Cyber Valley Days: Innovation through collaboration

In the following interview, Alina Benze, Business Development Manager at Cyber Valley GmbH, shares her experiences of the three-day event.

What was your key takeaway from Cyber Valley Days?

One of the standout moments for me was Thomas Reith’s (Site Lead Biberach, Boehringer Ingelheim) speech at the Finale of Cyber Valley Days. He highlighted that Boehringer Ingelheim is already generating 50% of its innovation through external collaboration. This proved the success of a key message I’m always sharing with new or existing members of the Cyber Valley Community. The topic of AI and robotics is so dynamic and development cycles are so short that it is important to partner up with other players to stay ahead in the game.

Was there a particular moment during Cyber Valley Days that you found especially inspiring?

Hearing Yann LeCun’s (VP and Chief AI Scientist, Meta) talk was overall a very impressive moment and for sure something extraordinary. Apart from the interesting perspective he shared on the current status of intelligent systems and its limitations, I found the following call-to-action very inspiring: He asked us not to be scared but to appreciate both the people and machines working for us that are also in fact smarter than us. I think this is a very unique attitude from a lead scientist at a global technology company. This should inspire the many others who are leading big and small teams in all forms of organizations – from research institutes, start-ups, SMEs to global corporates.

Read further interviews with Rebecca Beiter (Director of Communication & Society), Janell Lia-Breitmeyer (Scientific Coordinator), and Paul-David Bittner (Business Development Manager, Start-ups) to discover their perspectives on Cyber Valley Days.