Black Forest Innovation Summit

How can the Black Forest remain a competitive industrial hub in the future? What skills, networks, and framework conditions are crucial for successfully navigating this transformation?

Philipp Hilsenbek, Deputy Managing Director of the Black Forest-Baar-Heuberg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK), will open the technical session of the Black Forest Innovation Summit 2026 with these questions.

His keynote address, “The future of the Black Forest? A high-tech manufacturing hub!” highlights current developments and challenges for companies in the region and showcases the opportunities created by innovation, collaboration and knowledge transfer between academia and industry.

The keynote sets the stage for the summit’s other topics and invites participants to collectively envision the future of the Black Forest as a business hub.

Prof. Dr. Isabell M. Welpe is a professor and head of the Strategy and Organisation Research Group at the Technical University of Munich. Her current projects focus on the digital transformation of companies, the impact of digital technologies on the economy and organisations, and the future of leadership and work/organisation design. She has published studies on topics including “Disrupting Industries with Blockchain,” “Digital Business Models,” and “Social Media as Information Markets.” She has spoken multiple times at the Digital Life Design (DLD) conference and was named by Capital magazine as one of the Top 40 Under 40 in the “digital elite” and among the “leading 40 thinkers in HR.” Her current research focuses on the potential of emerging technologies, such as AI and Web3, for novel value chains, business models and organisational forms.

Isabell M. Welpe studied management at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and as a visiting student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, USA. She did her master’s degree at the London School of Economics. She has been a visiting professor at the Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, USA, a postdoctoral fellow at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Economics. She is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Blockchain Technologies at University College London. Her research has been featured in the media, including in the Harvard Business Manager, MIT Sloan Management Review, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Handelsblatt, ManagerMagazin, Die Welt, BR and WirtschaftsWoche. Her work has received numerous national and international awards, including the Best Paper Award from the Academy of Management (AOM), the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) and the Association of University Professors of Business Administration (VHB). Professor Welpe is a board member of the Centre for Digital Technology & Management (CDTM) and a member of the “Münchner Kreis”. She also serves on several advisory boards.

Markets are changing, business models are coming under pressure and established industries are facing new challenges. Resilient companies can further develop their existing capabilities, respond to change and tap into new markets. Transformation thus becomes an opportunity to secure value creation and competitiveness in the long term.

• AuToS – Automotive Transformation Strategy demonstrates how companies can transfer their existing expertise from the automotive industry to new markets and reference fields. The focus is on concrete transformation pathways that open up new business opportunities and strengthen the resilience of both companies and the region.
  • IHK Schwarzwald-Baar-Heuberg, Furtwangen University and corporate partners

Resilience also means identifying risks at an early stage and dealing responsibly with the implications of technological developments. This includes protection against cyber-attacks and the security of networked systems, as well as the question of what long-term effects digital technologies have on businesses, people and the environment.

• Sustainable and responsible digitalisation – recognising and consciously shaping
  impacts Digital solutions have not only technical and business implications, but also environmental and social impacts. The Sustainable Awareness Framework helps businesses to identify these impacts at an early stage and to systematically integrate sustainability into their digital decision-making.
  • Prof. Dr Stefanie Betz, Furtwangen University
• The cybercrime threat landscape for SMEs in Baden-Württemberg - recognising risks, limiting damage, remaining capable of action
  Cyberattacks no longer target only large corporations. Small and medium‑sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular are attractive targets, with potentially serious consequences for day‑to‑day operations.
  Enrico Bachmann, Senior Detective Inspector at the Baden‑Württemberg State Criminal Police Office, provides insights into the current cybercrime threat situation for SMEs. He explains who is behind the attacks, what goals the offenders pursue and how, for example, phishing attacks can escalate.
  The focus is firmly on practice: How can companies protect themselves effectively? Bachmann presents concrete prevention measures and the cybersecurity check for SMEs.
  As a member of the Central Contact Point for Cybercrime (ZAC), he is familiar both with the threat situation and with the challenges faced by affected companies.
  • Senior Detective Inspector Enrico Bachmann, State Criminal Police Office 
• Protecting networked production and information systems
  • Prof. Dr Richard Zahoransky, Furtwangen University

Resilient companies must not only recognise change, but also be able to actively shape it. Innovative strength and the ability to embrace new developments, test solutions and further develop existing structures create scope for action in a changing environment.

• Hype or game-changer? Automation and robotics in the day-to-day operations of SMEs
  Pressure to automate, skills shortages and rising costs are major concerns for many medium‑sized companies – yet automation solutions are often too complex, too rigid or too expensive.
  Using the example of Schlösser Präzisionsteile and the spin‑off addmo that emerged from it, Alexander Zeifang and Sophie Zeifang Bayley show how automation can also succeed pragmatically and step by step.
  Prof Dr Michael Engler from Furtwangen University adds the academic perspective, explaining what robotics can actually deliver today and where it is still more hype than business reality. Together they explore how people and machines can work together sensibly in medium‑sized companies, and which solutions are also practical for small and medium‑sized enterprises.
  • Alexander Zeifang, Co-founder addmo UG and Managing Director Schlösser Präzisionstechnik GmbH
  • Sophie Zeifang Bayley, addmo UG (Strategy and Transformation)
  • Prof. Dr Michael Engler, Furtwangen University (Professor of intelligent products and production systems)
• How to innovate in SMEs – making SMEs fit for the future with new approaches
  How can innovation succeed beyond day‑to‑day business – and how can established companies also develop new ideas and business areas?
  Using the example of the traditional Black Forest company, Steffen Erath shows how innovation can work bottom‑up and the role a functioning innovation ecosystem plays in this. The focus is on how companies can further develop their core business, open up new fields of innovation and thereby create additional options for action for the future.
  Drawing on his many years of experience in innovation work at Hansgrohe, Erath now heads the company’s InnoLab. He also works on corporate‑startup innovation and collaboration with startups.
  • Steffen Erath, Hansgrohe SE (Head of Innovation)
• Bitcoin & Regional Bank – How Volksbank Mittlerer Schwarzwald is approaching digital assets as an additional investment component
  • Sebastian Steiner, Volksbank Mittlerer Schwarzwald (Head of Retail Banking)

Resilience does not arise solely from technology or new markets. A company’s people and structures are also crucial. Good leadership, a sustainable corporate culture and a forward-looking approach to change and succession help companies to remain capable of taking action, even in uncertain times.

• Healthy leadership – how can this be achieved?
  • Daniel Ecker, Accentus GmbH
  • Prof. Dr Kirsten Steinhausen (Furtwangen University)
• Leadership in uncertain times – insights from theory and practice at wiha Werkzeuge GmbH
  • Florian Eichin, wiha Werkzeuge GmbH (Head of Technology Centre)
• A new generation, new opportunities: business succession as a guarantee of regional innovation and future viability
  • Caroline Stoz, Streit Group (Management)
  • Christian Suhr, Bürk GmbH Donaueschingen (Managing Director)
  • Henriette Stanley, Schwarzwald-Baar-Heuberg Economic Development Agency (Management)
  • Ursula Schulz, Schwarzwald-Baar-Heuberg Start-up Incubator