Marcel Reichart about updating your reality

The DLD (Digital – life – design) is a global community of digital leaders, creatives and technologists. Co-chaired by Hubert Burda and Yossi Vardi it creates conversations on innovation, digital media, markets, science and culture. Last year DLD founders and Directors Steffi Czerny and Marcel Reichart hosted a brunch in the Serpentine Gallery, last week they were on the 2012 conference in Munich where they discuss topics such as social commerce, growing markets like Israel, Russia or Turkey and as well the future of cities, mobility and sustainability.

Marcel, what was talked about SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) at the conference?

Everybody knows that the plans to realise these laws have been halted for now. Alec Ross, the Senior Advisor on Innovation and Hillary Clinton's man for the digital revolution said, the times you can make politicy against the network are over. He talked about the shift of power in the internet and said that the 21st century won't be a good time for control freaks.

 

Free downloads, web activism, eBooks - is all that why DLD was launched in 2005?

The idea came from Hubert Burda. He wanted to prepare his house on the digital future. We are a kind of a think tank, it’s a experiement where people meet and discuss about the future of media and society.

In the past you had outstanding speakers like Mark Zuckerberg or Alexander Kluge. Let¹s do some name dropping. Who performed on your stage in Munich?

We had Jim Breyer (Accel/ Facebook), Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Drew Houston (Dropbox), Nikesh Arora (Google), René Obermann (CEO, Deutsche Telekom), Arianna Huffington (president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media) and Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer at Facebook. Also I look forward to the Software engineer Jack Dorsey, the Co-Founder of Twitter (he was the CEO until October 2008). Dorsey had the original idea for Twitter while still at Odeo, a podcasting startup which was a project of Obvious Corp. He is now the chairman of Twitter.

And has actually new projects?

In May 2009, Dorsey announced his latest startup, Square. Originally code-named Squirrel it's a mobile payment startup with both an app and a piece of hardware that allows the iPhone and Android to accept credit card payments.

Which trends do you see for 2012?

Tel Aviv has several high-tech hubs | photo by Katia Moskvitch

We are located in the 15th Year of the digital revolution. Facebook there for seven years and will soon have one billion users. Only now we can say: Now, everything is there, we have every opportunity to exploit the potential of the Internet. Fundamental innovations lead to fundamental changes in society. Also we are concerned about the issues of job security and development: Can Germany compete in the digital markets?

What about Israel as a new market?

It becomes more and more a innovative hub. Since its inception DLD is closely related to the "Digital Nation" Israel and encourages interaction between German and Israeli business leaders and start-ups. In the spirit of Digital Life Design Saul Singer's new book about the start up nation which illuminates the diverse influences on markets and society in the digital age. He writes about innovation and growth using innovative power of Israel and shows how economic success can stimulate anywhere in the world. The new symbol of the evolution of Israel’s high-tech sector is the Nation's Hub for start ups in the heart of Tel Aviv, a refurbished 1904 building on Rothschild Boulevard. It’s the site of ebay’s new global center for social shopping, a sign that the Israeli capital is making inroads in its bid to become a global tech hub.
 

DLD founders and Directors Steffi Czerny and Marcel Reichart | photo by S.D.

Your work is also about creating a creative fireplace - how does it look like?

Therefore, we have culture, science and art as elements of our conferences - which belongs to humanity, even in the digital age. Our art panels show the first digital artist, producing a new generation.