First Economic Forum Salzburg a resounding success!

"Fantastic event!" - that is the all-round tenor of the first Salzburg Business Forum on May 5th at the Congress Salzburg. "Salzburg was urgently in need of something like this", "pleasant openness and clarity of the topics discussed", "it was more than worthwhile to be there!", "I'll be back", "how can you become a partner? ", these are the many enthusiastic feedbacks of the participants of the Economic Forum Salzburg, organized by the Federation of Austrian Industries 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 creating, not managing" is the credo of IV President Peter Unterkofler, who, as the organizer of the Economic Forum Salzburg, welcomes the guests and opens the event. "Salzburg has incredible opportunities, we just have to take advantage of them. Our entrepreneurs are ready to create. Let's give them framework conditions to help them become 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 digitization, the just-launched EdTech Summit, Ecovation taking place on the same day, and other measures, the location is strengthened and the course is being set for a competitive future.
  
  
• The career aspiration of the first speaker, Anastassia Lauterbach, was to be an opera singer. Instead, the Russian guest, who recently moved - via several international stations - to Salzburg, has become a globally recognized professor for artificial intelligence, data security & data ethics, entrepreneur, technology strategist and multi-supervisory board member.
  
  
• "Artificial intelligence will not only change our lives, it is already right among us," is one of Anastassia Lauterbach's key messages. "Let's think of the control of global mobility and logistics flows, which are constantly optimizing themselves with artificial intelligence and now significantly outperform human control. We see similar results in digital image recognition, for example in the evaluation of X-ray images and early cancer detection. Here we will see even more incredible developments. 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.
  
  
• Federal Minister of Labor and experienced economist Martin Kocher describes with high expertise the current challenges in the labor market. "Although long predicted, but only recently arrived in full force, we are now feeling the labor shortage everywhere. We must succeed in expanding the labor potential, for example by extending working life (e.g., maintaining health into old age and reducing early retirement due to illness), better integrating foreign workers (e.g., red-white-red card), creating daycare spots for children, and more."
  
  
• After an extensively 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 rarely perceived by the general public. She fights against any instrumentalization of ideology and religion for political purposes and stands for the possibility of a life characterized 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 the dissenter," she endeavors 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, vilified and increasingly physically attacked in defense of freedom of expression.
  
  
• Klaus Josef Lutz, CEO of the global raw materials and energy group BayWa AG and President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for Munich and Upper Bavaria, is regarded in Germany as a rhetorical force of nature who gets to the heart of the matter, measures politicians by their actions and clearly addresses undesirable developments, including in the corporate world. He doesn't tolerate the fact that highly paid board members try to get away with saying that risks simply weren't apparent. In many cases, they just didn't have the courage, didn't want to make themselves unpopular, didn't want to jeopardize their position, etc., and simply delayed decisions. At the same time, he criticized 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 optimization potential.

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

The event ended with a flying buffet and fine wines, provided by Salzburg-based Spar AG, allowing guests to explore topics in greater depth, make contacts and create ideas for the future.