00;00;02;16 - 00;00;28;14
Speaker 1
Hello and welcome everyone to a brand new episode of the Auto Tech Show. Of course, our podcast Talking to Everything Automotive innovation and Technology. Thank you for being here. My name is Mark Babin, your host. Appreciate you joining me on this episode. It's a great one. You're going to be glad that you did. Today we're breaking down the importance of connecting industry leaders to ambitious innovators and solutions, and what better way to do that than with great industry events?
00;00;28;20 - 00;00;47;23
Speaker 1
Just like where we are today at Auto Summit Hamburg. Now, joining me for this episode, I'm honored to welcome the managing director at Trailblazer Summit, for which auto Summit is, of course a part Thomas Plumlee. Thomas, thank you so much for joining me on this episode. I know you're pulled in probably a thousand different directions at an event like this, but I appreciate the time.
00;00;47;23 - 00;00;52;07
Speaker 1
Really looking forward to your insights on what this event provides the industry. So thank you so much today.
00;00;52;09 - 00;00;53;13
Speaker 2
Good to be here. Thanks, Mark.
00;00;53;17 - 00;01;20;25
Speaker 1
Absolutely. So let's start by addressing something for the automotive industry in particular. I know you touch a lot of different industries with your events, but looking at auto Summit, the need for constantly evolving innovation and technology within the space, we're seeing a lot change in a very short time within automotive. Now, from your perspective, do you feel like that's something the industry is addressing on its own, propelling technology forward, or does it still need a proactive push something like this event would provide?
00;01;20;27 - 00;01;53;02
Speaker 2
We hope to support this push forward for the industry. That's probably different parts of the industries that run in different speeds. So, for example, start ups obviously are faster than the incumbents and the OEMs and they often are pretty well FETs during the last couple of decades and they have happened in the past. I've not seen the urge to innovate faster and become more agile and more innovative.
00;01;53;05 - 00;02;45;17
Speaker 2
I think it's something that you can see also in industry, industry events like this year, the dress code often is relatively relatively cool, relaxed, relax, right. And other events, you see the OEM still very much in suit and ties, which is from my perspective, symbol for them being pretty old fashioned, pretty conservative tradition. I think being that conservative is something that sooner or later going to kill this industry in Germany and that's why I think the cooler and more relaxed dress code is a symbol for them to hopefully be innovating more and becoming fresher, younger and more innovative, because otherwise they just can stay conservative because it's conservatives and conservatives and tourism is going to
00;02;45;17 - 00;02;46;14
Speaker 2
kill them sooner or later.
00;02;46;14 - 00;02;53;10
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. You need to have that approach, that culture in the company to want to change and to want to propel in a different way.
00;02;53;13 - 00;02;54;00
Speaker 2
Absolutely.
00;02;54;01 - 00;03;09;21
Speaker 1
Do you see do you see obviously, you see a lot of people you speak to a lot of different people here. Do you see that shift happening? Do you see the OEMs relaxing a bit and be more open to speak with smaller smart startups and at events like this? Or do they still kind of hold themselves high and mighty above.
00;03;09;23 - 00;03;39;08
Speaker 2
They are moving in the right direction? I would say probably not as fast as they could and should. Okay. So I mean, the auto summit is only in its second year. It's still a relatively small and young event and we're seeing more and more high level people also even from the OEMs coming here and showing that they have they start to see I mean, we're not the only it's not of course, going to the auto summit is certainly not the only thing that's going to save them, but it's a symbol when they come here and say, okay, and see that they need to change faster.
00;03;39;08 - 00;04;04;01
Speaker 2
I mean, look, last year a safe often looked west and seen Tesla was doing something better or a lot of things better than they were. And they've been learning. Hopefully now they're also looking east a lot more because in China there are things happening that get some worried. And I think being worried is the first step to adapting and changing and being more agile and more innovative themselves.
00;04;04;01 - 00;04;10;10
Speaker 2
And as high as hard as that is for them, often it's probably necessary.
00;04;10;10 - 00;04;24;14
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. So you bring up an interesting point from last year to this year. Do you see a shift like last year? Of course. This first time a lot of people learning what they're going to expect, not knowing what to expect. But this year, maybe some familiar faces again. Do you see that?
00;04;24;17 - 00;04;47;09
Speaker 2
Sure. I mean, are events usually do grow because they start small and they have to get bigger and to be relevant. So yeah, we see more people coming. We going to see more relevant people coming. We see people saying that last year they they met interesting people. They learned something. That's why they are coming again. That's why they recommend to the auto summit to other people.
00;04;47;09 - 00;05;08;14
Speaker 2
So that's usually how we grow our events by bringing together together interesting or facilitating the the meeting of interesting people together, facilitating learning, facilitating business. So hopefully that's what people also this year, again do hear pretty well and then we're going to go again next year.
00;05;08;15 - 00;05;18;19
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. That's the goal. Do you see that as your primary objective with an event like this is to create that opportunity to connect? Or are there other objectives that you and your team are working towards?
00;05;18;22 - 00;05;48;15
Speaker 2
Yeah, Connections is one of the most important things. It's also sharing experience, learning from one another. So when you are a high level decision maker from a large company joining such an event, you have the opportunity to meet many interesting exhibitors. That's also something that's that's valuable and useful for them. Very profitable day or two with a lot of meetings with people that you might want to do business together, what for some is even more effective.
00;05;48;15 - 00;06;16;04
Speaker 2
Important that you can also meet other companies that work with these exhibitors and other people and you exchange their experience and you can try to find people, Hey, we've worked with any line before and that's a great role for you. What would you do different next time? Oh, hey, I how can I maybe improve the way that I set up my working together with such company example that's also an important thing, I would say.
00;06;16;08 - 00;06;27;00
Speaker 1
Yeah. And I think the companies that we see here at the event, we see a variety of different types of providers, all of course, automotive focus, but a lot of different aspects of it, and that's creating a natural organic conversation amongst them.
00;06;27;05 - 00;06;28;07
Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely.
00;06;28;09 - 00;06;43;08
Speaker 1
So balancing the speaker side and the trade show side of it, obviously the speaker side is a great thought leadership piece and we see some great people taking the stage of the awards. You have a lot going on. How do you balance both sides and trying to grow both sides?
00;06;43;11 - 00;07;07;22
Speaker 2
Yeah, they usually grow together the better, or people you put on the stage, the better exhibitors you also attract to present themselves in the in the Expo area and we also offer our we have two stages here. We have the main stage that is mostly mostly from the OEM and supplier side, people speaking, but also on the we have a masterclasses stage for our exhibitors present themselves.
00;07;07;22 - 00;07;37;03
Speaker 2
So we have opportunities for everyone to be involved in the show to show their own thought leadership and present our products. And attendees are also very much interested in what the startups are. The grown up exhibitors have to show what they have in terms of innovations, what they have to offer. So I think we got very good feedback from our attendees about what they can learn here, what they can see here, how they have a very productive day or two, and to learn about the innovations in the automotive industry.
00;07;37;10 - 00;07;43;04
Speaker 1
Yeah, hopefully start to change that culture, to be more accepting of change and to be willing to disrupt a little bit.
00;07;43;07 - 00;07;53;04
Speaker 2
Right? I mean, it's a little easier for the people that come to an event like this. They are certainly not the ones that are most opposed to innovation because if they were, they wouldn't be here.
00;07;53;06 - 00;07;54;18
Speaker 1
I mean, yeah, exactly.
00;07;54;20 - 00;08;13;07
Speaker 2
So we have a certain certain aspect or a certain part of the industry in terms of attendees here that is already more open than average to innovation. But yeah, that's hopefully as we growing, we're going to educate more of the industry.
00;08;13;09 - 00;08;28;29
Speaker 1
This year and then they come back the next year with other colleagues and this kind of grows internally like that, right? What's the evolution of this kind of event? How do you see it growing? Do you see different objectives coming in or you just simply want to expand the messages as much as possible? What's kind of your future plans?
00;08;29;01 - 00;08;51;01
Speaker 2
Generally, we are growing in terms of attendees and exhibitors, certainly next year and in terms of the topics that are going to be talked about, that's certainly always depending on what the market is interested in talking about. Generally, I see different areas of interest here that are already very hot and I think that are going to be still very hot in the next year or so.
00;08;51;02 - 00;09;17;20
Speaker 2
It's generally when we're talking about innovation, digitization in the automotive automotive industry, that's often many people are working on digitization in terms of the product being we have the connected car, we have all kinds of digital innovations happening inside the vehicle, but we also have all kinds of digitization all around us. We have to transition in terms of marketing and sales for automotive industry companies.
00;09;17;23 - 00;09;36;22
Speaker 2
We have a lot of talks already also about the transition in production that makes production processes more flexible and more agile. And there's also a lot of things happening that people from the outside can't even imagine what happens inside a vehicle factory in terms of digitization. Yeah, interesting. That's also very interesting.
00;09;36;26 - 00;09;50;07
Speaker 1
And eye opening for a lot of listeners and other exhibitors to experience that, I think. Right, yeah. Do you see it particular trends growing two years in a row now? Do you see trends developing that this event may become a home or a hotspot?
00;09;50;07 - 00;10;20;23
Speaker 2
For us generally, we feel pretty well positioned with these innovation and digitization positioning that we have. So I think that allows us to be I mean, there there might be some breaking new trend next year that no one of us can imagine right now. And I think this positioning lets us adapt to that then great idea. But I wouldn't really want to want to be the one to predict what this could be.
00;10;20;23 - 00;10;42;00
Speaker 2
I mean, generally all the things that we've been talking about that we've been talking about will be still important next year. So electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, all the things connected to that are certainly going to still be important next year, except if someone invents a fusion reactor that you can put into a small vehicle.
00;10;42;02 - 00;10;42;24
Speaker 1
Who knows?
00;10;42;26 - 00;10;45;12
Speaker 2
Probably not this year, but maybe one sometime.
00;10;45;14 - 00;11;00;04
Speaker 1
Yeah, we'll have them here. I'm sure we'll have them in a booth somewhere. Yeah. No, that's great. I think it's a testament to the show to show that the conversations are happening and that people are coming. All types of different startups. They're attending the speaker series, they're going to the master classes there. It's really a hotspot for that connection.
00;11;00;04 - 00;11;17;25
Speaker 1
And that's, you know, what you want to build. And that's what seems to be working really, really well. And it's a testament to what your team has built and continue to build year on year. So obviously when we look at the automotive industry, typically we look at the big OEMs, the big market leaders, they're the ones who dictate where the industry goes.
00;11;17;25 - 00;11;32;27
Speaker 1
Obviously the startups and everyone here is trying to influence that. What is your message to the big providers, some of whom are attending here? Of course, those listening, but the big market leaders, what's kind of your key message on on events like this and what it could provide?
00;11;33;00 - 00;11;50;18
Speaker 2
Well, I wouldn't say it's my message. I think the general market message is that if you are a big OEM today and you've been for decades, it's not absolutely sure that there are still going to be a big OEM in ten years if you don't be very innovative and be very open to what's coming next, because I think it's taken a while.
00;11;50;18 - 00;12;11;09
Speaker 2
But during the last 20 years, I think there has happened less than one could have expected in China in terms of combustion engines. So they never really managed to have anything globally competitive in terms of combustion engines. But I think in an electric vehicle, they've been catching up or even overtaking a lot of the Western competitors very quickly.
00;12;11;12 - 00;12;27;02
Speaker 2
So there might be something big about to happen. And that's something that I as a if I were a and OEM CEO, would be very open to checking out and seeing what we can learn from that maybe.
00;12;27;04 - 00;12;36;04
Speaker 1
Yeah, I think being open to it is a key thing you said because traditionally maybe they're a bit more conservative and restrictive on their actions. The startups that have to push them.
00;12;36;06 - 00;13;08;17
Speaker 2
I mean, ten years ago Tesla has been a startup and they've all been laughing about Tesla and no one would have thought they'd be here. I mean, they've been in the meantime, they've also been saturated in terms of their market cap, as everyone knows, but still what they've built is still ahead of most other OEMs. And that's, I think hopefully is an example for them to not make this mistake again, to see a new competitor and don't take them seriously.
00;13;08;24 - 00;13;16;00
Speaker 1
Yeah, to be agile and to be like more open because they're certainly they're not a closed minded set of organizations that works.
00;13;16;02 - 00;13;36;18
Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean also the, the big Chinese upstarts in terms of new OEMs coming from there, they also have their issues and I wouldn't bet on any one of them becoming the next Tesla, but it's still something that you would have to look at, I would say as a as a large manufacturer right now because there there are some things that they're pretty good at, I would say.
00;13;36;24 - 00;13;53;22
Speaker 1
Are and rapidly developing abilities. And I mean the the resources they have is incredible. Yeah. Compared to maybe what Europe has or other areas of America. So that's perfect. I think this is this is great. I mean, it like I said, it's a testament to what the event should be about, right? It's connecting people. And I think that's what you've accomplished.
00;13;53;22 - 00;14;08;29
Speaker 1
And we see people having these conversations all around the floor and having fun with it. And I think that's the end of the day, what we want. So great job for you and your team. Like I said, it's it's great to be here. It's a it's an honor to participate and to speak with you today. Any final notes from your end before we sign off?
00;14;09;01 - 00;14;16;10
Speaker 2
Hope to see all of your listeners next year. Yes. Hamburg, Germany at May at the auto summit again. Yeah.
00;14;16;10 - 00;14;21;07
Speaker 1
We'll make sure everyone has the option again and we'll just keep growing. I think that's what we want to do is see more people year on year, right?
00;14;21;07 - 00;14;34;15
Speaker 2
We've been so far relatively German market focus, so most people here speak German, but we want to change that during the next couple of years. So we're happy to see more English speaking attendees and help to see some of your people listening and watching this.
00;14;34;15 - 00;14;44;21
Speaker 1
I'm sure a few of them will be here. Absolutely. We'll continue to grow. I know. Thank you so much for the time today and for your insights on the event and what you hope to accomplish in the next couple of years. It's an honor speaking to you. So many thanks so much.
00;14;44;24 - 00;14;45;21
Speaker 2
Thanks, Mark. It was a pleasure.
00;14;45;21 - 00;15;06;29
Speaker 1
Perfect. And for everyone watching and listening and thank you so much for joining us on this episode, hopefully you've learned a little bit more about what events like this can bring. Connecting leaders, connecting market leaders to innovators and solution providers, all these great new things coming in the market the next couple of years. So that's what these events are here for and it's fantastic to be a part of it as we are here in Hamburg.
00;15;07;02 - 00;15;25;08
Speaker 1
So thank you so much for watching. And if you have any questions about this episode, you can go to the comment section below, leave a comment and we'll answer those questions accordingly, or you'll see LinkedIn descriptions for myself and Thomas in the description notes. You can ask us directly there. We encourage conversation on all platforms, so please feel free.
00;15;25;16 - 00;15;34;14
Speaker 1
But until our very next episode, wishing you all a fantastic day, wherever you may be, we'll see you on the next episode of the Auto tech show very soon. Bye for now and out.
