Harald Neidhardt

He is Co-founder and member of the Executive Board of advertising agency trautmann, heumann, jochum und kemper ag

After graduating from the University of Augsburg with a PhD in 1993, Michael Trautmann became a manager at Bossard Consultants. 1997 saw him assume a position on the Executive Board at ad agency Springer & Jacoby where, in 2000, he became a founding partner of Springer & Jacoby International and a member of the holding company’s Board. From 2002 to 2004, Michael Trautmann joined Audi in Ingolstadt as Global Head of Marketing. Then, in July 2004, he joined forces with André Kemper to establish the agency kempertrautmann gmbh, which underwent a rebranding in August 2012 to become trautmann, heumann, jochum und kemper ag – in short, thjnk.

Michael Trautmann sits on the agency’s Executive Board alongside Karen Heumann and Armin Jochum. thjnk ag employs 200 people across its three offices in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Hamburg – and clients include brands like Audi, IKEA, Henkel and Paulaner. André Kemper and Michael Trautmann were named Agency Men of the Year 2007. In 2009, kempertrautmann received the Global Newcomer Agency of the Year award. Michael Trautmann is a team member and business angel for the not-for-profit initiative dotHIV, which has been working towards establishing the top-level domain “.hiv” since 2010. This is the world’s first top-level domain with an exclusively social mission: to bring the red ribbon into the digital age. In 2013, Michael Trautmann was elected Vice President of GWA, the Gesamtverband der deutschen Werbeagenturen (Association of German Advertising Agencies).

Mark is a seasoned leader of product teams, with experience in consumer electronics, automotive, and product design.  His work has won international awards, including Best in Show in Automotive at CES 2012. He is a frequent presenter at technical and design conferences in Europe and North America, including a recent appearance at TEDx Kanata.

He is fascinated both by emerging technologies and by the design challenges that these new technologies pose. His role as Playground Director at Fuel Industries in Ottawa gives him plenty of opportunity to stay ahead of the curve technologically, while staying grounded in human-centred design principles.

What are you presenting:

“I will be presenting a talk on brand engagement and marketing in the age of makers. Working title: “Marketing in the Age of Makers” – how agencies and brands are joining the maker revolution.” 

Vision of the future:

“As far as my vision of the future goes, I believe that we are entering what could be a golden age of product design, powered in part by the rise of maker culture. The increasingly fast pace of commoditization of technology has given us, as designers, an amazingly rich set of tools with which to work.  So many technical problems have been solved; all of these roads, so to speak, have been paved. Instead of struggling with engineering hardware and software, we are now free to focus on design, on the invention and creation of meaningful products and services.”

Music of the Spheres utilises new bioinformatics technology developed by Dr. Nick Goldman to encode a new musical recording by the Kreutzer Quartet into DNA. The DNA has been suspended in soap solution and will be used by visual artist Charlotte Jarvis to create performances and installations filled with bubbles. The ‘recording’ will fill the air, pop on visitors skin and literally bathe the audience in music.

Project Website

John Baekelmans is Chief Technology Officer for Cisco’s Internet of Everything (IoE) Solutions group. His organizaton delivers solutions in a number of vertical areas like Manufacturing, Smart Cities, Utilities, Retail, etc. He and his team drive next generation innovations and thought leadership globally. John is currently also incubating a new global business for Enterprise IoE innovations within buildings around Connected Lighting.

John has spent 19 years at Cisco where he held various leadership positions within Engineering, Services and the M&A departments and has authored numerous US and European patents. John was also the co-founder of a Belgian residential solutions startup called Fifthplay.

Before joining Cisco, John designed, implemented and operated large PBX- networks at Siemens.John obtained a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Antwerp, Belgium and is a former Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE). In his spare time, he is engaged in Belgium’s National fast response rescue team to assist in global disasters and also leads Cisco’s Disaster Response team for EMEAR. He loves to ski, is an advanced scuba diver and currently lives in London.

Teemu Arina has a professional career of over 15 years as a management advisor, technology entrepreneur, author and speaker. He is one of the forefront thinkers on the intersection of the human and the machine, social media, mobile & cloud services, the future of work and online learning.

Mr. Arina is the founder and CEO of Meetin.gs, founder and CEO of Dicole, co-founder of the Quantified Self & Biohacking Finland movement and author of a number of articles and knowledge books including the forthcoming Biohacker’s Handbook.

Mr. Arina is a regular visiting lecturer at a number of academic institutions globally and has presented internationally as an invited keynote speaker in countries such as USA, UK, Russia, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy.