Digital Transformation of Business and CommerceSpeaker: Gerd LeonhardGerd Leonhard is a widely-known and top-rated futurist, an influential author, an acclaimed keynote speaker and a strategic advisor.With over 1’500 engagements in 50+ countries since 2001, Gerd has addressed over 300’000 executives and professionals, and is highly regarded as a global influencer. His diverse client list of over 100 companies includes Unilever, Lloyds Bank, WWF, YouTube, Nokia, The Guardian, Google, Sony, Siemens, BBC, Orange, Deutsche Telekom, MTN, The Financial Times, DDB, Omnicom, the EuropeanCommission, VISA and many others.The Future of Business and Commerce:Digital Transformation Opportunities and Challenges We are living in a world that is evolving exponentially, leaving no industry, nation or government untouched. Just like ‘media’ was redefined dramatically by digital technology, so will be banking and money, work, education/learning, health and transportation. For many companies, it is likely that up to 50% of their revenues in 5-8 years will come from products and income streams that don’t even exist yet, created by innovators whose job title does not even exist yet - witness the recent leaps in machine language translation, cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing etc. Many industries’ business models will be re-writtenand prevailing logic and assumptions will be questioned. At the same time, the traditional, Western paradigm of ‘growth and profit at all costs’ (aka hyper-capitalism) is topping out, and a new generation of economists is defining a new kind of ‘sustainable capitalism’, i.e. a circular approach to generating value. Sustainable may well be the new profitable in the future. So if business is becoming increasingly interdependent, networked and hyper-efficient (‘software is eating the world’) how can incumbent players not be upstaged by digitally-native startups that have no legacy constraints? What does an ‘exponential organization’ look like? What will true transformation entail? If automation, robots and ultra-smart technologies will indeed replace many human workers in the near future, what skills will people (and companies) need to develop to remain valuable? If 5 Billion people are connected on mobile devices as well as with the Internet of Things, how will this change marketing, commerce and product development?Leading the way into a successful future: Strategies and Best PracticesAccurate foresights, keen imagination and rapid innovation are becoming mission critical as we are headed into an exponential future where everything is changing at a rapid pace. How do we decide which trends are important, how do we find time to discover them in the first place, and how do we innovate faster while still managing our risks? And if the future of business is so much shaped by technology, what happens to strictly human qualifications and skills? Will we employ less people and buy more smart software, apps and machines?