Anne Aubrunner took over the establishment of the new business unit FMTG Invest at the Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism Group in June 2022 and has been successfully leading it ever since. As an experienced banker, she has spent more than 25 years building and managing business units and multidisciplinary teams, with a focus on business model transformation, strategy development, and market expansion. She worked for over 12 years with the Raiffeisen Banking Group in Austria, including 7.5 years at Raiffeisen Kapitalanlage Gesellschaft. Subsequently, she was instrumental in establishing the retail investment platform Kommunalkredit Invest in Austria and Germany and significantly expanding the institutional client business. At FMTG Invest, she is also responsible for the further development of the digital investment platform and the creation of a long-term investor community around FMTG’s tourism projects. (© Dragam Dokmanovic)

Christian has been active in the food service industry for more than 25 years and has served as Head of Global Food Service Transformation at the Dussmann Group since 2025. In 2021, together with Dussmann, he founded the Food Service Innovation Lab by Dussmann. The aim of this in-house start-up is to rethink the future of catering and seamlessly digitize it from farm to plate. It develops and implements innovative, forward-looking, and tailor-made services as well as concepts for food service operations worldwide. The food-service industry knows Christian Hamerle as a pioneer of digital transformation. He is currently also focusing intensively on the Global Policy Report “5 Trillion Dollar Case” by the Food System Economics Commission, which considers sustainability no longer as a cost factor but as a primary profit driver of the future. (© Hannes Unterhauser)

Corina has been active in the design furniture industry for over a decade and currently serves as Director Hospitality at Vitra. She is driven by the belief that well-designed spaces can meaningfully shape how people feel, behave, and connect. Her work focuses on creating environments that bring a host’s concept to life in a coherent and impactful way, offering guests an intuitive, welcoming, and memorable experience. She will share her work and insights at, which she sees as an opportunity to engage with a young and ambitious platform exploring new ways to shape hospitality through collaboration and fresh perspectives. In this dialogue, she advocates for thoughtful and inclusive design and helps guide the industry toward greater meaning, impact, and positive human connection. (© Dejan Jovanovic)

Since 2021, Constanze has been the manager of the FutureHotel Innovation Network, coordinating the research activities of this innovation consortium. As a research associate at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, she analyzes relevant trends and develops strategic insights for the hospitality and tourism sector using rigorous scenario techniques. Her focus lies on future-proof solutions and the effective transfer of scientific and practical knowledge. In co-creative formats, she works with partners to design concrete concepts for the hotels of tomorrow. She is particularly driven by questions around the role of hotels within societal, ecological, and economic ecosystems. Her goal: to identify potentials and guide decision-makers toward the future based on evidence. Constanze is the author of the publication FutureHotel – Future Projections for 2035. (© Dante Busquets)

Joana’s hospitality journey began at the age of 15, working in small restaurants and event companies—early experiences that sparked her passion for crafting thoughtful environments. She went on to complete a Bachelor’s degree at EHL in Switzerland, gaining additional experience through work placements in Copenhagen and Berlin. From early on, her work reflected a growing commitment to aligning guest experiences with purpose-driven values. Guided by a strong sense of environmental and social responsibility, Joana pursued a Master’s in Sustainability Management with the aim of integrating sustainable practices into the everyday fabric of hospitality. Over the past five years, she has been involved in project development at Slowness, with a primary focus on the Flussbad Campus in Berlin. In parallel, she has contributed to other hospitality and food projects that explore how spaces are perceived and experienced. (© Lucy Deverall)

In his early twenties, Jörg milked sheep in the Pyrenees and grew organic vegetables. A defining experience involving carrots led him to trade his spade for a laptop and become a strategy consultant for food companies. His clients include major retail groups and international brand manufacturers. From 2021 to 2023, he conceptualized the Food Campus Berlin and, in parallel, transformed Brandenburg’s oldest fishery into a modern nature-based experience estate, including a farm-to-table restaurant. Jörg Reuter is passionate about high-quality food and has also been running the delicatessen concept “Vom Einfachen das Gute” in Berlin since 2013. Since 2024, he has been responsible for food investments at Narrative Foods, part of the Berlin-based family office Millennium. Investments focus both on the growth of artisanal food production and on pioneering food-tech solutions that help make mass markets more sustainable and future-ready.

Lisa is a Food Innovation Specialist at NOI Techpark, where she supports companies, start-ups and dedicated innovators in the structured development of innovative food products, from the initial idea to validated market readiness and successful implementation. At the Kitchen Lab, the site’s central development platform, she designs and guides processes and prototypes throughout the entire innovation cycle, from concept development and testing phases to market-ready refinement. In addition, NOI is placing increasing emphasis on the systematic research of digital process solutions for the hospitality sector, as well as on exploring and analysing new interfaces between food service and food innovation, with the goal of identifying emerging industry opportunities at an early stage and leveraging them strategically. (© Ivo Corra)

Manuela is Head of the Innovation Unit at HGV – the South Tyrolean Hoteliers and Restaurateurs Association – where she is responsible for the association’s office at NOI Techpark in Bolzano. She develops and manages strategic innovation and digitalization projects for South Tyrol’s hospitality sector and works closely with research institutions, innovative start-ups, and technology partners. Previously, she spent several years in HGV’s business consulting department. Her professional experience ranges from public relations and international headhunting to project management at the Free University of Bolzano. Manuela combines business expertise with a strong sense for emerging trends and a clear vision: not only to think about the future of tourism, but to implement it in practice — with courage, structure, and impact. (© HGV – Hoteliers- und Gastwirteverband)

Martin is an impact investor with a focus on resilience and climate. He advises both start-ups and established companies on financial and strategic decisions and serves on the boards of several funds. In addition, he sees his social impact particularly in coaching young leaders and fathers. He began his career in consulting in Vienna and Eastern Europe before moving into capital markets at Erste Bank. Further positions took him to the Global Treasury of Deutsche Bank in London, before he became one of the youngest board members of an Italian bank, assuming the role of CFO at Volksbank. Since 2023, he has been leading the Fund of Funds 9inch Capital Partners, which invests in European and American venture funds with a clear focus on climate, energy transition and resilience.

Mattèos background lies in brand strategy: in 2002, he developed his proprietary methodology, Biotic Brand Cultivation, framing brands as living systems rather than static constructs. In 2004, he founded Growingdale, a brand strategy agency. In recent years, his focus has shifted toward innovation branding, with a particular emphasis on the new food sector. In 2018, he co-founded Innogusto, a company dedicated to developing plant-based and microbial food concepts. In 2025, Innogusto introduced THE R|E|D KITCHEN ecosystem, an integrated approach to food innovation and commercialisation. In 2026, Mattèo and his wife launched EvoFood, a platform aimed at strengthening the positioning of new food by aligning stakeholders and applying strategic learnings from previous projects. He continues to work as a brand strategist, integrating his expertise in brand systems with food innovation.

Philipp is Head of Project & Design at Eurest, a food service company. As a design strategist and hospitality thinker, he draws on more than two decades of experience exploring how spaces shape culture, connection, and collaboration. Working at the intersection of hospitality, architecture, and real estate, he supports organizations in rethinking the built environment as a strategic tool for human flourishing. He has collaborated with global organizations including the United Nations, Apple, and EHL Hospitality Business School. Through international research dialogues and curated design journeys, he explores how hospitality thinking, neuroscience, and design can be combined to create environments that foster resonance, serendipity, and meaningful human encounters. (© labcampus)

Robert is Director of Delivery and Associate at BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group in Copenhagen. In his work, he combines architectural vision with practical implementation, overseeing complex international projects from concept to completion. His focus is on large-scale hospitality, mixed-use, and destination developments in Europe and the Middle East, where architecture creates experiences, identities, and economic value. His projects include the Hamburg State Opera and several international resort and tourism developments. In parallel, he leads the development of digital planning and implementation processes at BIG, particularly in BIM, computational design, visualizations, model-making, and AI. As a keynote speaker and lecturer, he explores how architecture, technology, and development intersect to shape the future of hospitality sustainably. (© Bjarke Ingels Group)

Silvia is a consultant for strategic marketing in the hospitality sector. She supports hotels in positioning their brand with a future-oriented approach, developing clear concepts, and implementing marketing strategies effectively and sustainably. Previously, she worked for two internationally active companies in marketing and product development, gaining extensive experience in brand management, market positioning, and strategic business development. This gives her a broad understanding of business contexts and market-oriented thinking. Her focus lies in combining strategy, creativity, and project management – from sound concept development and accompanying coaching processes to the successful implementation of comprehensive marketing and branding initiatives. (© HGV – Hoteliers- und Gastwirteverband)

Prof. Dr. med. Christian Sina is a specialist in gastroenterology and nutritional medicine as well as founding director of the Institute of Nutritional Medicine at the University of Lübeck. His research combines molecular nutritional medicine with clinical application, aiming to establish personalized nutrition as a therapeutic tool for chronic diseases. As co-founder of Perfood GmbH, he has significantly shaped the development of the world’s first digital therapeutic applications based on personalized nutrition for the treatment of migraine and type 2 diabetes. With the DeepTech startup MyMolecules (together with Paul Beier, M.Sc.), he is pursuing the next step: combining molecular food information with wearable technology to make personalized nutrition scalable and suitable for mass markets. In addition, Prof. Sina serves as a scientific advisor and strategic consultant for companies at the intersection of nutrition, medicine, and digitalization.

Vanessa is Research Director at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO and Professor of Tourism and Hotel Management at SRH University. Her work focuses on developing future-oriented scenarios and solutions for hotel, cultural, and urban systems, which she supports through to practical implementation. She is the founder of the FutureHotel Innovation Network, from which the study FutureHotel – Future Projections for 2035 emerged. The research outlines three future projections for the hospitality industry: the Synergy Hub, the Self-Driving Hotel, and the Placemaker Hotel. The study provides decision-makers with concrete insights into how hotels can act as drivers of innovation for destinations and society while remaining holistic ecosystems that are economically viable in the long term. (© Ludmilla Parsyak)