Swiss Digital Leadership Forum 2025

Digital leaders must prepare their businesses for new types of collaboration: Employees work together with AI agents – and AI agents work autonomously among themselves. Various technological, organizational and psychological questions are coming up due to this shift in team structures: How do we train AI agents? Which human expertise is still needed? And what’s the impact on business models? Join us to explore the #HumanizingAI mission and to discuss best practices for successful AI transformation.

Between a small software company of ten and a 2 000-person SAP program lies a world of difference — and the same essential questions: how do you lead change when control no longer works?
A raw and honest discussion about mindset, courage, and the limits of scalability.

Join us to celebrate outstanding achievements in AI CyberTech. We proudly present the best-in-class projects developed by our exceptional participants from the CAS AI powered CyberTech program. Experience innovative AI solutions firsthand as we honor the creators of the top 6-pagers, showcasing excellence, ingenuity, and cutting-edge digital leadership. Don't miss this opportunity to connect with visionary AI leaders and discover inspiring best practices that shape the future of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.

How can marketing professionals use AI without losing sight of brand values, ethics, and creativity? Harriet Moser – a creative marketing generalist with a background in branding, communication, and AI-generated imagery – shares practical use cases and visual experiments from her personal journey. With a strong sense for strategy, design, and transformation, she explores how to work with AI tools responsibly and effectively, while navigating the cultural and organisational challenges that come with innovation.

Wer heute die IT führt, gestaltet morgen das Geschäftsmodell. Der CIO wird zum Impulsgeber für neue Wertschöpfung, zum Brückenbauer zwischen Technologie und Mensch, und zum Taktgeber einer agilen Organisation.

Die Zeiten, in denen CIOs nur für Infrastruktur und Systeme verantwortlich waren, sind vorbei. Heute sind sie Architekten des Wandels, Treiber der Innovation und strategische Partner auf Augenhöhe mit dem Business.

Panel-Gäste von Prof. Dr. Stella Gatziu Grivas:
Adrian Gautschi, Head of Supply & Partner Management bei der ALSO, ein Brückenbauer zwischen Technologie, Organisation und Mensch.
Dr. Felix Meentken, Geschäftsführer der BOC Schweiz, ein analytischer Kopf mit Leidenschaft für Enterprise Architecture und digitale Exzellenz.
Marc Leutenegger, Principal Consultant bei der Ximiq AG, ein facilitator von digital transformation Journey.
TopCIO 2025 – Ein Überraschungsgast direkt von den Confare Swiss CIOAWARDS, ausgezeichnet für herausragende Leadership und mutige Transformation.

Gemeinsam diskutieren wir, wie CIOs heute Kultur prägen, Innovation entfachen und Unternehmen durch den digitalen Sturm navigieren. Was braucht es, um als CIO nicht nur mitzuhalten, sondern vorauszugehen? Welche Skills, welche Haltung, welche Vision?

Turning Risk into Opportunity –  What happens when a traditional security mindset meets agile principles? In this talk, I share my personal journey as a CISO discovering how risk management can shift from a compliance exercise to a catalyst for trust, collaboration, and value creation in agile environments.

How NETZSCH reaches Blue Collar and White Collar workers at the same time. Internal communication throughout a global intranet.

Cybersecurity is no longer optional – it has become a boardroom priority. With the new Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), the EU sets binding requirements for digital products. But what will this mean in practice? In this session, Thomas Stadelmann will provide practical insights into the CRA’s real implications. And highlight how leading companies are already turning compliance into a driver of innovation.

The key message: The CRA is not just a regulatory obligation. For digital leaders, it is a chance to build resilience, strengthen trust, and secure a lasting competitive edge.

Effective communication in the digital workplace and intranet requires more than a one-size-fits-all approach. User research helps identify the right channels and align content to employee needs, ensuring messages reach the right audience in the most impactful way. By leveraging field research techniques and strategic decision-making, organizations can optimize their content distribution for better engagement and efficiency.

Digitalization is reshaping every aspect of our society, but its journey within the secure walls of a women's prison like JVA Hindelbank presents a unique frontier. This transformation is about far more than just technical upgrades; it involves navigating complex challenges in security, infrastructure, and the profound human aspects of incarceration. This session delves into these specific hurdles while highlighting how thoughtfully implemented digital tools are becoming crucial for supporting the rehabilitation and successful reintegration of incarcerated women into an increasingly digital world.

We welcome you to a magical journey through the art of stage presence – and how its timeless power can be transformed and adapted to the digital world.

Sharing our journey at Pilatus Aircraft where we swapped clunky folders for fluid knowledge, static pages for smart navigation, and where “just another SharePoint site” became something our people actually wanted to use – (yes, miracles do happen).

Fachkräftemangel, hohe Fluktuation, steigender Druck – und mittendrin: Sie als Führungskraft. In diesem Impulsreferat erleben Sie, wie kraftvolle, ehrliche Kommunikation der Schlüssel zur Mitarbeiterbindung wird.
Erhalten Sie Studienerkenntnisse und konkrete Modelle als Einblicke in dieses herausfordernde Thema.

Including insights from the FHNW AI for SME Study 2025

How can small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) build successful, sustainable partnerships with digital agencies? This session presents practical insights and best practices for managing digital agency relationships – from agency selection and onboarding to governance, conflict resolution, and offboarding.

In a world where connection happens more through screens than in person, trust has become the most valuable performance currency, and it can’t be automated.

While technology makes communication easier, trust keeps teams truly connected. This session explores the 3 V’s of Inclusive Leadership: Visibility, Voice, and Vulnerability, a simple, human framework for cultivating trust, strengthening connection and collaboration in digital environments.

AI Act, data protection and copyright: What applies to the use of AI and how do I implement it? An overview of current (legal) issues and a forecast for the future.

Discover the role Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI tools will play in SEO strategies in 2025 and learn how to optimize for LLMs. We share our own studies and experiments and analyze early successful case studies – including concrete tactical and strategic recommendations for companies in the B2B, finance, and tech sectors.

Topics include: Reception Marketing, AI Governance, Hacking Digital Innovation, generative AI in Digital Workplaces, AI in Digital Marketing, New Work: Worcations and decentralized teams, GEO & SEO in the AI-Driven World: Adapting to a New Digital Landscape, Internal Comms: Connecting with Blue-Collars, AI-Driven Cybersecurity: Friend or Foe?, Cybersecurity Zero Trust in Practice: Lessons Learned and Challenges, Cybersecurity vs. Privacy: Must We Sacrifice One for the Other?, …

We discuss current legal issues in the field of New Work, such as whether there is a right to time off, work obligations and cyber incidents, and why home office regulations are important.

As marketing evolves with big data, algorithms, and AI, Reception Marketing is emerging as a game-changer. Prof. Philip Kotler, a world-renowned economist known as the “father of modern marketing” whose work has popularized the “4 Ps of marketing” (product, price, place and promotion), featured our case study in his latest book and highlighted its transformative potential. A key insight and principle: random data leads to random results. Discover how you can systematically build and use your own marketing and communications data – quickly and effectively.

Agile was hyped as a silver bullet, leading to shallow implementations without embracing the deeper cultural shift. Frameworks fade, but the core principles—adaptability, collaboration, and customer focus—remain. Resistance signals forced change: how can we genuinely engage people to shape agility that truly works? Now the real work begins—moving beyond rituals toward real agility that delivers value.

A fun session summarizing the learnings of the day.