz-Cisco Fund)

•          Cindy Padnos (Founder, Illuminate Ventures)

•          Gene Sokolov (Head of Russia, Badoo)

•          Eric Hazan (Partner, McKinsey & Company)

•          Oskar Hartmann (CEO, KupiVIP)

•          Garret Gee (CEO, Scan.me)

•          Robert Pszczel (Head of the NATO Information Office in Moscow)

•          Cindy Gallop (Founder and CEO, IfWeRanTheWorld)

•          Jens Meurer (Producer of "Russian Ark" and other films)

•          Aliona Doletskaya (Editor-in-chief of the Russian and German Interview magazine)

•          Svetlana Mironyuk (Editor-in-Chief of RIA Novosti)

•          Ludwig Siegele (Deputy International Editor, Economist)

 

As is usual at Digital-Life-Design, the exchange of information and ideas, away from the podium, will also play a significant role. This first conference of its kind in Russia promises the 400 guests expected, 300 of which come from abroad, exciting insights and business contacts in this key location for commerce and technology. More than 50 million Russians use the internet, making the country a dynamic digital and consumer market. DLD Moscow will take place in the "Digital October Center" (http://digitaloctober.com) at the heart of Moscow.  

 

The Skolkovo Foundation, which has played an essential part in bringing digital innovation to the country, will host the event. Skolkovo has its origins in a Russian government initiative aimed at modernising the economy and establishing a competitive high-tech sector in the country.

DLD is organising the two-day DLD Moscow Digital and Business Conference on 27-29 May at the invitation of the renowned Russian government foundation Skolkovo. It is chaired by Internet entrepreneur Joseph “Yossi” Vardi, the Russian entrepreneur and President of the Skolkovo Foundation Viktor Vekselberg, and the publisher Hubert Burda and Burda CEO Paul-Bernhard Kallen.

 

The venue is the “Digital October Center” (http://digitaloctober.com) at the heart of Moscow. Production partner is the Israeli event agency Oscar4B, which produces worldwide technology events.

 

The Skolkovo Foundation (http://www.sk.ru/en) is an initiative by the Russian president. It   is building a high-tech city outside Moscow modelled on the American Silicon Valley and is a platform for joint ventures in technology, science and digital business.

 

As with previous international DLD events in Peking, Tel Aviv and Rio de Janeiro, the aim of DLD Moscow is to network international digital, technology and business decision-makers with leading Russian representatives and give them first-hand information on market potential and business opportunities.

 

Further information, the programme and the speakers will be posted in good time on a conference Website. DLD Moscow is by invitation only. However, anyone interested can apply for a ticket by e-mail. If you are interested and would like further information go to dld-founders@burda.com

The dynamic upward development of group sales of Hubert Burda Media continued in the business year 2011. Posting a surge in consolidated external sales of 26.5 per cent to 2,175.8 million euros (PY: 1,720.6 m€), the company managed to achieve a new all-time high in total sales. CEO Dr. Paul-Bernhard Kallen: “This is a very satisfying result, in particular given that the media industry as a whole is rather stagnating. In the years to come, we are aiming to achieve double-digit growth rates.” Group net profit also developed very positively: “We expect profit to continue to grow more strongly than consolidated external sales.”

 

The main reason for the rise in sales was the significant growth in the business areas Digital, Printing, and Foreign Publishing. Digital posted an increased result of 937.2 million euros (PY: 587.2 m€)*, which includes for the first time the sales revenues of the fully consolidated zooplus AG to the amount of approx. 245 million euros. At 43.1 per cent, the business area Digital made the greatest contribution to total sales. At 657.5 million euros, Domestic Publishing declined slightly compared to the past business year (PY: 668.5 m€)*. Accounting for 30.2 per cent of total sales, the unit remained a very profitable business area in 2011. In the past business year, Hubert Burda Media continued to internationalize its publishing activities further, consequently raising external sales to 384.7 million euros (PY: 331.4 m€)* or 17.7 per cent of total sales. Burda Druck successfully strengthened its position within Europe’s rotogravure printing market, an achievement that was partly due to the acquisition of u.e. sebald druck GmbH in Nuremberg. At 188.9 million euros (PY: 127.5 m€), the business area had a share of 8.7 per cent in Group sales.

 

In 2011, Hubert Burda Media once again stepped up the expansion of their business units by investing a total of 172 million euros (PY: 222 m€). As per the end of 2011, the group employed a workforce of 8,248 people (PY: 7,637). Over 50 per cent of all employees as well as about one in three skilled professionals and executives at Hubert Burda Media are female.

 

*Note: In the business year 2011, Hubert Burda Media realigned the scope of the business units Domestic Publishing, Foreign Publishing, and Digital to meet internal reporting structures. Consequently, certain transitions from one unit to the other were carried out. To ensure maximum comparability, the previous year’s results were adjusted accordingly. This is why the figures stated here are not identical with the key financials reported last year.

 

For further information please refer to www.burda-news.de.

All the highlights of DLD Conference 2012 in Munich are from now on available as a summarized report. Stylus, a research company and worldwide news agency, produced the report in collaboration with DLD. The contents are enriched with corresponding studies and insights.

 

Within 22 chapters, the Stylus Report accentuates all relevant topics that match the Zeitgeist in terms of Digital – Life – Design. The first part of the report deals with topics of DLD12 Conference which are covered in the following six chapters:

 

-          The Internet of People

-          Privacy by Design

-          Bricks and Clicks: Shaping Shopping

-          Technological Optimism

-          Digital Politics

-          Education 2.0

 

Stylus Report is a summary of the major points of discussion and their commercial implications. The second part of Stylus Report deals with further reports in regard to the leading, European innovative conference as for instance:

 

-          2012: Decoding Code - Understanding how computers think is the golden ticket for businesses and education.

-          The Scent of Place - As more of us invest in creating olfactory experiences in our space, how might the convergence of niche perfumery, nanotechnology and smart objects open up new possibilities?

-          Meat: The Future - Food futurologist Dr Morgaine Gaye looks at the future of meat, the possible alternatives, and how technology and fashion will play a part in dinner for carnivores.

-          The Science of Recognition - Recognition technology is experiencing a burst of interest and development.

-          Green Aviation - The aviation industry is looking at new ways to reduce its impact and ensure airlines can continue to operate in a lower-carbon world.

-          Subterranean Spaces - Cityscapes of the future.

 

All those interested can request the report at a price of EUR 345 by sending an email

 

DLD Conference 2012 took place for the eighth time in Munich by now. From January 22 – 24 the digital elite from all over the world gathered in Munich to discuss the top subjects Mobile, Data, Social and Commerce. Some of the key speakers included Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Arianna Huffington (Huffington Post), John Donahoe (ebay) and Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia). The eighth DLD Conference with its 170 speakers, 900 participants and additional side-events was very successful. It appears almost obvious that the innovative conference will further internationalize in the nearby future. During DLD12 chairmen Dr Hubert Burda and Yossi Vardi announced a new DLD event in Moscow.

 

Background:

DLD is an international conference and innovative platform of Burda Digital. DLD Media organizes Europe’s leading digital conference DLD and the women conference DLDwomen as well as networking events in Palo Alto, Tel Aviv, Rio de Janeiro and Beijing. DLD Ventures invests in potential Internet start-up companies, connects those with partners and accompanies them on an operational level. Directors are Stephanie Czerny and Dr Marcel Reichart who founded the DLD Conference in 2005.

 

For further information: www.dld-conference.com

The company comprises the former Burda Holding International (BHI), including all its activities in France, Turkey and Asia as well as other countries; and Burda Eastern Europe (Burda Verlag Osteuropa BVO) with its publishing houses in six countries (Russia, Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Poland and Rumania) and approx. 180 titles.

 

The merged entity employs a staff of about 2,100 and publishes a total of 226 magazines in 15 countries.  Burda International’s vast portfolio includes both weekly and monthly fashion, entertainment and high-circulation women’s titles as well as interior decoration, food and design magazines.

 

Burda CEO Dr. Paul-Bernhard Kallen has appointed Fabrizio d‘Angelo (39) as Managing Director. Mr. d’Angelo has been in charge of BHI since December 2008. The official farewell function for the long-time Managing Director of BVO, Winfried Blach (72), took place in Offenburg last Tuesday evening.

 

Kallen honored Winfried Blach’s accomplishments in successfully establishing BVO, building “one of Europe’s finest publishing teams”, and acting with great assurance also in times of crisis: “Winfried Blach has written one of the most remarkable Burda success stories.”

 

When Mr. Blach assumed responsibility of the unit in 1995, he was responsible for the publication of eight magazines in three countries. It was under his management that BVO became an important business area for the group, with total sales increasing more than 30-fold. In future, Mr. Blach will serve as a senior consultant to Burda International.

After two successful test issues, Hubert Burda Media is launching COVER onto the German market with the September 2012 edition. COVER was conceived within the Burda Style Group in 2011 as a magazine for discerning women over 30 and it will now be developed into an international brand name. At the heart of the international brand concept is the monthly magazine which has inspiration, style and substances as its core values, designed for its target market of independent, open-minded women.

 

COVER is headed by its editor-in-chief, Michaela Mielke, who was responsible for developing the concept for COVER and making it market-ready. As with the two successful test issues, each of which sold around 90,000 copies, COVER will continue to be based on the three pillars of people, fashion and opinions in future. Regarding her concept, Michaela Mielke says, "With COVER we are offering the reader a new combination of topics previously not found in any women's magazine. We facilitate encounters with fascinating people as well as present opulent, high-class fashion lines. We are combining quality journalism and superlative taste with a playful, joyful touch. After all, there is no reason why depth and credibility have to make for indigestible reading material."

 

The strategic objective is firstly to establish COVER among the core target groups in the German domestic market, establishing it as a brand name and media outlet for advertising partners, before proceeding in 2013 with the internationalisation of the concept in other core markets. Monika Fendt, the Marketing Director of the Burda Style Group who is responsible for the market launch of COVER explains, “COVER represents the first time that a brand name has been designed to be cross-media from the very outset. The future expansion into other international markets was already factored in at the actual initial development phase. With our globally successful BCN marketing network and our publishing activities in twelve countries, we boast high-grade customer relations and expertise in the core markets." These are three of the perfect conditions for creating an international media brand name for modern, open-minded women, says Monika Fendt.

 

Arianna Huffington, founder and chief-executive editor of the Internet-newspaper “The Huffington Post”, was honored with the Aenne Burda Award during the last day (January 24) of the international digital conference DLD in Munich. Dr. Maria Furtwängler-Burda consigned the trophy, a statue of Pallas Athene. The award honors successful and creative female entrepreneurs with visionary ideas from the digital world, this year for the seventh time already. Maria Furtwängler pleaded in her laudatory speech for female empowerment as start-up founders. Arianna Huffington could serve as a role model here: “Arianna Huffington experienced backstrokes and was never deterred by them – her fearlessness is a stimulus for women, to get active themselves.”

 

Arianna Huffington, born as Arianna Stassinopoulos in July 1950 in Greece, counts as one of the leading and most influential women of the modern media generation. Still in May 2005, when “Huffington Post” entered the online-media world, nobody took her serious. Today, six years later, “Huffington Post” is a constant in American journalism. In February 2011 the internet corporation AOL acquired “Huffington Post” for $315 million. Huffington is also a successful book author and published, among others, “One Becoming Fearless: …in Love, Work and Life” and “Third World America”. In 2006 and 2011 Huffington was on Time Magazine’s “Time 100” list, which features the 100 most influential people worldwide.

 

The “Aenne Burda Award for Creative Leadership” honors women for their entrepreneurial and creative achievements within the digital industry. The price is consigned in memory of the visionary entrepreneur Aenne Burda, one of the gorgeous symbolic figures of the German post-war generation. After 1949, Aenne Burda grew the world’s biggest fashion publishing house. The award is consigned since 2006. Earlier honorees are Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Google (2006), Flickr founder Caterina Fake (2007), TV-presenter and entrepreneur Martha Stewart (2008), internet-pioneer and investor Esther Dyson (2009), chairwoman of the Mozilla Foundation Mitchell Baker (2010) as well as Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet (2011).

 

For more information: www.dld-conference.com

“Be part of it” is the theme of this year’s international digital conference DLD12 (22 - 24 January 2012) in Munich. The popular meeting place for digital pioneers will be open to a wider audience for the first time. Anyone interested can now experience DLD up close with live streaming of all sessions, plus there are blogs, videos and live discussions transmitted via Google Hangout. All the participants at the conference can also network on site using free apps to find out more information on the background, speakers and the programme.

All the conference sessions will be streamed live via the DLD website and on Facebook: http://livestream.com/dldconference In addition, all sessions will be recorded in full and will be available to view immediately on the DLD YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/dldconference.

The Tumblr blog http://dld.tumblr.com/ will have blogs on current reports, opinions and background information on the conference. For the first time, selected speakers will answer questions from interested Google Hangout users in a video chat after their presentations.

Also available: The free DLD Conference App, developed by Mobile Roadie and available to download from: iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/dld-conference/id493067428?mt=8) and Android store (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mobileroadie.app_2170)

The free DLD Magazine App (http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/dld-magazine-the-infinite/id495003088?mt=8) from Adaptive Press offers all iPad users news and info from the community in magazine format. There is also a web app (http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/dld-conference/id493067428?mt=8) optimized for mobile devices from Yasssu.

With the online networking tool “Presdo Match”, available as a mobile app, the DLD community can network on site, request meetings and view the interests and key themes of other participants.

You can find all the information on DLD12 on Facebook and Twitter:

Numerous renowned partner companies will support this year’s DLD international digital conference (January 22-24, 2012 in Munich). More than 20 companies from home and abroad are among the global business and contact network of companies, entrepreneurs and pioneers in 2012. "DLD is a network of people and companies. These partnerships, some of them existing for years, form the basis of DLD's success," say DLD founders and managing directors Steffi Czerny and Marcel Reichart.

In Sunday’s opening panel, Microsoft's vice president, Dean Hachamovitch, speaks for the first time in Germany about the future role of browsers and privacy.

Audi CEO Rupert Stadler holds a keynote speech on the topic of "Road to Digital" and will then move to a "Mobile metropolis" roundtable panel designed by Audi with the central theme of "urban mobility of the future". DLD’s automotive partner Audi is present with its Audi Speakerlounge throughout the conference and provides its A8 cars for the shuttle service.

Google´s Nikesh Arora (Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer) will be addressing "The Future of Business" and new success factors in the digitization age in his keynote. The long time DLD partner Google will also feature Google+ and Google+ hangouts in a dedicated lounge to the DLD and DLD Night guests.

HP hosts the DLD photo studio with celebrity photographer Kevin Abosch. Matt Mills from AUTONOMY (owned by HP) demonstrates a new augmented reality technology in a software demo. Barbara Kux, chief sustainability officer at global DLD partner Siemens holds a keynote speech on the topic "The New Real." Pedro Miranda, representing Siemens One, speaks about cities and data.

René Schuster, CEO of Telefonica Germany, explains the results of the joint study "Connected Europe - How Smartphones and Tablets are Shifting Media Consumption" together with Linda Abraham, CMO of ComScore. Telefonica Germany provides stations to all participants at the conference in order to charge their cellphones.

 

DLD airline partner Lufthansa sponsors flights for DLD conference speakers and hosts workshops on various topics in their lounge. CEO Christoph Franz speaks on the issue of data. Unicredit, already in its 7th year, is DLD’s exclusive location partner. Company spokesperson Anne Gfrerer and women's advisory board member Maria-Theresia von Seidlein present the HVB Mentoring Program in the context of the conference.

 

International strategy consultant Booz & Company invites high-level industry representatives to discuss the topic of the "digital consumer". Moderator of this session is Roman Friedrich, partner and head of communications, media and technology practice (CMT) in Europe at Booz & Company.

 

Numerous media partnerships, including PR Newswire, CNBC, WSJ, CHIP Online and Getty, support the global presence of this year’s conference. Mobile apps by Adaptive Press, Mobile Roadie and YASSSU enable mobile interaction. A livestream of the entire conference is supplied by livestream.com.

 

Several studies by and with partner companies will be presented as a part of DLD: "NFC Payments And Marketing Innovation: Current State & Future Outlook" is a joint study by StrategyFacts and DLD, which investigates the use of NFC payment with innovative marketing approaches, such as in-store, near-store or customer retention. A study by Buddy Media and comScore investigates the influence of social networks on consumer behaviour.

 

All the networking events and invitations around DLD are supported by partners. Internet investor Acton Capital Partners invites its partners, investors and selected DLD guests to a networking dinner. In the frame of a networking lunch, Yandex will discuss the situation on the European search market, as well as opportunities for technological cooperation. Also this year, TES (Technology Enables Success), the technology symposium of Burda Direkt Services, affiliates with DLD and presents three panels on multi-channel commerce, big data and data-driven commerce.

Let's rock! That’s the word at this year’s DLD Conference from 22 to 24 January 2012 in Munich. The potential rock stars of the new digital generation don’t come with electric guitars or screaming groupies. Being a rock star at DLD means being a young, up-and-coming entrepreneur with a digital start-up which has great potential for the future.

 

Drew Houston is a typical DLD rock star. In 2007 he founded Dropbox, a file sharing and data safeguarding service based on Private Clouds, which has become enormously popular over the past few years.

 

David Karp is another of the digital generation’s rising stars. At DLD he will present his micro-blogging platform Tumblr, where users can publish texts, pictures, quotes, chat logs, links and video or audio files in a "tumblelog".

 

And rock star Brian Chesky is CEO of Airbnb, the biggest community market place in the world for renting and booking private accommodation. This young company boasts more than 100,000 adverts in over 16,000 towns and cities in 186 countries.

 

Other companies with great potential for the future are:

Rakuten, Japan’s biggest online shopping centre, soon to go international (CEO Hiroshi Mikitani,); international online community Badoo, with more than 114 million registered users (founder Andrey Andreev); German games software company Wooga which, according to its own publicity, is already the largest European provider in the "social games" sector, and the third largest in the world (CEO Jens Begemann). Mind Candy - one of the world’s leading developers of social multi-player games, and the fastest growing company in the sector. And there’s online social networking game Moshi Monsters, with currently more than 50 million registered users worldwide, and a growth rate of one user per second (CEO Michael Acton Smith).

 

For more information: http://www.dld-conference.com

Digital politics is no longer a niche area. It is now gaining widespread interest among political institutions and the media and extends into many different traditional areas of politics, such as economic, social and foreign policy. At the international digital conference DLD (22 - 24 January) in Munich, politicians, regulators and political opinion formers will be stating their positions and discussing their views with the DLD community.

At the start of the DLD Conference, Vice President of the European Commission Viviane Reding will present a keynote speech on 22 January on the future of Internet regulation, introducing the topic of “Online Identity/Privacy”. She will also discuss her plans for data protection in the digital age. Nicolas Princen, Alec Ross and Rohan Silva, digital advisors to Nicolas Sarkozy, Hillary Clinton and David Cameron, will also be at DLD to talk about “Digital Diplomacy”, foreign and regional politics in the digital age and future markets. The impact of Internet infrastructure and its regulation on innovation and how close the link is between Internet policy and economic policy will be explained exclusively at DLD by Julius Genachowski, former advisor to Obama and current Chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission. The Chairman of Germany’s Pirate Party, Sebastian Nerz, will also be there to offer a new political perspective.

Other guests will include numerous representatives of governments, parliaments, parties and political organisations, including Martin Zeil (FDP), Christian Ude (SPD), Philipp Missfelder (CDU), Dorothee Bär (CSU), Joachim Pfeiffer (CDU), Jimmy Schulz (FDP), Silvana Koch-Mehrin (FDP), Nadja Hirsch (FDP), Malte Spitz (Alliance 90/The Greens) and Egemen Bagis (Turkey’s EU Minister). Along with representatives of the digital economy and the Internet community, they will form the sounding board for the political debates at DLD.

Further information is available at: http://www.dld-conference.com

Already in its fourth year, the TES (Technology Enabled Success) Technology Symposium will take place on January 24, 2012 as part of Hubert Burda Media’s DLD (Digital Life Design) Innovation Conference. Representatives from major international companies will discuss successful approaches and experiences on the topics of multi-channel commerce, big data and data-driven commerce in two moderated interviews and one panel discussion in Munich.

More and more companies are continually expanding online branches of their businesses. Digital has become an integral component of every corporate strategy. In the TES expert rounds, guests will experience how key technologies, applications and channels enable and ensure sustainable digital business success.

Everyone is talking about multi-channel commerce. An integrated multi-channel strategy is a challenge to companies, especially when it comes to their corporate culture, IT architecture and logistics. Dr. Klaus Driever, managing director of Weltbild, and moderator Maks Giordano, managing partner of The Nunatak Group, will discuss this.

Companies which analyse big data efficiently can achieve competitive advantages and create new business areas. Traditional database systems and analytic tools are often not able to process increasing data volumes and types consistently. In an interview with Dr. Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon, Burda Direkt Services managing director Gerhard Thomas will highlight important aspects of big data.

In the final panel discussion on data-driven commerce, moderator René Seifert, CEO of Level 360, along with Best Buy CTO Robert Stephens and other experts will discuss the link between both topic areas and the resulting potential.

TES is a "by invitation only" conference and takes place on January 24, 2012 (following the DLD conference) at Prannerstraße 2, Munich.

From January 22nd to the 24th, top-class speakers will discuss the economy, politics, art and culture in addition to science, medicine and biotech during the “Digital-Life-Design” conference in Munich.

 

“Family Talks” is the name of the panel on which the world-renowned physicist Freeman Dyson and his children, George Dyson, historian of technology, and Angel investor Esther Dyson, will appear. Andrian Kreye (SZ Feuilleton) will moderate the panel and will attempt nothing less than to trace the composition of genius.

 

The Bulgarian scientist Dimitar Sasselov, Harvard Professor of Astrophysics and member of the Kepler Mission, discovered the planet Kepler 22b.  The planet is two and a half times as large as the Earth.  He will present his book “Life on Super-Earths” at DLD.

 

Rupert Stadler (CEO, Audi), Christian Ude (Mayor, Munich), Pedro Miranda (Siemens) and Architect Carlo Ratti (MIT SensAble Lab) will speak about the rapid urbanization that demands ecologically, socially and logistically smart solutions.

 

Sebastian Thrun, Professor for Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University, helped develop “Street View” as a Google engineer, and is now in charge of the project “Driverless Car,” which is already being tested in normal traffic. He will give a lecture entitled “Smarter than you think.”

 

Additional speakers at DLD: David Agus, renowned cancer researcher and personal physician to Steve Jobs, will present quotes from his new book “The End of Illness.” Hosain Rahman’s gadgets (CEO, Jawbone) make it possible for people to take care of their own health in a more playful and therefore more conscious way. Oliver Medvedik, Bio-Tech-Doctor, will demonstrate how programming and hacking will change biotechnology. Lisa Randall (Professor for theoretical physics, Harvard University), Jure Leskovec (Assistant Professor, Computer Science, Sanford University), Hilary Mason (Scientific leader, bit.ly) and Tan Le (Founder and CEO, Emotiv Lifesciences) will discuss their insights on various panels.

 

For more information: http://www.dld-conference.com

Founders like Jack Dorsey (Twitter), CEOs like Rupert Stadler (Audi), Christoph Franz (Lufthansa) and John Danahoe (Ebay) as well as investors like Yuri Milner (Founder, DST) and Jim Breyer (Accel/ Board of Directors, Facebook) are once again making the international digital DLD conference in Munich a hub of entrepreneurial ideas and visions (22 to 24 January). Three days before the World Economic Forum in Davos (WEF), leading representatives from international companies are starting to shape the agenda for what will be, from an economic perspective, a challenging year in 2012.

 

To this end, DLD is assembling lateral thinkers from a broad array of economic sectors in Munich and will specifically highlight upcoming developments in the digital world. The largest technology stock market launch of the decade will also be a topic: Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, will talk about the social impact of social media and and numerous CEOs will outline how the sales approach and business model are changing as a result of digital media and data. In addition, DLD will shine a spotlight in 2012 on emerging markets: Digital entrepreneurs from Israel, Russia and Turkey will present their projects. In addition, the Turkish Minister for EU affairs, Egemen Bagis, will speak about his government’s plans.

 

Additional speakers at DLD include: Nikesh Arora (Chief Business Officer Google), Barbara Kux (Chief Sustainability Officer, Siemens), Hiroshi Mikitani (CEO, Rakuten), René Obermann (CEO, Deutsche Telekom) Sean Parker (Founder, Napster, Founding President, Facebook), René Schuster (CEO, Téléfonica Germany), Arkady Volozh (Yandex) and Niklas Zennström (Founder, Skype).

 

Additional information regarding the conference can be found at http://www.dld-conference.com

For the eighth time the “Digital-Life-Design” Conference takes place from January 22nd until January 24th in Munich. The name says it all as the dialogue about art and design is strongly connected with an interdisciplinary exchange. With this aspiration in mind DLD presents a series of discussions, organized and presented by the co-director of the Serpentine Gallery London, Hans Ulrich Obrist. The prelude on January 22nd is a conversation with artist, musician and film maker Yoko Ono. Her credo is “Imagine Peace” which makes her an exceptional personality and an icon of the peace movement. Together with John Lennon she held the legendary “Bed-In for Peace” at Amsterdam’s Hilton Hotel.

 

“Connect the Unexpected“ and interdisciplinary relations – this is DLD’s philosophy. The amount of creative potential will be released during the high-quality round “Lights of Africa” on January 23rd on the subject of ‘ecopreneurship’. Hans Ulrich Obrist moderates the discussion with Jamie Drummond, Executive Director of Bono’s ONE.org organization, artist Olafur Eliasson, who is well known for his stagings with light and electricity and Google-Chief Joseph Mucheru who is responsible for sub-Saharan Africa and Kenya. Economic growth in Africa is strongly depended on electricity access. DLD will therefore deal with how to accomplish this goal, the necessity of entrepreneurial spirit, the importance of ecological sustainability, solar technique and “off-grid” energy and the role of fine arts.

 

The second DLD Arts Session will deal with new digital art forms. “Ways Beyond the Internet” addresses especially new digital art forms: how and where does art emerge with the Internet’s logic that the information society experiences through increasing digitalization and new ways of image productions and how is this reproduced within a non-digital reality? Artists and “Digital Natives” as Cory Arcangel (New York), Karen Archey (New York), Ed Fornieles (London) Keller/Kosmas (Berlin), Oliver Laric (Berlin), John Nash (London), Rafael Rozendaal (Amsterdam/Rio) will talk about their work and “Post-Internet” projects. The artists expose their work together with Ryan Trecartin and Timur Si-Qin in the DLD12 exhibition “Ways Beyond The Internet”, realized by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Johannes Fricke Waldthausen.

 

Further information can be found at: www.dld-conference.com

“Europe’s hottest conference invitation” WIRED UK calls Burda’s international digital conference DLD (Digital, Life, Design). Since its foundation in 2005, DLD discusses the transformation of markets, media, culture and society through digital technologies and the internet. Meanwhile, DLD has developed into an international conference network, producing summits in Munich and Tel Aviv, Palo Alto, New York, London, Rio de Janeiro and Beijing. Conference content is published via DLD’s own media platforms alongside with partners.

 

Following global trends, DLD drives debates and discussions about the digital future. Key aspects of DLD12 are data, commerce, mobile, social and the questions: Which rules apply to the data economy? What do social media and mobile devices mean for brands, retail, lifestyle and art? What makes cities attractive places for digital entrepreneurs? Which data protection do we need? What is happiness? What does the new content ecosystem look like? Will we still drive cars ourselves or control computers just with our thoughts? Are founders the new rock stars? Is there life beyond earth? Does Europe have a chance on the digital world stage? What effects do social entrepreneurs have on our society? How does one internationalize internet companies? What makes social games so successful? India, Turkey, Africa – the markets of
tomorrow?

 

DLD12 takes place from January 22nd until 24th, 2012. Chaired by publisher Dr. Hubert Burda and investor Dr. Yossi Vardi, DLD attracts about 800 participants from all over the world to the HVB forum in Munich, setting the digital elites’ agenda. More than half of the guests comes from abroad and again a large delegation from the USA, Israel and Asia. No other event gathers more key representatives of the digital industry in
Germany.

 

In the past years, digital entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg, Eric Schmidt, Sean Parker, Marissa Mayer, but also Lady Gaga, Nobel laureates Martti Ahtisaari and Dan Kahneman, Craig Venter, Deepak Chopra, Paulo Coelho, as well as the architects Norman Foster and Rem Koolhaas took part in DLD.

 

Stephanie Czerny and Dr. Marcel Reichart bring together those worldwide leading thinkers and pioneers from different areas like digital industry, media, politics, economy, finances, science, society, art and design, and organize talks via interviews and panels during this three-day program in Munich.

 

Expected speakers are, among others:

 

Business, Digital & Political Leaders

 

·         Bernd Beetz, CEO Coty

·         Marc Benioff, CEO Salesforce

·         John Donahoe, CEO eBay

·         Jack Dorsey, Creator Twitter

·         Christoph Franz, CEO Lufthansa

·         Arianna Huffington, co-Founder Huffington Post

·         Barbara Kux, Chief Sustainability Officer, Siemens

·         David Lauren, VP Marketing Ralph Lauren

·         Peter Löscher, CEO Siemens

·         Hiroshi Mikitan, CEO Rakuten

·         Yuri Milner, Managing Partner, Digital Sky Technologies

·         René Obermann, CEO Deutsche Telekom

·         Sean Parker, Partner Founders Fund 

·         Nicolas Princen, Digital Advisor to France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy

·         Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship

·         Alec Ross, Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton

·         Renzo Rosso, Founder Diesel

·         Sheryl Sandberg, COO Facebook

·         René Schuster, CEO Telefonica 02 Germany

·         Rupert Stadler, CEO Audi

·         Robert Stephens, CTO Bestbuy

·         Arkady Volozh, CEO Yandex

 

Start-ups

 

·         Michael Acton Smith, CEO MindCandy

·         Andreey Andreev, CEO Badoo

·         Jens Begemann, CEO Wooga

·         Troy Carter, Investor & Manager Lady Gaga

·         Brian Chesky, CEO AirbnB

·         Lisa & Ben Donovan, Founder Maker Studios

·         Casey Fenton, Founder Couchsurfing

·         Dave Goldberg, CEO Survey Monkey

·         Phil Libin, CEO Evernote

·         Hilary Mason, Chief Scientist at bit.ly 

·         Hosain Rahman, Co-Founder Jawbone

 

 

 

Culture, Life & Science

 

·         Freeman Dyson, Albert Einstein Chair with techno-historian George Dyson and investor Esther Dyson

·         David Agus, Professor of Medicine at the University of Southern California

·         Peter Diamandis, Founder X-Prize Foundation

·         Lidewij Edelkoort, Trend Forecaster

·         Thomas Goetz, Managing Editor, WIRED

·         Victor Halberstadt, Professor of Public Economics Leiden University. Formerly: Crown-Member, Netherlands Social-Economic Council

·         Andrew Keen, Author, Digital Vertigo

·         Jenn Lim, Chief Happiness Officer, Zappos

·         Lisa Randall, Harvard Physicist

·         Dimitar Sasselov, Professor of Astronomy Director, Harvard Origins of Life Initiative

·         Kevin Slavin, Algo-Culturalist

·         Alison Smale, Executive Editor, International Herald Tribune

·         Sebastian Thrun, Google Driverless Cars Project Leader

 

Artists & Designers

 

·         Edwin Chan, Architect
·         Olafur Eliasson, Artist

·         Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Curator, Serpentine Gallery

·         Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky

·         Yoko Ono, Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist

·         Josua Prince-Ramos, Principal of REX

·         Nick Rhodes, Keybordist Duran Duran

 

Program highlights are the Chairmen & Speaker Dinner at the Jewish Community Centre (January 22nd, 2012), the DLD StarNight at Haus der Kunst (January 23rd, 2012) as well as the bestowal of the „Aenne Burda Awards for Creative Leadership“. Former awardees have been, among others, Natalie Massenet (Net-a-Porter), Marissa Mayer (Google) or Mitchell Baker (Mozilla Foundation). Thanks to the DLD Nightcap during the World Economic Forum in Davos (January 25th, 2012), the DLD conference 2012 finds a traditional closure.

 

For the very first time, there will be a DLD Public Lecture with Skype founder and investor Niklas Zennstroem (January 23rd, 2012) at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Additionally, several studies by Telefonica O2 Germany, Siegenheim & Cie, ComScore, Buddymedia as well as the DLD Survey about market-relevant digital trends will be introduced.

 

All those interested can follow the sessions via live streaming und blogging. To participate at DLD, an invitation of the organizers is obligatory. For the final tickets for DLD12 all those interested can apply under http://www.hbm-events.com/dld12/application/. The costs for the three-day ticket are 2.750 € Euro, plus VAT.

 

DLD12 is supported by notable partners and sponsors like Audi, HP, Google, Lufthansa, Microsoft, Siemens and O2 Telefónica.

 

Further information can be found at www.dld-conference.com.

The leading European digital conference 'Digital Life Design' is becoming even more international. Following conferences in Munich and events in Palo Alto, New York, London, Rio de Janeiro and Beijing, a DLD conference will be held in Tel Aviv for the first time. In the course of the DLD Tel Aviv Festival from 1 to 2 November 2011, chaired by Israeli high-tech entrepreneur Yossi Vardi and publisher Hubert Burda, thought leaders, business people, investors and scientists will meet in Jaffa Port to discuss digital innovations and their impact on society and markets.

Israel is one of the world's leading 'digital nations'. The Tel Aviv region focuses on developments for the international high-tech and internet markets, it is therefore also an extremely interesting business location for German companies. DLD founders Steffi Czerny and Marcel Reichart comment: 'Israel has all the organisational characteristics of a knowledge society. The 'digital innovation hub' Israel's major influence reaches as far as Silicon Valley, which the country enjoys close links to a great number of talented newcomers and the founding of companies. We are looking forward to some exciting intercultural exchange on issues that are going to drive and shape our future.'

The DLD summit topics will focus on digital markets and new technologies, education and science. Around 800 participants and 50 speakers are expected, including Yandex founder Arkady Volozh, Grammy winners Steve Greenberg and Miri Ben-Ari, nobel prize winner in chemistry Daniel Shechtman, Publicis chairman Jean-Yves Naouri, the technology entrepreneur Rafi Gidron, neuroscientist Amiram Grinvald and the civil rights activist Stav Shaffir, as well as the DLD chairman Hubert Burda and Burda's CEO, Paul-Bernhard Kallen. Additional events hosted by companies such as Google, Amazon, Twitter or Facebook, for example, will also form part of the DLD Tel Aviv Festival. Yossi Vardi: 'For me, DLD Tel Aviv Festival is a place where you meet friends in a thrilling atmosphere with many elements of information but also fun.' A German delegation with over 100 representatives will take part in the conference, afterwards visiting the country's cultural highlights.

Ever since its foundation, DLD has enjoyed close links with Israel. These were established in 2000, when the Ben Gurion University's Hubert Burda Center for Innovative Communications organised the forerunner conference 'Cool People in the Hot Desert', building a bridge between leading online-based start-up companies in Israel and Germany. This event sparked the idea of creating an international platform for digital topics, realised in 2005 with the first DLD conference, chaired by Yossi Vardi and Hubert Burda. At the same time, the DLD has evolved into a place to meet for a new, globally-oriented generation. Each year, the event is also attended by more than 100 guests from Israel.

The DLD Tel Aviv is realised in cooperation with Oscar 4B, and is supported by the following partners: The Marker, the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute, the Manufacturers Association of Israel, Jaffa Port, IBM, GameIS, the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, Cloud, Google, igda Israel, leumi, BSPOTBROADCASTING, orange, amazon web services, sixt and GARAGEGEEKS.

See www.dldtelaviv.com for further information.

UberMedia, the world’s leading independent developer of feature-rich social media applications, today launched Chime.in, a new social media platform organized around interests. Chime.in solves the growing “relevance problem” in social media, with breakthrough functionality that allows users to surface and interact with the best content related to their interests. Additionally, Chime.in will be the first social media platform that allows anyone – a publisher, brand, or individual – to share in the revenue generated by their content.

Major partners joining the launch of Chime.in include leading entertainment brands E! Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Bravo, as well as Redfin, the leading technology-powered real estate brokerage. Comcast Ventures is also joining the launch with a strategic investment in Chime.in parent company UberMedia.

“Social media is the future of all electronic content and transactions,” said Bill Gross, CEO of UberMedia. “It will be everywhere, just like oxygen. However, now that a billion people are using social media, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of content that’s irrelevant to you. Chime.in, by focusing on your interests, and not just people, makes it much more relevant and engaging.”

"E! continues its tradition of partnering with top tier companies focused on delivering immersive, interactive experiences. Chime.in allows us to do just that by engaging with pop culture fans who are truly passionate about a given interest – be it entertainment news, a red carpet event, or one of our hit shows," said John Najarian, EVP and GM, Digital Media and Business Development of E! Entertainment. “As the entertainment leader in social reach and influence, E! is thrilled to partner with Chime.in to engage our audience with a new level of depth and focus.”

"We see Chime.in as an exciting new platform within social media. Media companies and brands can now share in the revenue generated by their content and engage more deeply with their fans," said David Horowitz, Managing Director of Comcast Ventures. "The various Comcast/NBCUniversal properties that we have shown this platform to, including E! and Bravo, are excited about jumping on board.”

“Bravo regards social media as a key factor in our growth strategy,” said Lisa Hsia, Executive Vice President of Bravo Digital Media. “With Chime.in, we’ll have the opportunity to broaden both reach and engagement in new and enhanced ways.”

The heightened relevance and engagement created by Chime.in also present the opportunity to monetize social media in a way never before possible. Chime.in enables the power of commenting and sharing to be combined with all the tools of online monetization, including advertising, pay-per-click, promotions and sponsorship.

“With Chime.in, we’ve created a platform where publishers and media companies can integrate their brand partners in ways that allow them to maximize their engagement in social media,” said Jon Kraft, COO, UberMedia. “But the opportunity is not limited to the big guys: even the smallest publisher can earn revenue from his or her work, because Chime.in ensures that great content is surfaced and shared, specifically with those to whom it is most relevant.”

The Beta version of Chime.in is available today (11 am PST) as a browser-based desktop application, as well as in mobile versions for iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices. Registration for the Beta version is available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Chime.in Product Features:

Broadcast-able posts called Chimes that are tracked in a Chimeline

o Chimes are rich-media-enabled, and can include images, video, polls and links

o Readers can view and engage with media directly in the Chime, rather than having to open another website or application

 

In addition to featuring rich media, Chimes:

o Can be shared across other social platforms, including Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, as well as email

o Can be saved to read later, and also discarded

o Can be sorted by specific interest, most shared, most commented and by time

o Can be analyzed on Chime.in to measure reach, impact and authority (early 2012)

o Feature threaded comments that can also be liked and sorted

 

Discovery tools, including:

o Built-in algorithms that bring quality content to the surface to make it easy to find what’s most relevant and worthwhile

o Ability to follow specific interests, specific people, or Chimes only on a specific interest from a specific person (“Selective Follow”)

o Recommendations regarding people and interests to follow, and communities to join

o Global search to simultaneously search for topics, people and communities

o Content curation from Chime.in editors

o Authority algorithms that make it easy to find people with the most authority on a given topic (early 2012)

 

Monetization tools, including:

o Promotional spots on profile and community pages

o Complete control over promotional activity

o Revenue-share on advertising negotiated by Chime.in (early 2012))

 

API for programmers to create extensions (early 2012)

Burda’s central marketing network BCN opened its own office in London in August 2011, offering advertisers in the UK access to German and international markets with first-rate communication solutions. The new BCNI London office is run by Jeannine Soeldner (35) as Head of Sales Region UK/Ireland. The 35-year-old has a sound knowledge of the British market from both the client and agency side. Soeldner worked for Microsoft UK, where she focused on online marketing in the last two years. Before that she held positions of responsibility with the marketer International Graphic Press Ltd. in London for nine years.

Hubert Burda Media is one of the leading worldwide publishing groups: its broad portfolio encompasses 303 magazines. It publishes 77 titles in Germany alone, including the market leaders INSTYLE Deutschland, BUNTE, FOCUS ELLE, ELLE DECORATION and FREUNDIN. 226 titles are published in eleven countries outside Germany. Its marketing subsidiary BCN International with offices in Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy and the USA exclusively markets the Burda portfolio worldwide and fulfils several international marketing contracts.

Besides Burda’s German portfolio (excluding ELLE and ELLE DECORATION) BCNI London will also be marketing the entire international portfolio of Burda Holding International and Burda Eastern Europe titles. In addition to the entire Eastern European magazine market, that encompasses various publishing companies operating in Turkey and Asia, for instance.

As the magazine publisher with the largest readership (49 per cent) in Germany, Burda offers British companies highly effective market penetration: almost half the German populace regularly read Burda magazines. With titles like BUNTE (weekly), FREUNDIN (fortnightly), ELLE, INSTYLE and BURDA STYLE (all monthly), Burda reaches almost 28 per cent of the high-end women’s target group in Germany. Another of the group’s strong brands is FOCUS: the quality journalism of this weekly news magazine is enthusiastically read by more than five million people. Together with magazines like TV SPIELFILM PLUS (fortnightly TV magazine with a readership of some 7.9 million) and PLAYBOY, the Group attracts more than 35 per cent of high-income men. And with more than six million readers, Burda is the leader in the house and garden segment with its magazines.