Dialogue, Not Monologue
Discussing digital transformation topics with experts from TUM Campus Heilbronn – that’s what the networking format TUM Connect is all about.
Put a box on the ground, climb up on it, and loudly express your own opinion: at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park in London, everyone has been allowed to do this by law for 140 years. Among many others, prominent figures such as George Orwell and Karl Marx are said to have spoken to passers-by here. Now, the spirit of Speaker’s Corner is also making its way to TUM Campus Heilbronn and is at the heart of the TUM Connect event series, where anyone with something to say is allowed on stage. Fortunately, things are not quite as chaotic as they sometimes are in Hyde Park.
Following the successful launch of TUM Connect in November 2021, the focus of the follow-up event, on October 27, 2022, was on the topic of digital transformation. Three experts – Prof. Helmut Krcmar, Prof. Heinz-Theo Wagner, and Dr. Christoph Geier – began the event by sharing their theses on sustainability, mindset, and innovation in 90 seconds each. Participants from a wide range of industries then came to the stations and discussed with the experts. After 30 minutes, the change to another station was announced.
The Walk-in Ivory Tower
At TUM Connect, participants can share their experiences and ask questions in direct contact with researchers. But the exchange with colleagues from the business world also yields valuable insights: are there similar challenges in other companies? And how do they deal with these challenges?
At the event, the professors talk to people outside the science bubble about their research interests and thus learn about new perspectives. They don’t prepare scripts or slides in advance. This is because the focus here is not on imparting knowledge, as is usually the case, but on the exchange between science and practice, which is so important for TUM. “With networking formats like TUM Connect, we are a walk-in ivory tower and make a tangible contribution to the region,” emphasized host Daniel A. Gottschald, Managing Director of TUM Campus Heilbronn gGmbH, in his welcoming speech. The TUM Campus Heilbronn particularly invites regional partner companies to actively network with the university and thus acts as an academic startup.
In Search of a Wealth of Experience
Learning with and from each other – that is the focus of TUM Connect. Through discussions with the participants, the experts at TUM Campus Heilbronn were able to gain valuable insights into which topics are particularly important to the region. Future events will build on this. However, it remains to be seen whether anyone will climb onto a box to express an opinion.
