11/06/2025
On November 5, the Smart Systems Hub’s hub:disrupt took place at the Transparent Factory in Dresden—a day dedicated to co-innovation and collaboration. The event offered a diverse mix of keynotes, workshops, exchange formats, and practical demonstrations. The goal was to learn from each other, inspire each other, and jointly create new opportunities for the digital future of industry and production.
The day began with an inspiring keynote speech by Angelina Marko (ZVEI) on the topic of digital sovereignty through the Manufacturing X data ecosystem. The concept of open data spaces was a recurring theme throughout the entire program.
A particular highlight was the Smart Systems Hub’s pop-up test bed. It offers companies an industrial test field for trialing innovative technologies under realistic conditions. Among other things, weasl was also used there at the manual workstation.
In addition to interactive topic islands, hub:disrupt offered a wide range of workshops:
In the morning, portrino (Nicole Sturm and Zsuzsa Rötter) held a workshop entitled “Stack it smart: MarTech for B2B companies.” The aim was to provide an overview of marketing tools along the customer journey and to address the question of what ultimately constitutes a successful marketing technology stack. It became clear that tools do not automatically replace non-functioning processes. They map existing processes, but cannot repair them. What is crucial, therefore, is clarity about user needs, processes, and goals – not just a collection of tools.
In the afternoon, Katrin Dunker (change miteinander meistern) and Danielle Braun (SupplyOn) led a workshop entitled “From idea to solution: collegial case consultation for agile doers.” The method proved to be a structured and streamlined way to create clarity and facilitate decision-making together. Particularly inspiring was the impulse to use “AND” instead of “BUT” more often in creative processes: while ‘but’ blocks and stops energy, “and” invites further thinking and joint design. An important insight: it is not about prescribing the final solution, because advice can still be a blow, but about providing a colorful bouquet of possibilities. Or as Rumi puts it: “There is a place beyond right and wrong. There we can meet.”
Finally, the Topic Island “Use Cases & Production” from companies such as ULT, XENON, and MackSmaTec GmbH offered practical insights into specific production scenarios and possible approaches to innovation.
Conclusion:
hub:disrupt proved to be an inspiring and practical platform for knowledge transfer, networking, and co-innovation. It was an event that provided a wide range of ideas for the further development of digital ecosystems and offered valuable insights beyond the horizon.
Autor: Maren Fichtner