The 2024 Bits&Pretzels Founders Festival in Munich was record-breaking and revolutionary in so many ways that Light IT Global couldn’t miss it for the world. Our VP of Sales and IT Services Denis Kovalenko headed out to Munich and spent 3 days networking and learning about what the future holds for European tech and business sectors.
Here are the key takeaways from his trip.
AI Continues to Rule
Over two days of Founders Festival, over a dozen panels and discussions were dedicated to Artificial Intelligence. The topic was studied from different perspectives: ethical, technical, operational, legislative, practical, and financial.
Some of the major insights include:
- Switzerland is the European leader in terms of AI hub development, registering twice as many AI startup foundations per capita in 2022 than the US and UK.
- "AI Nation" initiative, a German-wide, decentralized accelerator program, is aimed to address critical challenges and fully realize the potential of AI startups across the country through support, mentorship, and networking.
- The founder and CEO of one of the most successful European AI startups—DeepL—Jarek Kutylowski, shared his view on the critical role of security in AI implementation and how attention to this aspect helps build long-lasting trust-based relationships with users.
- The matter of data quality and accessibility remains essential in terms of new, more efficient models development and overall AI adoption. Paying attention to the subject of ethics in AI development and usage results in favorable business outcomes like a higher level of customer satisfaction and a higher NPS score.
- Being the first regulation on AI in Europe, the European AI Act outlines core principles of safe, transparent, environmentally friendly, and non-discriminatory Artificial Intelligence application. At the same time, this document proves that AI governance lags behind as Artificial Intelligence advances too fast for regulatory bodies to make necessary changes to legislation in time.
- The practical application of AI is what moves businesses forward. In 2024, six key areas that benefit from AI agents development are customer service, employee empowerment, code writing, data analysis, cybersecurity, and creative ideation and production.
Open APIs, 5G, Cloud, and AI Change the Way Businesses Utilize Mobile Networks
Several speakers at the conference presented their take on the future of mobile connectivity, which seems to be bright and promising with network APIs and Open Gateway.
As Head of F&ES at Telefónica Germany, Martin Schurig noted: “Open Gateway APIs turn mobile networks into “programmable supercomputers”. Simply put, intelligent capabilities of mobile networks that were previously inaccessible to developers will be now available and will drive innovation forward across different sectors.
By combining the utilization of network parameters with Cloud and AI, businesses can configure the network according to their needs as well as facilitate application development and new services/business models introduction. For example, it can be used for fraud prevention and customer verification, added entertainment services, real-time device status checks that allow to seamlessly improve the quality of video, etc.
Inclusivity and Women Empowerment Should Be a Priority
Bits&Pretzels has always been one of the most inclusive and diverse tech events in Europe. The Founders Festival highlights the importance of equality and inclusion in technological advancement by providing women and members of underrepresented groups a voice and an opportunity to share their vision.
While IT, in general, continues to be a male-dominated field, the growing number of women in tech provides new perspectives on software development, problem-solving, and business practices.
The matter of representation and equality is so salient for the European tech community that the "Diversity in Tech" panel united over 1000 attendees (this year’s Founders Festival was limited to 7,500 attendees total).
GreenTech and PetTech Boosting Environmental Consciousness
This year “green” initiatives that try to minimize and reverse human negative influence on the environment dominated the European Pitch Contest. The winner and 3 finalists are all sustainable startups providing high-tech solutions for a better, greener, and healthier future for all humanity.
The Pitch Contest champion—ecoplanet—has created an effective digital energy management system used by businesses across 2,000 locations and managed a total energy consumption exceeding 1.5 TWh.
Runners-up are:
- Clearly. A B2B SaaS company striving to drive global transportation to reach net zero emissions through data transparency
- ecoLocked. A German startup developing products that turn captured carbon into high-performance environment-neutral building materials.
- Futurail. A German intelligent rail solutions provider focusing on ensuring safe, reliable, and cost-effective train transportation.
But it’s not just the level of carbon emissions and energy overconsumption that were highlighted during the conference this year. One of the most interesting panels was devoted to PetTech and how innovative software can help us care for our pets better.
In 2024, PetTech reached far beyond online pet supply retail and basic vet services. Today, technology like AI helps make veterinary practices more personalized and convenient for pet parents and animals while simultaneously addressing the structural problems of veterinary medicine like administrative burden, rigid working models, and lack of automation.
The CEO of Tractive, Michael Hurnaus shared their experience with AI, GPS, and IoT and how state-of-the-art technology is now helping pet owners not only get more information about the animal’s behavior and health but also ensure their safety and well-being.
In Conclusion
The 2024 Founders Festival wasn’t the first event by Bits&Pretzels attended by Light IT Global, and it surely won’t be the last! We always love these conferences for their unique outlook on the modern technological landscape, a great selection of speakers, efforts in consolidation, and, of course, a warm and welcoming atmosphere. So, if the Founders Festival in 2025 will be in your calendar, don’t forget to meet us there!
And if you have an idea in mind today, you can skip the waiting and contact Light IT Global today to find out if our expertise in cutting-edge technology and custom software development is of great use for you!
