Our network also gains its strength from the exchange of information between the members. This creates the personal contacts that guarantee our customers that, if necessary, experienced colleagues are involved as specialists for every advisor service requested or offered by a member.

The personal contact within the network is supported by monthly video conferences and two member conferences per year. For the first conference in 2023, we were guests of our partner PWC in Frankfurt at the end of March.

High above the rooftops of "Mainhattan", experts from PWC gave us a strategy update and impulses on the consulting topics of Private Equity and Working Capital on the first day.

On the second day, we were able to "suck honey" from the keynotes for our advisor activity in three perfectly complementary sessions:

Jens-Peter Kuhle from our Business Alliance Partner ScMI AG impressively showed us how our clients can (and should!) also use systematic Scenario Management to prepare themselves on the management side for situations that, for example, threaten with the effects of sudden events (keyword "black swan": pandemic, war in Ukraine, exponential influence of the benefits of artificial intelligence) and present risks, but can also offer considerable opportunities: weigh Scenario Probabilities, develop more Risk- and Opportunity Literacy!

Prof. Tim Bruysten from Business Alliance Partner Richtwert GmbH took us on a parforce ride to the power of Artificial Intelligence under the title "Discovering the beauty of the future". What is it already capable of? How fast is it developing exponentially? What questions should advisory boards, supervisory boards, executive boards and management boards ask themselves now and urgently, what consequences should this have for corporate governance? Exciting to pick up on this! And relaxing to finish with a few small experiments with ChatGPT and other tools, e.g. for image generation.

Finally, Dr. Annette Doms (ICAA Strategists GmbH) engaged us with her key-note "Metaverse: New Business Models on the Web3" into the world of the metaverse, which is not yet familiar to most of us. Examples from the market with digital artworks allowed us to develop ideas of new evolutionary forms of business with digital property, of the benefits of blockchain technology and NFTs: a field that will affect some of the startups we advise just as much as established market leaders facing new forms of competition.

The feedback on the conference was clear: a lot of "food for thought" taken away, very happy to come back, we are looking forward to the next conference in September!