On 29 March, took part in the kick-off event "MoLeWa Mobility - Leipzig in Transition" in the Congress Hall at Leipzig Zoo.

The network "Mobility - Leipzig in Transition (MoLeWa)" supports the digital and ecological transformation of the automotive value chain in the region by bundling know-how and experience to unlock transformation potential and derive innovative fields of action and business. As one of 27 other networks, MoLeWa is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

We spoke to one of our managing directors, Jan Landmann, who was there for us and gave a keynote speech on the topic of "IT/Software Competences: Digital Transformation and the Automotive Industry". In the conversation, he told us about his personal highlights as well as the opportunities he sees in the digital transformation for our company as well as the region:

"Since IT Sonix was founded, we have been strongly linked to the automotive industry and related topics such as sustainable mobility. Our clients in this sector range from public transport companies to major car manufacturers in and outside the region.

The advancing digitalisation is a global opportunity. In order to remain competitive and attractive as a region, we at IT Sonix see it as necessary to take advantage of the (digital) transformation. It is important to actively shape and drive the ecological and economic transformation in and through the region with our work and not to let it pass us by and end up being left behind. In doing so, it is important to keep the needs of the stakeholders in mind. Especially in the mobility sector, different combinations of individual, public and freight transport offer enormous potential from a sustainability point of view. It is not only the people in the region who benefit from this, but also the local companies, both from an ecological and economic point of view.

For this change to succeed, many different hands need to pull together in the same direction. An important player in this project is the Automotive Cluster East Germany (ACOD), which, among many other projects, also launched the MoLeWa network for the sustainable development of mobility in the Leipzig region. The kick-off event on 29.03. in the Congress Hall at Leipzig Zoo was a promising start to getting a little closer to this vision.

In the opening speech, Dr. Jens Katzek, Managing Director of the ACOD, once again focused on the central task of the ACOD: as consortium leader, to jointly set the course of changing drive trains, mobility and energy production and preventing climate change. From the keynotes to the four working sessions and the panel discussion, this guiding principle continued throughout the entire day of the event. Topics such as CO2-free production, skilled workers and the mobility transition as well as the necessary measures for digitalisation with the associated software competences were the focal point of the informative discussions about the far-reaching upheavals in the automotive industry.

Gerd Neudert, Managing Director of IT Cluster Mitteldeutschland, Björn Seidel, Customer Success Manager e-dox AG and I chaired one of the four working sessions, which dealt with issues relating to the digital transformation of the mobility transition. We tackled, amongst others, the following main topics:

• What digital skills do employees in our regional companies need within the next 5 years?
• In your opinion, are we currently well positioned in the region in the area of education and training for IT/software professions?
• What new value creation potentials can we achieve in the region by establishing new IT services/software competences and what do we have to do to achieve this?

As an IT service provider with extensive experience in the digitalisation of business and mobility processes in the automotive and mobility sector, my keynote speech "Dos and Don'ts for mobility forms of the future - impetus of an IT service provider" helped to start the session and provide a common thread. We were able to work out the first valuable results for the realisation of future strategies and lay the foundation for the follow-up workshop on 20.04. in BioCity Leipzig. Afterwards, the results of our and the other three working sessions were summarised and taken to the larger group and the panel discussion.

Following the working sessions was a panel discussion with important representatives from the region. Martin Dulig (Minister of State for Economy, Labour and Traffic and Deputy Minister President of Saxony), Steffen Reißig (1st Authorised Representative, IG Metall Leipzig) and Dr. Jens Katzek (Managing Director, ACOD GmbH) as well as Prof. Dr Thorsten Posselt (Managing Director, Fraunhofer Centre for International Management and Knowledge Economy) rounded off the event with interesting contributions and provided a stimulating outlook on the challenges ahead.

The topic of digitalisation and the associated opportunities for society and the region unfortunately came up a little short again in the overall context, despite its own working session. There is still enormous untapped potential here that needs be supported at an early stage The issue of digital literacy across all ages and levels of society, needs to be thought about more in terms of opportunities rather than risks and needs to be acted upon."

As an IT company based in Leipzig, we are proud to be able to have a positive impact on the interests of society as a whole with our projects. Together with our customers and partners, we drive technological change ecologically and ensure that the region is an attractive location - for people and business.

Further information on our smart and sustainable automotive projects can be found here: Automotive/mobility