Compass Talks on 5 February 2026 (beginning at 1 p.m.), before the start of Ambiente, Christmasworld and Creativeworld, is the new SME meeting place for decision-makers from politics, business, trade, and the media

Under the motto ‘Envisioning the Future of the Global Consumer Goods Market’, the key transformation topics in the consumer goods industry, such as artificial intelligence, regulation, platform strategies and sustainability, will be highlighted.

The agenda includes the survey results of the new IFH industry index on trends, opportunities and challenges in the global industry, two international keynotes by Sharon Gai (expert in artificial intelligence and innovation and former executive at Alibaba) and Ben Hammersley (futurist, author and digital expert), as well as three exciting panels featuring strong opinion leaders from business and trade.

1:00 p.m. | Opening: Frauke Holzmeier (Moderation)

1:10 p.m. | State of the Industry: Detlef Braun (Messe Frankfurt)

1:25 p.m. | Keynote: Sharon Gai – “How to do more with less using AI”

1:55 p.m. | Panel 1: Future X Commerce: Leopold Grupp (Stölzle Lausitz), Jonathan Roxlau (G. Wurm), Klaus Striebich
                  (Consultant RaRE Advise, former board member of German Council of Shopping Places) 

2:35 p.m. | Break

3:15 p.m. | IFH-Branchenindex: Dr. Ralf Deckers (IFH Köln)

3:30 p.m. | Panel 2: Regulation, Reporting, Redesign: Jan-Frederik Kremer (German Association of Knife and Household
                  Goods and Federation of the European Cookware and Cutlery Industries), Guilhem Pinault (La Brigade de Buyer),
                  Mads Ring Damgaard (Stelton)

4:00 p.m. | Panel 3: Best Practices: Finn-Maximilian Hillen (Recozy Sustainable Manufacturing), Christina Mayr (Westwing),
                  Sebastian Müller (Gründl) – Moderation Thorsten Giersch

4:30 p.m. | Keynote: Ben Hammersley – “The wrong ways to think about tomorrow”

5:00 p.m. | Closing: Frauke Holzmeier