Dear visitors!
We would like to take the opportunity to thank all our partners, the contributing embassies, speakers, helping hands and of course, the numerous participants for a great collaboration. Only with your help, Brand Global Summit 2018 can and will be a successful event!
It has been an inspiring conference, gaining insights to the (European) brand competitiveness in the global context, the economic opportunities through investment in branding and innovation as well as the development and marketing of competence clusters as a formula for growth.
Looking forward to welcoming you again in 2019!
Dr. Gerhard Hrebicek & the iconvienna-Team
An exclusive business and networking event that brings together representatives of the region and top decision-makers from politics, business, science, international organizations and diplomacy. The aim is to promote cooperation between Austria, international companies and CEE countries.
Every year in April, the European Brand Institute invites to an active dialogue and subsequent networking, enabling companies/organizations to present innovative, new projects to an exclusive circle of international representatives and top-class decision-makers.
This year’s topic is “Innovation Needs Branding – Branding Needs Innovation” within the categories Branding in Innovation, Regions, Clusters and Investment”.
– Make contacts to contracts –
Gallery
Silvia Angelo
Board Member, ÖBB Infrastruktur AG
“Value, Performance and Service are crucial for a brand like ÖBB. A successful brand has to give orientation, build trust, ensure and deliver quality and attract customers.”
Christian Altmann
Head of Clusterland, Business Upper Austria, Cluster Styria Committee New Energy for Industry
Brigitte Bach
Head of Energy Department, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH
“Cluster bieten beste Bedingungen für Unternehmen, um Innovationen und neue Technologien gemeinsam branchen- und sektorübergreifend zu entwickeln und zu implementieren. Der Energiesektor ist dafür ein gutes Beispiel, wie das Verbundprojekt „New Energy for Industry – NEFI“ zeigt, das die Dekarbonisierung der Industrie u.a. über Energieeffizienz und Integration erneuerbarer Energie vorantreibt. NEFI schafft damit eine Win-Win-Situation für Politik, Wirtschaft und Forschung. Innovation bildet damit auch eine starke Basis für ein neues Branding der beteiligten Unternehmen und des neuen Verbundclusters.”
Alois Steinbichler
CEO, Kommunalkredit Austria
“The environment for infrasturcture financing in Europe has changed drastically in recent years. This has resulted in a paradigm shift.”
Christian Emil Vancea
Director Innovations, myWorld Solutions AG
“It’s not only about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.”
Karin Zipperer
CTO, ASFINAG
“Our 
cities are fast growing communities with all sorts of needs and requirements. Therefore, we try to deeply explore our visions for transportation of the future – with a sharp focus on how it will impact quality of life, individual mobility, economics and chances. The challenge of our time as a modern motorway operator is to deal today with the question of our mobility of tomorrow. For us, this comprises factors like ecological sustainability and social responsibility. We have to rethink our idea of transportation in all ways to meet the standards of future mobility. Our part as a motorway operator is to connect infrastructures, raise driving comfort, provide traffic information in real time, to use sustainable technologies and of course enhance road safety. This is especially true for big cities where all needs like individual,economical and touristical requirements have to be met in spite of limited space.”
Sonja Kato
Managing Director, unikato communications
Moderation
Michael Scherz
Chief Innovation Officer, Advantage Austria
Gerhard Schuller
CEO, ELK Fertighaus GmbH
„From my point of view brand management is not just a marketing topic. Nowadays brands are essential for customer´s decisions and therefore we have both to manage our brands ELK, Hanlo and Zenker according to the latest standards and benchmark the financial value of theses brands as other property assets too. I am looking forward to hear more about the latest news and trends on brand financial reporting.“
Cecilia Sjöberg
Director and Head of Industrial Technolgies, Vinnova Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems
“Industrial clusters can play an important role by stimulate collaborations between companies, universities and other higher education institutions, public services and civil society. By formulate a common agenda clusters can help to strengthen the strategic innovation area, both nationally and internationally.”
Elisabeth Stampfl- Blaha
Managing Director, Austrian Standards International
“The international standard ISO 20671 on brand evaluation was recently adopted unanimously. This document contains plenty of Austrian know-how that highly committed brand experts from Austria turned into a global standard – in a dialogue with experts from all over the world and with the support of Austrian Standards. Just like in the field of brand evaluation, Austria is involved in around 90 percent of the projects of the International Organization for Standardization ISO: via Austrian Standards which forms part of a world-wide network and manages procedures and projects for the development of standards as a neutral and independent platform.”
Klaus Müllner
Chief Investment Officer, Summerlight Capital Partners
“Alternative Financing for Cluster/Lead Brands is pivotal for companies to take the next step of their growth journey either domestically, regional or globally and to exploit the full potential of the Brand. But a rich portfolio of brands may also support the growth of the economy and increase employment. SummerLight Capital Partners, as a manager of a Private Equity Fund exclusively focused on Consumer Companies and its Brand, is delighted to participate this year again at iconvienna, which is well-known and perfectly positioned for bringing people and companies from different countries and disciplines together to talk about Brands”.
Peter Perstel
Head of Rail Systems, AC Styria Mobility Cluster
“ACstyria – Together we Move…integrates members of the Styrian mobility industry and strengthens Styria‘s position as an internationally renowned region of research, developement and production.”
Bernhard Puttinger
Clustermanager, Green Tech Cluster Styria GmbH
“Up to the top – novel ideas and brands are rewarded – The Styrian R&D quota of 5.16% takes the top position among all European quotas, making Styria a perfect breeding ground for innovative technologies and new approaches in research. In particular the Styrian Green Tech companies in the Green Tech Cluster are known to belong to the world’s best. This business cluster continues to lead international rankings as # 1 hotspot for environmental technology and #1 in Cluster Management Excellence. The Green Tech Cluster organisation initiated 35 industrial innovation projects in 2017 (e.g. Austria’s largest innovation project in green energy in history), established more than 1,000 business contacts and fostered the growth of more than 200 companies to an annual average of 12%, is twice as fast as the global green tech markets.”
Johannes Scherk
Consulting & Forschung, Pöchhacker Innovation Consulting
“Urbanisation leads to a rising global demand for urban technologies and solutions for a wide range of challenges associated with growing population in urban areas. Cities can use their image as a livable city or smart city to promote home-based companies engaged in a wide field of urban technologies. Strategic positioning of companies’ competences and their contribution to solving various urbanization challenges can enhance international visibility and access to new markets of firms abroad. “
Gerald Ganzger
Attorney & Managing Partner, Lansky, Ganzger + Partnerrechtsanwälte GmbH
“The protection of trademarks is an important issue for every company. Trademarks are a core value for companies, more and more companies have become aware of the value of trademarks. Registering a trademark is the easiest way to secure this value for the company. It’s a great honor for me to speak at the iconvienna Brand Global Summit and to promote the importance of protecting trademarks.”
Simone Hagenauer
Project Manager Cluster NÖ, ecoplus, Niederösterreichs Wirtschaftsagentur GmbH
“Specialization and Diversification of Research & Innovation: How Clusters and Technopoles Contribute to Regional Branding.”
Gerhard Hrebicek
President, European Brand Institute
Chien-Hao Hsu
CEO, Zeevan GmbH
“Digital Evolution is now happening even faster and smarter. New technology enables individuals, communities and businesses growing in a speed that the majority of human beings are not yet used to. From there brands communicate the purpose and values of every successful organization. Through meaningful experiences with brands we can create the synergy between people, technology and business globally.”
Stefan Krenn
General Secretary, Novomatic AG
„Companies that are successful innovators know their strengths and what they want to excel in. Since 1980, NOVOMATIC has revolutionized the gaming industry through innovation and is today Europe’s leading and one of the world’s larges
Edgar Baum
CEO & Chief Brand Economist, Strata Insights Inc.
“From frivolous to serious: how this thing called “brand” is actually going to drive enterprise value and financial performance. Defend, protect, and grow your company by knowing how to invest into your brand in this intangible era.”
Bobby Calder
Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, USA
“Standards are the key really being able in the future to treat brands as intangible financial assets so that they may be fully taken into account in corporate governance and in transactions among companies as well as in investment decisions. And instead of managing marketing functions based on efficiency (such as the number of consumers reached by an advertising expenditure) brand value standards offer the opportunity to manage effectiveness- how effective the organization is in creating brand value as an intangible asset.”
Carlos Chanduvi Suárez
Senior Coordinator of Climate Technologies and Innovation, Department of Energy, UNIDO
“Stakeholders demand climate action: In today’s digital world, stakeholders have more information and are more conscious about the impact companies have on the planet. Mindful shoppers are eager to support companies doing their part to make a positive impact in the world and equally ready to boycott others that take actions contrary to their beliefs. Believing, implementing and communicating climate actions will increasing becoming a major distinctive capability.”
Martin Eichtinger
Councilor fpr International Relations, Provinicial Government of Lower Austria
Veronika Ettinger
Marketing Manager BU Fertilizers, Borealis
“Borealis is a leading provider of innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilizers. In our business success in innovation shifts quickly from its traditional focus on molecule and product innovation to the profiling of new services combining product application knowhow and digital tools. Just as much as in B2C interactions, this trends opens opportunities and new ways of creating customer experience in upstream B2B environments.”
