On December 4 and 5, the German Science Year 2018 will culminate with the 2018 Work Research Conference at the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart. The Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO is staging the event. With funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the event is coordinated by Project Management Agency Karlsruhe (PTKA).
Results and trends from research and industry will be presented. The Germany Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) will be represented by its parliamentary State Secretary, Dr. Michael Meister, who will also hold the opening address. Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Minister of Economic Affairs, Labor and Housing for the state of Baden-Württemberg will be hosting the event at the venue.
Modular conference program with international perspectives
As one of the largest events on the 2018 Science Year calendar, the 2018 Work Research Conference at the end of this year offers participants a diverse program. The agenda comprises workshops, keynote speeches, a dinner speech, group discussions, exhibitions, a road show, a tour of the Future Work Lab and a virtual world tour. Held for the very first time in this format, the latter marks a digital first: a 24-hour virtual tour of the world through different time zones. The tour will feature a total of twelve different contributions from leading academic institutes based all around the globe, streamed live to the conference venue. The contributions will take different forms, including workshops and presentations, and participants can expect them to be highly informative.
Seven topics with a total of 16 workshops to chose from
On both conference days, eight different workshops will run in parallel – one for each of the overarching topics. The themes will also be echoed in the accompanying exhibition at the venue. One of the key topics is skills development in the work process. The associated workshops cover learning through work, skills management in demographic change, qualification and the securing of skilled personnel. Another area of focus is preventive health promotion in the workplace. In these workshops, participants work on topics such as structural prevention, ergonomic and healthy workplace design, and development models for personnel and organizations experiencing digital transformation.
As digitalization affects all aspects of how working environments will need to change, the associated range of topics is extremely wide. Other points of focus on both conference days include the working cultures of the future, designing the digital world of work, innovation through new work processes, value-creation networks and human-machine interaction for collaboration in the new digital environment.
