First Salzburg Business Forum a complete success!

"Great event!" - that is the all-round tenor of the first Salzburg Business Forum on 5 May at the Congress Salzburg. "Salzburg was desperately lacking something like this", "pleasant openness and clarity of the topics discussed", "it was more than worth it to be there!", "I'll be back", "how can you become a partner?", these are the many enthusiastic feedbacks from the participants of the Salzburg Business Forum, organised by the Federation of Austrian Industry Salzburg in cooperation with renowned partners (Salzburger Sparkasse, Salzburger Nachrichten, ServusTV, Spar AG, Palfinger AG, Fabasoft AG, Markas GmbH, University of Salzburg, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, MCI | The Entrepreneurial School®, etc.)

"Entrepreneurship means shaping, not managing" is the credo of IV President Peter Unterkofler, who, as the organiser of the Salzburg Business Forum, will welcome and open the event. "Salzburg has incredible opportunities, we just have to use them. Our entrepreneurs are ready to create. Let's give them framework conditions so that they can be successful internationally," is his appeal to politics and public administration.
With a clear commitment to the science, technology and business location, Governor Wilfried Haslauer picks up the ball in his greetings. With a new faculty for digitalisation, the just-launched EdTech Summit, the Ecovation taking place on the same day and other measures, the location is being strengthened and the course is being set for a competitive future.
The first speaker, Anastassia Lauterbach, wanted to be an opera singer. The Russian, who recently moved to Salzburg via several international stations, has become a globally recognised professor for artificial intelligence, data security and data ethics, entrepreneur, technology strategist and multi-supervisory board member. Artificial intelligence will not only change our lives, it is already among us" is one of Anastassia Lauterbach's core statements. "Let's think of the control of global mobility and logistics flows, which are constantly optimising themselves with artificial intelligence and now clearly surpass human control. We see similar results in digital image recognition, for example in the evaluation of X-ray images and early cancer detection. We will see even more incredible developments here. At the same time, AI will not replace humans in many areas and will not be able to match their qualities," is a reassuring assessment by the renowned professor.
The Austrian Minister of Labour and experienced economist Martin Kocher describes the current challenges on the labour market with great expertise. "Although predicted for a long time, it has only recently arrived in full force, and we are now feeling the labour shortage on every corner. We must succeed in expanding the labour potential, e.g. by extending working life (e.g. maintaining health into old age and reducing early retirement due to illness), better integration of foreign workers (e.g. Red-White-Red card), creating childcare places, etc."
After an intensively used networking break with delicacies from the region, the renowned lawyer, social reformer and Berlin imamin Seyran Ates gives touching insights into social developments that are little perceived by the general public. She fights against any instrumentalisation of ideology and religion for political purposes and stands for the possibility of a life characterised by freedom, tolerance, mutual respect and democratic values and the possibility of being able to determine one's own life. "Freedom is always the freedom of those who think differently", she uses an often forgotten quote by Rosa Luxemburg. She earns spontaneous applause for many of her trenchant statements and not least for her respect for executive officers, who are insulted, reviled and increasingly physically attacked in defence of freedom of expression.
Klaus Josef Lutz, CEO of the globally active raw materials and energy group BayWa AG and President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for Munich & Upper Bavaria, is regarded in Germany as a rhetorical elemental force who gets to the heart of things, measures politics by its deeds and clearly addresses undesirable developments, incidentally also in the corporate world. He does not let it pass that highly paid board members try to get away with saying that risks were simply not recognisable. In many cases, they simply did not have the courage, did not want to make themselves unpopular, did not want to endanger their position, etc., and simply delayed decisions. At the same time, he criticised the far too short appointment periods for board positions. "How are you supposed to set a sensible, strategic course in the long term if the appointment period is only 2-3 years?" is one of many starting points for important optimisation potentials.

The concluding panel discussion with speakers, leaders of the University and University of Applied Sciences Salzburg as well as IV President Peter Unterkofler rounded off an all-round successful business forum with a firework of topics, impulses and insights.

In the cosy finale with a flying buffet and exquisite wines, provided by Salzburg-based Spar AG, topics are further deepened, contacts are made and ideas for the future are born.

Review and information on the Salzburg Business Forum