Bad Saarow became the hub of East German economic issues in mid-May: From May 18 to 20, 2025, decision-makers from industry, politics and research met at the tenth East German Economic Forum (OWF25) to discuss growth, transformation and freedom & market economy under the motto “next level”.
The Digital Hub Initiative once again brought a strong startup perspective to the OWF. Volucap CEO Sven Bliedung v. d. Heide opened the session in a curated network format. In his keynote, he presented the latest application scenarios of volumetric recordings for XR productions. During the session, Katja Richter, CEO of MediaTech Hub Potsdam, used specific MediaTech use cases to show how virtual production and AI-supported remote editing are accelerating structural change.
This year, special attention was also paid to the topic of female foundership: on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economics, the Digital Hub Initiative in Bad Saarow presented the report “Startup. Female founder. East German.” for the first time. The study shows, among other things, that 60% of start-ups founded by women in eastern Germany survive in the long term, but at the same time have significantly more difficult access to venture capital. In keeping with this, the MediaTech Hub Potsdam is focusing on #FemaleFoundership throughout May: whether in press releases, blog posts or on social media – the MediaTech Hub is putting the spotlight on successful female founders from the hub ecosystem.
Other items on the Digital Hub Initiative program included a matchmaking session with investors, a panel on “Taking the start-up ecosystem to the next level” and a 5G showcase for remote editing workflows in the moving image sector. An overview of all sessions and recordings can be found on the official OWF agenda.
With the motto “next level”, OWF 25 made it clear that cooperation between start-ups, established companies and politics is more in demand than ever in order to expand East Germany’s innovative strength. For the MediaTech Hub Potsdam, the conference not only provided a visible stage, but also valuable contacts for upcoming accelerator batches and pilot projects within the hub.
An overview of the entire program can be found on the OWF website.
Below are some impressions of the event:
Photo Credit: Hannes Schmidt
