Under the motto "Silicon Economy - Artificial Intelligence as a Driver of New Business Models", representatives from science and business, large corporations, start-ups and SMEs will meet for the 37th time in Dortmund's Westfallenhallen to discuss current and future challenges and opportunities in logistics at the congress jointly organized by the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML and the Digital Hub Logistics.

The digitalization of everything and artificial intelligence in everything will change previous business models in particular. In a world in which artificial intelligence networks everything, in which every device communicates and negotiates with all others, there is no longer any room for access-controlled systems. The interplay of platforms, blockchains, artificial intelligence and swarms of cyber-physical systems is giving rise to a usage-based Silicon Economy. The Future Logistics Congress - 37th Dortmund Talks will discuss how companies can assert themselves in this new B2B competition.

In the FuturePlenum on the first day of the congress, September 17, speakers will discuss the opportunities of a new platform economy and other key topics such as artificial intelligence and the future of mobility. Prof. Michael ten Hompel, Managing Director of the Fraunhofer IML, will present his big picture of a Silicon Economy. "Logistics will be the first industry in which the Silicon Economy becomes a reality," says ten Hompel.

In addition to a lecture by Prof. Andreas Pinkwart, Minister for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, congress participants can also look forward to a series of presentations by well-known business representatives - including Schenker, Uber and Mars. Dennis Heusser, Senior Associate at Uber, for example, will discuss the role of artificial intelligence in the mobility of tomorrow: "AI offers great potential in terms of safety, as a large number of today's road traffic accidents are due to human error." Christoph Bornschein, Managing Director of TLGG, a consulting agency for digital business, outlines the current developments at company level: "The digitalization of business processes is unbundling traditional value chains, enriching them and developing new services. Since 'value creation' is basically every business model, every business model is likely to be fundamentally affected by digitalization."

On the afternoon of the first day of the congress, eight start-ups will present their innovative business models in a pitch competition for the third time. The best idea will be chosen by the audience and presented with the "Digital Logistics Award" and 15,000 euros in prize money during the evening event. This makes the award one of the most highly endowed prizes in the logistics start-up scene.

At the Fraunhofer "Silicon Economy" symposium on the second day of the congress, September 18, speakers will show in five parallel sequences how they put innovations into practice in their companies. From machine learning and the digitalized world of load carriers to hospital logistics, participants will discuss key issues that are affecting the industry now and in the future. In addition, on the second day of the congress, the "Digital Sandbox" will once again offer the opportunity not only to talk about new technologies at numerous demonstrators, but also to try them out directly.

Registrations for this year's Future Congress can be made online at https://www.zukunftskongress-logistik.de/.