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Review of the 9th Xplor Symposium and Exhibition, June 18th - 20th, Congress Center Baden-Baden.

If German Xplor e. V. was a company listed at the stock exchange, investors who had not bought shares in time would be very frustrated – the association continues to grow at an enormous pace. Proof is in their latest symposium which took place in Baden-Baden Germany, from June 18th to 20th 2007 and whose statistics once again speak for themselves.
More than 500 participants (2006: 450), over 700 square meters of exhibition space (2006: over 600), 50 exhibitors (2006: 37) and 32 presentations (2006: 27) show that there is always potential for exceeding the previous year’s success.

Similar to last year, the organizers had to run parallel tracks and use both auditoriums in the state-of-the-art conference center in order to provide the large number of excellent speakers a chance to present their lectures. For the first time, all sessions had been simultaneously translated into English by professional interpreters to allow interested parties from other European countries to attend and to conveniently participate in the symposium.

Focus of the first day of the conference was executive presentations of the large printer manufacturers. On the second day customers shared their experiences and best practices. The deregulation of the postal services market was the final topic on the third day.

In addition to subject specialization and technical expertise concerning document management topics, there were also general lectures dealing with the future. Keynote speaker was physicist and science-fiction author Dr. Karlheinz Steinmueller, who described in his session titled "People and Technology in the Future" the "expectations of a futurologist". Steinmueller intended, among other things, to take away the fears from his interested listeners about a future in which machines will rule over mankind: "Technology isn’t everything, what counts in the end is the human factor". However, people will always have to face changes. The futurologist introduced a cycle model according to which the guiding theme of the economy changes every 50 years. The latest cycle was dominated by the Internet, logistics and mobile telecommunication. The next one could have health and sustainable energy as the main topic.

Besides presenting general trends, Steinmueller also looked at changes that might have a specific impact on the world of document management. In the future; technology may possibly enable totally new ways of document color design. Today, pigments define the shade of color, in the future it might be possible to activate a desired color simply by interference. Or after printing books on demand will we "print" toys on demand using 3-D printers?

One thing is certain for futurologist Steinmueller: "The ‘Evernet’ - to be online always and everywhere - will change our life as much as electricity did 100 years ago. The times of "Big Brother is watching you" have long been displaced by "Millions of little Brothers". He does not think it is very likely that man attains immortality – but considers it realistic, after all with modern medical technology the average life expectancy increases (two – three months for newborns every year).
Accompanying the presentations in the two auditoriums of the Baden-Baden Conference Center, German Xplor e.V. invited participants to an impressive exhibition where software and hardware vendors presented their document management solutions. For the first time this year the 4th floor in the Conference center was used to accommodate all exhibitors.

The main objective of this year’s event, however, was networking. Participants not only used the congress and exhibition area to exchange ideas but also enjoyed the sophisticated evening program. On the first night, a reception was held in the „Kurhaus“- the second night offered relaxation at a beach party.

Next years’ events are already planned; the Baden-Baden Congress Center is already booked for the next three years. And 2008 will bring an anniversary: the non-profit board of directors with Peter Dehm as head will organize the 10th event of this kind.

 

 

 

Information concerning the German Xplor e.V.

The mission of German Xplor e.V. is to promote the use of high-end document management technology in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The association of 500 members targets decision makers and strategic planners belonging to the first and second management level of data centers, insurances, banks and IT service providers, including IT, marketing and business unit managers.

Programs and conferences are offered for an effective use of electronic document technology and aimed at the above mentioned group of professionals