At this year’s macomSUMMIT, high-ranking company representatives, leading technology companies and the macom team met in Eislingen / Fils near Stuttgart to discuss the future of hybrid working, learning and customer worlds.
A total of 150 guests experienced a colorful program of selected impulse and technical presentations by renowned industry experts, innovative technological solutions at the “Marketplace of Innovations” and exclusive tours of the modernized and expanded macomLAB. With the macom internal Team Summit on the second day of the event, macom celebrated the end of a successful business year and looked together into the future of market and company development.
A top-class cross-section of topics and speakers
“So there were quite a few highlights this morning. There were super speakers, quite exciting topics. And the way forward was shown very clearly by macom – what matters in the coming months and years and how you also have to position yourself.”
After the welcome by macom managing directors Björn Jensen and Oliver Mack, Kai Hendrik Müller opened the networking event with a keynote speech. The representative of Porsche AG showed the dimensions and requirements of the global rollout of their digital signage concept. In this large-scale project with 7000 touchpoints at 680 locations in 50 countries, macom acts as the central instance for the service organization and rollout management.
Klaus Dederichs from Drees & Sommer then presented sustainable planning methods for sustainable urban and building development in an overall social context. Technologically supported smart buildings and flexible space concepts will play an important role in the efficient, energy-saving use and operation of future real estate.
The research perspective was represented by Prof. Dr. Jens Gerken from the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, who spoke about the challenges and design options in hybrid working environments. For the expert, equality in the involvement of remote participants in hybrid settings is a crucial factor for our future work. The “Break Buddy” prototype particularly resonated with the audience. An approach to take remote participants into the coffee break.
Franz Hillebrand, CIO of SIGNA Group of Companies and CIO of the Year 2019, then took participants on an innovation journey. In addition to remote real estate tours using video conferencing robots, the audience was enthralled by the virtual building tours using the Elbtower as an example. Here SIGNA works in cooperation with the Microsoft Flight Simulator Team to realize high-end visualizations quickly and efficiently.
Before the lunch break, MAGING founder Christian Braun rounded off the segment. He reflected on his experiences in collaborative design at Porsche and Volvo in the context of new freedom and creativity combined with digital design and technologies.
After a short refreshment, the doors of the new macomLAB and the “Marketplace of Innovations” opened for the visitors. At the fair with 25 market stalls, selected technology companies presented their innovative solutions.
The new macomLAB: a state-of-the-art innovation hub for workspace and brandspace technologies.
Visitors to the macomSUMMIT were able to view the latest generation of the macomLAB on two floors. The innovation hub is not only a state-of-the-art innovation, research and test environment for the Connected Work- and Brand Space, but also a coworking space for macom employees.
The macomLAB is smart and fully hybrid. On the first floor, visitors are greeted with personalized digital signage applications. At interactive installations they can inform themselves and arrive in a relaxed atmosphere. The expanded event and collaboration space is designed to be versatile for hybrid workshops, training sessions and events.
“For us, of course, macomLAB is also a bit of a flagship, because it’s super set up and everything is handled very professionally there, and we also have the option of doing an event with customers at any time.”
On the top floor of the building, all the use cases of future work environments can be experienced. At the center is the Plaza – a multifunctional space for sharing, conferences or events for up to 20 people. Surrounding the social meeting point are a coworking area, adhoc spaces for concentrated work, a creative space for cross-location collaboration, a classic meeting room and a mini studio for short-term recordings and live streaming in high quality. The studio is also the control center for the fully networked technology used to illustrate service management applications. The data collected via sensors in the individual areas flow together here and are utilized to optimize usage and efficient operation.
A reason to celebrate: macom Team-Summit
On the second day of the event, the macom team looked back on the past fiscal year and into the company’s strategic future together at the internal meeting. Despite all the challenges of the past year, macom’s managing directors Björn Jensen and Oliver Mack drew a positive balance and are proud of their entire team.
After an impressive keynote speech by Drees & Sommer board member Steffen Szeidl, we exchanged ideas with our colleagues in a relaxed atmosphere. True to the motto “roller coaster of emotions”, a small fair with shooting gallery, popcorn stand and other activities was ready and waiting. It got emotional when macom founder Jürgen Boepple reminisced on stage together with Björn Jensen and told anecdotes from the company’s history.
After the joint dinner, nothing could keep us on our seats: Reason to celebrate! Our in-house macom band gets the mood going with their performance. Afterwards, the DJ rings in a long night. So together we toast to what was and what is to come.
By loading the video you accept YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
Authors: Felix Niedrich, Editor macom GmbH