IT Executive Club presents ITEC Cares Young Talent Award 2019

It is a good tradition on the Alster and Elbe that at the beginning of the year the heads of the Hamburg IT and digital community meet at the invitation of the IT Executive Club of Hamburg@work to ring in the new year with current insights and outlooks on the development of the Free and Hanseatic City. Thus 120 CIOs, CTOs and CDOs as well as representatives from the Senate and science met on Friday, 11 January this year for the New Year's Reception at the Norddeutscher Regatta-Verein on the Außenalster.  

Virtual Attacks on the Federal Republic of Germany and the Digitalization Strategy of Hamburg

This year' s guest ofhonorr at the top-level event was Lieutenant General Ludwig Leinhos, Inspector of the Bundeswehr Cyber and Information Space in Bonn. He informed the present IT and digital experts from business and administration about the challenges of the Federal Republic of Germany in times of virtual attacks, e.g. on critical infrastructures. Guest speaker Jan Pörksen, State Secretary in the Senate Chancellery, gave the members and friends of the IT Executive Club an update on the digitalization strategy of the Hamburg Senate. For example, the state secretaries of the senate authorities will be prepared for the opportunities and challenges of transformation in their own design thinking workshop.

Among the 120 guests at the reception were Jan Pörksen from the Senate Chancellery, Christian Pfromm, Chief Digital Officer of the Free and Hanseatic City, Sebastian Saxe, CDO of the BWVI Economic Authority and the HPA Port Authority, Martin Brause, Chief Digital Officer of the School Authority and Tim Angerer, Head of the Media Office. The chairs of the IT-Executive Club welcomed representatives of the political groups in the Parliament and the Chamber of Commerce as well as leading experts from Hamburg companies, e.g. Martin Gnass, CIO of Hapag-Lloyd and Helmut Gerhards, CDO of DAK-Gesundheit. 

IT Young Talent Award for moinworld, Hacker School, Code Week Hamburg and digital.learning.lab

Another highlight of the traditional New Year's reception was the presentation of the ITEC Cares Award, initiated last year, for special services to the next generation of IT professionals. Eight associations and initiatives were nominated by club members this year.

The first winnerwithin the framework of the ITEC education initiative was moinworld e. V., Hamburg. With tech events, programming courses and mentoring, this organization is committed to promoting more women in IT professions.

Thesecond placewent toCode Week Hamburgorganized by the Körber Foundation in a leading role, with its weeks of experience consisting of workshops and hands-on events for young tech talents.

Thethird prizewent to the Hacker SchoolHamburg, which was congratulated by Sven Heinsen, Education Officer of the ITEC. With technology and programming courses organized in 9 cities throughout Germany, the team introduces children to technologies and their possibilities.

The organizers were able to award aspecial prizeto the Internet platformdigital.learning.labof the Hamburg School Authority, the Joachim Herz Foundation and the TU Hamburg. In total, the ITEC Cares Award this year was worth € 6,000 in prize money. In addition to the IT-Executive Club, the Office of Media of the Cultural and Media Authority also supported the 2019 Young Talent Award.

With intensive networking, the New Year's Reception of the IT Executive Club at Hamburg@work underlined being one of the most important meeting points of the Hamburg IT and digital community. Representatives from business, science, politics and society discussed the upcoming trends and topics of digitalization of companies, administrations and organizations on the Alster and Elbe rivers until the evening hours. 

Photo credit: Christian Augustin