ISPO Academy Conference

Founder and managing director—SportMarken24 GmbH

Valeska Benner has been Managing Director of SportMarken24, an e-commerce start-up from Wiesbaden, since spring 2018. After completing her studies at the University of St. Gallen (HSG), she worked for 10 years as a management consultant at A.T. Kearney before founding the start-up. The mother of two is herself an enthusiastic sportswoman and a qualified fitness trainer. Her goal is to connect over 500 stores over the next few years and thus maintain the inner cities and the German sports retail trade. In addition to her entrepreneurial activities, Valeska Benner also acts as a mentor, supporting start-ups in particular, in order to give them helpful advice on setting up their own businesses and to encourage them.

Managing director—Shoplupe GmbH

Johannes Altmann is the founder and managing director of Shoplupe® and has spent half his life working on the branding effect of usability in online shops. He firmly believes in the loyalty of customers when he succeeds in inspiring them. With his team, he advises publishers, brands and retailers who want to drive customer satisfaction to the top. The result is customer happiness at all touchpoints.

Senior Manager—Deloitte GmbH

VP of Business Development EMEA—CLO Virtual Fashion

Lisa Kohlert - Studied Fashion Designer at ESMOD Munich. Worked as a pattern maker in the industry before entering 3D Fashion World. Almost 10 years later, after guiding a variety of of fashion brands through the implementation of 3D technology in their day to day process, she is now leading CLO Europe Team since 2 years as VP of Business Development for CLO Virtual Fashion EMEA, based out of Munich, Germany.

CEO—Keonn

Ramir De Porrata-Doria is Cofounder and CEO of Keonn, a rapidly growing company that provides the most complete, seamless and advanced solution based on RFID technology to improve the customer shopping experience at retail stores, and to increase the sales of retailers. Previosly he worked at the Ricoh Group as the Director of the Outsourcing Business Unit in Spain, and at EuroPraxis Consulting, a management consulting firm. Ramir is PhD in Electrical Engineering and holds a Graduate in Business Administration and Management.

International Sales Manager—Sportmas

Paula, with over 8 years of experience in the sales sector, is a very transversal professional. Her translation studies and her 2-year stay in Germany give her a broad multicultural vision of the market. With passion in everything she does and a clear focus on challenges, she has worked for several years in the automotive and refrigeration industries. She enjoys being creative, thinking outside the box and always taking on a challenge with a can-do attitude. Now she has the chance to combine her sales experience with her greatest passion: sport. She has been doing sports all her life and is now an amateur triathlete who has finished 2 Ironman events.

Head of—#ODLX Outdoordeluxe

Outdoor is my passion in many aspects. Most of the day I'm looking at it from the customers point of view, but my overall perspective has still a 360° angle. My expertise covers the full value chain and is based on more than 25 years of experience in marketing, purchase, management in outdoor retail

General Manager Black Diamond Europe & Vice-President International Sales Black Diamond, PIEPS, ClimbOn

Editor in Chief—sportFACHHANDEL

Andreas Mayer has been working as journalist and editor for over 25 years now including the launch and the positioning of various publications for retailers within the Sporting goods and Outdoor sector. The Economist (University of Cologne) was born into a retailer family, where her also grew up with newspapers and magazines: Both parents owned a newspaper and stationary shop, where he regularly had to help out as a teenager.

CEO—NK Sport

CEO—INTERMATE Media GmbH

Philip Papendieck is Co-Founder and Managing Director of INTERMATE Media GmbH and Co-Founder TRUEMATES GmbH. As a pioneer in the field of influencer marketing, he started INTERMATE, initially as an agency for instagram campaigns, and within a very short time built up one of the leading German agencies for influencer marketing. Complex campaigns are conceived in a separate creative unit and influencer activations are implemented on all social platforms using technology developed in-house. Complex formats are produced in-house with the specially founded production company TRUEMATES. Philip Papendieck founded the agency in 2015 together with Allessandro De Pasquale and Jörn Mecher - initially under the name Insta Media.

Managing director—u25 ventures GmbH Gruppe

Community Manager Outdoor—Messe München GmbH

Category Manager Running, Training, Lifestyle, Teamsport—SPORT 2000 International GmbH

Niko Schulz has held the position of Category Manager of training, running, and lifestyle apparel since 2018. Niko has enjoyed a distinguished career at SPORT 2000. Before taking on his current position, he was Category Manager of team sports, first layer, and swimwear apparel, and Product Manager of textile e-brands. Before joining SPORT 2000, the qualified Logistics Manager worked for several years for Quick Schuh Handelsgesellschaft, where his roles included the position of Junior Product Manager.

Brand Manager ISPO—Messe München GmbH

CEO / Founder—GlobalAMZ

Gregor Leopold is the founder and managing director of GlobalAMZ, based in Munich. GlobalAMZ is a service provider focused purely on Amazon. Gregor Leopold has been active in e-commerce for over 10 years. He started out as a trader on Ebay and Amazon. Due to various requests from his colleagues and other business contacts to advise and support them on Amazon, he came to the agency business. Since 7 years his main focus is only on Amazon. Together with his team, he has already supported a large number of companies and brands from various industries on Amazon. Both on the German market and on international marketplaces. No matter whether it is a start-up or a multi-billion dollar company, everyone has a chance to be very successful on Amazon with the right strategy.

Co-Founder - GreenroomVoice

Co-Founder - Brands for Good

Group Project Director—Messe Muenchen Shanghai Co., Ltd.

Exhibition Manager ISPO Beijing & ISPO—Messe München GmbH

Managing Director—Trendbüro

Since 2016, Ulrich Köhler has lead Trendbüro, governing research and innovation projects. He has in-depth experience in consulting organisations from a multitude of industries on the subjects of customer centricity, digitalisation and value change.

Executive Director—Golden Snowflake Ski Industry Alliance

As a veteran of sports industry in China, Bao has been promoting various sports including running, ski, rehabilitation for years in China. He founded GSIA in 2017 with two partners and dedicated to promote winter sports in China.

President—BC Sports

Mr. Huang founded BC Sports in 2003, which has been the leading company since and represents 9 famous outdoor and ski brands from all over the world. The product line covers from apparel to outdoor gear and ski equipment.

Managing Director—Konzept & Markt GmbH

Degree in economics and business administration at the Universities of Bielefeld and Göttingen, Doctorate (Dr. rer. pol.), University of Göttingen, Project Manager at LINK Institute Lucerne, Switzerland, Head of Customized Consumer Research, ACNielsen, Frankfurt am Main, Since 1996 Founder and Managing Partner, Konzept & Markt GmbH

[COO] - MobiMediaGroup

Reinhold Wawrzynek has been with MobiMedia AG since 2005, and is responsible for the operational business and major international projects as COO. MobiMedia AG has been in the market for over 25 years and is a leading provider of order management solutions for the fashion, textile and sports industries. For years he has been dealing with the topic of process integration and the resulting added value for the departments involved in the project from product development, marketing and sales.  True to the guiding principle: "From story to product! For example, he has led adidas, Intersport or the VFC Group through complex projects and is a professional especially for strategic implementations with high integration requirements. Currently he accompanies strategic processes in the areas of agile management, digital marketing integration, "digital showroom" and intelligent order apps on the retail floor. He is also available for questions and answers in numerous expert panels.

Founder—Digital IQ

Dr. Teo Pham is an expert for consumer tech and social media, with a focus on  Generation Z and China. His company Digital IQ provides consulting services and executive education to leading international companies. His daily videos on LinkedIn have received millions of views and he is the host of the "Teo Podcast". As a keynote speaker, he has given presentations in New York, London, Milan, Stockholm and Berlin and was invited to speak at companies like Google, Accenture, Coca-Cola and Walt Disney. Prior to that, he was an e-commerce entrepreneur, a business school professor and worked in media and venture capital.

Senior BD Luxury / Fashion / Outdoor DACH / Turkey / Eastern Europe—Alibaba

Marcel Roessner has joined Alibaba Tmall in 2018 to support building up the luxury business with a focus on Fashion, Outdoor/ Sports, Jewelry and Watches. He started his career 1997 at Richemont group which holds a portfolio of 18 luxury brands in jewelry and watches, including the fashion platform Net-a Porter. After building up the group watch brand PANERAI in 24 markets, he became a senior advisor at Roland Berger Strategy consultants for luxury brands with a focus on digital transformation. Following, he held a position as European Director at the French luxury group Kering, being responsible for the group watch brand Girard-Perregaux, including Japan, Russia and India. In his role as Senior BD Manager at Alibaba Group, he is a responsible partner for luxury brands in the DACH region, Turkey and Eastern Europe. His mission is to help brands finding the gateway to China with Alibaba and to make them capitalize on the rich ecosystem of the group's platforms

Founder—Wild Rampage—Sport in China

COO—Beijing Sanfo Outdoor Products Co Ltd

Editor—TextilWirtschaft

Mara Javorovic is an editor of TextilWirtschaft, the leading specialist magazine for the German-speaking fashion industry. Her are of expertise is sport, business, fashion, market development.

CEO—Mammut Sports Group

Dr. Oliver Pabst has been CEO of the Mammut Sports Group since September 2016. In his role as CEO, Oliver drives a number of strategic initiatives, in particular the development of Mammut into the digital market leader in the outdoor industry. He is also a member of the Executive Board of Conzzeta AG, the parent company of Mammut. Oliver began his career in 1993 at McKinsey & Company in Zurich, Switzerland. Since 2006 he has been a member of the Board of Directors and Managing Director of several divisions of Willy Bogner KGaA in Munich, Germany. From 2002 to 2005 he was Managing Partner of Boards & More Holding SA in Montreux.

Creative Lead—W.L. Gore & Associates

He wants to make the brand an emotional experience - with this mission Erman Aykurt joined Gore Wear. As Creative Lead of the functional clothing specialist, he is responsible not only for product design, but also for marketing and communication content. Now the passionate cyclist will tell the story of a brand that revolutionised cycling clothing more than 30 years ago with the Giro jacket model. The brand business is his: Aykurt has been active in the sports industry for over 20 years. He spent several years at Adidas, at Converse in the USA and most recently was Creative Director of the Sportsstyle Division of Puma.

CEO—MobilMediaGroup

Hannes Rambold is spokesman of the board of MobiMedia AG. MobiMedia AG has been a leading provider of order management solutions for the sports, footwear and fashion industries for over 30 years. For years he has been dealing with the topic of process integration and the resulting added value for the specialist departments involved in the project from product development, marketing and sales. True to the guiding principle: "From story to product!" For example, he has led adidas, Intersport or the VFC Group through complex projects and is a professional in particular for strategic implementations with high integration requirements. Currently he accompanies strategic processes in the areas of agile management, digital marketing integration, "Digital Showroom" and intelligent order apps on the retail floor. He is also involved in numerous expert panels to give his insights on these topics.

Textile Trend Consultant

International textile trend consultant, Louisa Smith, forecasts up to three years in advance in all sectors of the textile chain, from fibre through to final garment. Louisa’s vision and research, monitoring textile developments through to global affairs has a bearing on delivering the right information for final applications. Working with ISPO Textrends since its launch, her combination of creative know-how combined with market and product development intelligence has created key seasonal decisions for the sports and outdoors sector.

Project Manager Roadmap & Working Groups—OE-A

Jan Krausmann studied Molecular Nanoscience at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg. He started working in the field of flexible and printed electronics in 2012 as a research assistant during his Master's programme. During his PhD studies his research was focused on the development and characterisation of novel, low-temperature processed semiconductors for thin-film transistor applications. After that he joined the OE-A (Organic and Printed Electronics Association), a working group within VDMA, and is responsible for the OE-A roadmap for organic and printed electronics and coordination of the working groups.

PhD sudent—Fraunhofer IISB

Alicia Zörner, research scientist, received her Master degree in nanotechnology from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg in 2016. Since 2016 she is a PhD student at Fraunhofer IISB within the group on thin film systems. Main topics of this group are printed electronics, thin film sensors, as well as device and application development. Her PhD thesis is focused on the development and fabrication of printed sensors for multiple ion detection in liquid samples and the improvement of the sensor selectivity.

System Engineer eHealth & Wearables—IEE S.A.

Educated in Electrical Engineering at the University of Applied Science in Magdeburg/Germany and in Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN/USA, Tobias is a knowledgeable and dedicated professional, with a strong track record for success within the fields of electrical, medical, healthcare and life science applications. Over 15 years of international experience within multidisciplinary teams with focus on academic and industrial research, project management, team management, and international standard development and implementation. Adept at designing, developing, and testing of novel technologies and research applications at international venues. Produced results at prestigious universities and corporations in Germany, Portugal, Luxembourg and the United States used by industry, government, and academic institutions. In his current position at IEE in Luxembourg as a System Engineer for wearables and health products he leads the technological development.

Researcher Smart Materials—Centre of Nanotechnology and Smart Materials

Kevin Rodrigues has a Master degree in Chemical Analysis and Characterization Techniques from the University of Minho. Currently works as a researcher and project manager at CeNTI's Smart Materials team participating on different national and international R&D projects with industrial partners. Over his professional career, he acquired knowledge in the development of smart textiles for automotive industry (e.g. smart sensing textile structures for automotive interiors and technical textiles for composites reinforcement for automotive structural parts), wearables (e.g. integration of heating systems in clothing) and home textiles (heating and cooling systems for thermal comfort). His research has been focused on different subjects from wearables usability issues to smart textiles process scalability challenges.

Owner of MSWtech and General Chair LOPEC—MSWtech and LOPEC

Wolfgang Mildner is Founder and Owner of MSWtech in Stein / Germany (www.mswtech.de). MSWtech supports companies and other organizations to find value in new technologies—especially printed electronics. Wolfgang was Managing Director of PolyIC (a leading company for Printed electronics) from 2004–2014. Before Wolfgang Mildner worked in various business positions for Siemens (New business development, Business responsible for Industrial PC’s, Failsafe PLC’s and other). Wolfgang Mildner was responsible for a number of projects turning promising technologies into business.  Wolfgang Mildner studied and achieved Diploma for Computer Science at the Technical University of Erlangen. Competencies: Technology Competence in Printed and Flexible Electronics, 3D Printing, Injection Molding, Sensors, RFID, NFC and Industrial Automation. Business Competence in Marketing, Management of Startups and Business Development in High-tech Industries.

CEO–ORTOVOX

Christian Schneidermeier (born 1969) is a qualified sports economist and since 2011 sole managing director of the German sporting goods manufacturer ORTOVOX, which specializes in alpine sports and is based in Taufkirchen near Munich. Growing up on Lake Tegernsee, his career in sales and marketing led him away from his hometown. The highlights of his professional life included working for the Olympic Training Center in Tauberbischofsheim, Gore Bike Wear and the Beach Volleyball Masters Organization.

GM–11teamsports

Dennis Schröder has been the managing director of 11teamsports since 2017. At the online retailer for football and team sports, he is responsible for the entire area of ​​sales and marketing. Before moving to the team sports specialist, Schröder had been working for the soccer division for over ten years. Most recently, he held the position of Global Strategic Account Director at Nike. His previous positions also included PUMA and Fortuna Düsseldorf.

International Sales & Retail Manager—Messe München GmbH

SportScheck

sportsella e.K.

Association Manager VDS - Verband Deutscher Sportfachhändler

Karin Höcker, former competitive athlete Rhythmic Gymnastics + Trick Skiing, has been managing the representation of interests of German sports retailers, the vds. She is particularly committed to the topic of further training, such as the vds Super Cup, which will be held for the 35th time in 2020.