Ralph Friedrichs is Managing Director of CYBERDYNE IT GmbH and a member of the management board of the Medialine Group. For over 30 years, he has worked in the fields of IT, managed services, digitalization, and business transformation in medium-sized companies. As a founder and long-time entrepreneur, he now focuses particularly on the strategic development of IT organizations and the use of artificial intelligence in operational business processes. A key aspect of his work is the practical integration of AI into the daily operations of IT service providers and medium-sized companies – from knowledge management and automation to AI-supported service and leadership.

Jan-Michael Lohr is an experienced and passionate IT entrepreneur who founded the system house List + Lohr in Hanover in 1996 together with his fellow student Martin List while still a student. In addition to the system house business, he has initiated and helped shape numerous IT projects. These include the cloud provider Busymouse, founded in 2011, which offered cloud services specifically for system houses, and a company founded in 2018 that specialised in data protection.

In addition to the system house business, Jan-Michael Lohr regularly contributes his extensive expertise to M&A projects and has gained valuable experience in acquiring and selling IT companies and corporate integration. In his current role as Managing Director of the ploon.it group, he drives the development of a nationwide managed service provider group.

As a service nerd, Robert Sieber is about good service experiences and efficient service delivery. He has been sharing his service management knowledge and experience in the podcast ( www.different-thinking.de ) since 2015. He has gained experience as a corporate CIO, business unit manager in a system house, technology consultant, and third-level administrator.

As Managing Director of MSP-Support GmbH , he and his team ensure measurable and sustainable relief for system houses and MSPs. A first-class service desk, competent support, and the reliable processing of operational and routine tasks are at the heart of the cooperation offer.

LAURA WINTERLING – Physicist, Helicopter Pilot and Flight Instructor, former Astronaut Instructor Laura holds a M.Sc. in Physics & an M.Sc. in Behavioural and Organizational Psychology

Laura is a licensed astronaut instructor on cargo handling, life support systems and emergency procedures on board the ISS. She had been working for almost 10 years for the European Space Agency. She wrote an on-console handbook for ISS Mission Control Center of Europe and trained 80 different international and European astronauts on ESAs spacecraft systems for ISS modules.

During her time at ESA Laura has worked in NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the Gagarin Cosmonaut Center in Moscow. She has spent numerous hours on console in various mission control centers including, ATV-CC Toulouse, ColCC Munich, and TsuP Moscow. Laura has had the opportunity to be part of 3 Soyuz launch campaigns in Kazakhstan and has undergone Zero-G (Parabolic Flight Experience) and Human Behaviour and Performance Training with ESA. Including a 10 day survival course inside a Sardinian cave.

She founded her company Space Time Concepts in 2016, taking on a new endeavour. Her company is the hub to the European Astronaut Training Center in Cologne, Germany, STC organises tours and events all around human spaceflight and offers interested people the possibility of experiencing a rocket launch from Kazakhstan or Cape Canaveral, as well as, experiencing weightlessness on Zero-G Flights.

Meanwhile Laura is a well-known speaker and shares her passion, insights and experiences from training astronauts and human spaceflight with audiences all around the worl. She consults various companies in leadership, team performance, communication and decision making processes.

Laura has ample experience as a motivational coach and speaker and has worked with several notable companies in the tech, banking and insurance field all around the globe, e.g. MG, Mastercard, SpaceX, Tesla, SAP, Siemens, Accenture, Deloitte, Generali and more.Laura has been invited to speak at conventions and shows on 3 continents in the last couple of years like WIRED, IMEX, ICCA.

Laura is a licensed rescue diver, skydiver and helicopter pilot and helicopter flight instructor, holding a private and a commercial helicopter license. She flies piston and turbine helicopters in various countries.

In her free-time she also works as a paramedic assistant, driving the ambulance trucks in her home town. She has visited 52 countries, enjoys camping and long-range mountain biking.

Laura has taken part in the current ESA Astronaut Selection and made it under the top 2% of 23.000 applicants and last 30 Germans.

Theodora Wittig is co-founder and Chief Sales Officer of heronOS GmbH in Berlin. She focuses on how AI can be used practically in everyday business – in support, service, communication, and other operational processes. With heronOS, she develops AI-based digital assistants such as "Tim" for IT first-level support and "Anna" as an AI-powered call center. Her focus is on natural human-machine interaction: from large language models and prompt engineering to speech-to-text and text-to-speech, all the way to avatar models. In her work, Theodora Wittig combines customer needs, product development, and go-to-market strategies. She brings a practical perspective to how AI solutions can be designed to integrate into existing business processes and create real added value. Before heronOS, she worked for many years in marketing, sales, consulting, and digitalization projects. In the panel discussion, she represents an application-oriented view of AI, digital business models, and how companies can make the leap from technology to successful implementation. Send feedback Side panels History Saved More details