He may well be the next German chancellor and likes to lay things on the line: Peer Steinbrück, opposition candidate for the coming election in September. At NEXT Berlin, the economic expert will speak frankly about the chances and challenges for digital development and business in Germany and Europe. With his appearance at the conference for digital trend topics, Steinbrück underlines the relevance of the sector for the industrial stand and start-up scene in Germany and especially in Berlin.

Renowned American economic editor Zanny Minton Beddoes of The Economist will interview Peer Steinbrück on the first conference day of NEXT Berlin about the seminal development of the digital and the creative industry.

Steinbrück will be followed by more than one hundred international thought leaders and decision makers of the digital industry. Among them will be Harper Reed (Obama’s digital head for the re-election campaign), start-up guru Yossi Vardi, tech blogger Robert Scoble (Scobleizer), sci-fi-author Bruce Sterling, futurist Marina Gorbis, Stephen Wolfram, inventor of the search engine Wolfram Alpha, Thomas Kiessling (Chief Innovation Officer of NEXT main presenting partner Deutsche Telekom) and many more.