Revolutionary technologies and high suspense at the 18th Annual German Personnel Consultants’ Day

The around 160 participants were captivated by the fascinating topics. Technologies have been evolving at a rapid pace, and topical trends such as Digitization, Industry 4.0 and Omnichannel are changing the labor market and are creating unprecedented challenges for those working in the IT sector.

The Federal Association of German Management Consultants (BDU) is holding the annual German Personnel Consultants' Day, which received an excellent rating from this year's participants. The congress section on the BDU's website can be accessed directly via http://www.bdu.de/wie-wir-sie-unterstuetzen/wie-wir-berater-unterstuetzen/konferenzen/18-deutscher-personalberatertag/

The IT-Personalberatung once again attended this event, represented by the managing directors Dr. Peter Dienst and Manfred Wenzel. Both were particularly fascinated by the presentation of Mr. Thomas Schulz (Der SPIEGEL), who gave a captivating account of his observations on Silicon Valley, one of the world's leading hubs for high tech innovation and development:

Work life and personal life are becoming more and more intertwined: work is life! Which also means that a large part of recreation and leisure activities will take place in the workplace.

Dynamic, modern companies are already implementing changes. Fitness and leisure facilities in the workplace, flexible working hours, 24-hour canteens, and office and car sharing shall help employees maintain a healthy work-life balance in times of increasing challenges.

Unlike all other developments, technological advances do not progress linearly, but exponentially, making it increasingly hard to keep pace.

A perfect example is autonomous driving. Intensive research has been conducted in this area during the past decade. However, there has been more progress in the last twelve months than in the preceding ten years combined. Autonomous driving is expected to reach market maturity in five years, and will likely be part of our everyday lives only five years after that.

How is this possible? Newly available technologies in the field of data storage ('big data'), tremendously fast computers and communication networks, as well as increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence by means of software solutions expand our opportunities by leaps and bounds. Machines are able to learn, to see, to speak, to think, and to drive cars...

Our biggest challenge will be coming to grips with these technological leaps and incorporating them into our personal and work lives. For one thing is certain: technological advancements will continue to progress at an accelerating pace.

These developments pose new challenges, particularly for the business world. Companies intending to play a leading role in technology innovation are setting up branch offices in Silicon Valley, as e.g. Apple, Intel, Google, eBay, HP, Facebook, Amazon, Tesla, Mercedes Benz, and many more. They all have one common interest: where is technology taking us?

One phrase keeps coming up: "Software is eating the World".