BU students speaking at NEXT conference 2019

Every year, the NEXT Conference in Hamburg is one of the highlights of the German digital industry. On the 19th and 20th of September 2019, more than 1500 digital experts met in the Hanseatic city to discuss this year’s topic “Parallel Worlds”.

We were particularly pleased that two of our Master’s students were among the speakers this time. Laura Malaver and Yifu He joined Prof. Michael Jonas on stage.

„Being able to participate in the NEXT Conference was a wonderful experience. The topic that tied all the conference together was parallel worlds. It was a perfect opportunity to bring together and showcase all different cultures that are part of Brand University“, says Laura.

As international students, Laura and Yifu brought their own parallel worlds along. In their panel, they talked about innovations, most of which in Germany and Europe have probably never heard of before.

„We decided to talk about how culture determines why businesses become successful in different countries. To do so, we brought two very opposite cultures together: China and Colombia. Yifu and I exposed two different innovations that happened in our countries. They show clearly how culture made these companies grow, expand and become as successful as they are today.“

Also besides their own presentation, Laura and Yifu took much inspiration from this experience for themselves.

“I learned a lot from all other speakers: what amazing developments are happening in other parts of the world, and all those bold and delighting thinking regarding the future of a digital, intelligent, efficient world”, says Yifu.

Of course the event was also a great opportunity to interact and network with many different and important people from the industry.

We congratulate Laura and Yifu on their performance as speakers at the NEXT conference.