The symposium “Change Media – Transform Business” was held on February 7 and 8 at Magdeburger Schauwerk by the heads of the Digital Business Management and Cross Media programs at Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences. In specialized lectures, student presentations and workshops at the Breiten Weg, the focus was on the digital world: business models, corporate development, agility and social media were the major topics of the symposium.
On Friday, organizers Michael Herzog, Dominik Schumacher, Daniel Nauck and Leonore Franz from the university opened the diverse program at Schauwerk.
We started right off with speaker Henrik Rieß from UID Berlin. He and his innovation team research social and technological developments that will influence life in the future. In keeping with his presentation topic, “Agile Agencies – Quo Vadis?”, he advises companies that go their way “hic et nunc” – in other words, in the here and now.
It was not only the technical presentations that attracted a lot of interest. The students’ presentations were also very well received and encouraged an exchange of ideas in the subsequent question and answer sessions. To this end, project supervisor Christine Michitsch first presented the general digital business developments in the social economy and the umbrella foundation Diakonie in Magdeburg. The program continued seamlessly with the presentation of the three student projects. Proposals for improvement and solutions for digital fundraising, recruiting and user experience were developed on the basis of the Diakonie website. The main focus was on providing customers and interested parties with easier access to the Diakonie website and a simpler application process. In the donation project, the speakers focused on transparency and the emotional connection of the donors. The results impressed the audience and of course the practice partner Diakonie, which is now considering how to incorporate the suggestions. Jennyfer Stabingis-Böttcher presented, in line with the previous program, which new forms of work have already arrived in companies. She examined thereby beyond tele-homework new developments and from which level in the enterprise the changes are driven.
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The final presentation by Stefan Weißwange (Teleport GmbH Halle) on “Digital transformations in administration” was well received by the audience due to the professional slides and humorous anecdotes. Specifically, Weißwange dealt not only with the technical issue of transformation but also with the questions of communication, workforce recruitment, data protection and legal requirements.
On the second day of the symposium, personal initiative was required in the “Agile Methods” and “Podcast” workshops. Before that, there was an exciting talk by Daniel Krüger. He founded his own digital business “Korrektur NachOben”, which deals with digital and political communication. In addition to customer consulting, he specializes in moving image content and podcasts. With his podcast “Digitale Provinz” (Digital Province), he has already been a guest on the MDR podcast “Digital leben” (Live Digitally) in December 2019. Of the MDR podcasts, Julien Bremer was again a guest at the symposium. After the theory, groups developed and discussed their own podcast idea. At the same time, the “Agile Methods” workshop led by Michael Metzger from d-network in cooperation with Daniel Krüger took place at Schauwerk. There, too, ideas for an own podcast were diligently collected. Here, the goal was to develop their own business idea using agile methods.
On the second day of the symposium, personal initiative was called for in the “Agile Methods” and “Podcast” workshops. Before that, there was an exciting talk by Daniel Krüger. He founded his own digital business “Korrektur NachOben”, which deals with digital and political communication. In addition to customer consulting, he specializes in moving image content and podcasts. With his podcast “Digitale Provinz” (Digital Province), he has already been a guest on the MDR podcast “Digital leben” (Live Digitally) in December 2019. Of the MDR podcasts, Julien Bremer was again a guest at the symposium. After the theory, groups developed and discussed their own podcast idea. At the same time, the “Agile Methods” workshop led by Michael Metzger from d-network in cooperation with Daniel Krüger took place at Schauwerk. There, too, ideas for an own podcast were diligently collected. Here, the goal was to develop their own business idea using agile methods.
There were insights into the approach of an agile design process and in groups recommended actions for business development around the project. Tools and methods such as user testing, persona, customer journey and value proposition were presented and tested within the workflow. Even those who did not attend a workshop on Saturday were not disappointed. In the main room, there were presentations by students from the study programs Digital Business Management, Cross Media, Risk Management of the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal as well as the Johannes Kepler University Linz. Topics such as cookies, digital divide, e-health, IoT for smart home appliances, were important topics as well as a poster session in the break room contributed to discussions.
Finally, Christian Franke, a student in Digital Business Management, was able to draw the audience out again with his research on John Cook’s meta-study on man-made climate change. After the successful and very well attended Symposium 2020, the organizers are already looking forward to the next conference, where there will again be a lot of exchange, new food for thought, workshops, lectures and innovative ideas.