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Celosphere 2022: Showcasing innovation, building relationships, making an impact
When we face tough challenges, such as inflation and global instability, it’s more important than ever that we come together, share innovative ideas, learn from one another and build relationships, said Alexander Rinke, co-founder and co-CEO of Celonis.
This November, business leaders, IT pros, process excellence professionals and digital transformation experts will gather at Celosphere 2022 to do just that. The annual Celonis user conference will be held in-person Novementer 9-10 in Munich, Germany and streamed online around the world.
Prior to the event, Rinke spoke with Tom Smith, Analyst with Acceleration Economy Network, about why being more efficient and resourceful is crucial to organizations and society overcoming these challenges. He also shared what attendees can expect from Celosphere and what he believes they will come away with.
“[Celosphere] is all about innovation, peer-to-peer networking, making friendships, and an emboldened sense of confidence on the impact that each one of us can have,” Rinke said.
The following is a transcript of the interview, edited for readability.
During inflection points, coming together is more important than ever
Tom Smith: Let's kick things off. This is the first live in-person Celosphere in a couple of years. What's the importance, or what do you think is the significance of that to your customers and partners?
Alex Rinke: So first of all, we are super excited. The last in-person Celosphere was in 2019, and we couldn't be looking forward to more, to getting everybody together in person once again. These virtual events were great for the meantime, but we really look forward to having it back in person.
I think secondly, we are coming together at a very important moment in time for most of our organizations, and also for us as a society. And I think what we do as a community is more important than ever. Because when you think about it, with everything that's going on in the world, right, it can be quite scary. We have fears of recession. We have supply chain issues. We have the energy crisis in Europe. We have all these issues that really can be addressed by optimizing business processes, by optimizing how you run your business. It's one of the ways we have to be more resourceful as organizations and to help us fight and outrun some of these challenges.
I think that everybody that's coming is looking for how can they provide answers to their organizations to get through this in the best possible way, and to set themselves up in the right way for the future. Because these moments tend to be inflection points, where you discover a way to run things differently in the future. And I think what we do together with our customers, with our partners, with our team is very relevant to this. That's why I think it's honestly more important than ever.
Substantial innovation: Next-level process mining
Tom Smith: In the lead up to the event, Alex, the promotions, some of the marketing materials, the website for Celosphere, talk about the reinvention of process mining. And you've stated pretty clearly why you think process mining is so important, but when you talk about the reinvention of it, can you give our viewers some insight into what Celonis as a company means by that?
Alex Rinke: Yes, I can share a little bit. Tom. Obviously, I can't preclude any of the exciting announcements that are going to go out in early November. But you know, it all started for me 12 years ago, in my co-founder Basti's apartment when I first learned about process mining. And we, all three of us, were enamored by this idea. It opened our eyes. It changed our lives.
And we were committed to making this the project of our professional lives, to bring this to many, many companies and people around the world. And we obviously are already along that journey, and we've created a lot of value in the process together with our customers and our partners. The value, and we saw this from the start, the value is really transformational. This technology has transformational potential. And it's becoming a broadly accepted category.
Well, obviously, over these years, we thought a lot about how can we take it to the next level. And we're going to do this. And this is something that, you know, we are very, very excited to bring to all of our customers. And you know, this is gonna have a really big impact. So there's really substantial product innovation. And it's obviously not just one moment in time, right? We've already expanded the scope of our platform very substantially into execution, and into really being this platform that helps you run your business better. But we are taking very exciting steps, and we're introducing them at Celosphere.
Exclusive badges for Celonis Builders and Champions
Tom Smith: And there's something that I believe is new as well, which is Builder and Champion credentials, and I gather that's something that attendees can earn. Can you explain that in a bit more detail?
Alex Rinke: Yeah, of course. We want to really make sure that everybody who comes to Celosphere leaves with the best possible experience and the best possible outcome.
And obviously Celonis becomes a way for many, many people to advance and build and prepare their careers. Because the impact that you can have on your organization is just so profound, right, we have companies that are saving 10s, hundreds, sometimes billions of dollars, they're getting in economic returns, while reducing friction for the customer, reducing friction for the employee, optimizing the supply chain. So there's a very, very profound value that we can unlock together with our customers. And that becomes a great way to advance an organization and also advance careers. So we want to really make sure that we enable that at Celosphere.
Learn more: See the full Celosphere 2022 agenda
So we have two badges. The Celonis Builder badge, which is geared towards the more technical audience. really how I set it up, how I build it, how I bring execution management, from a technical perspective to my company, and obviously, including, you know, a deep dive into our product roadmap and all the things that are coming.
And then we have the Champion badge which is more on organizational enablement? How do I really make sure that I galvanize my organization around this opportunity, but we are still pioneering the space? You know, we've come a long way. But we're still in the early innings. So it's about how do I galvanize my organization? How do I do all the associated communication and change management to make sure that I maximize the impact? That's a really, really important part. Celonis is not just about implementing great technology, it's also about driving a way for an organization to work differently. And we are enabling that as well.
So what our customers can expect, and also our Partners is a great enablement on these two tracks and earning a badge as a result of it.
Tom Smith: It sounds like technical education for the hands on technical person. And also, the skills and training to be the person or the leader who can galvanize the organization around process mining and the business benefit to be realized.
Alex Rinke: 100% percent.
Innovation, learning, relationships, and making an impact
Tom Smith: Can you speak a little bit to what, if we go beyond the badges and the credentials? From an information standpoint, from an insight into the roadmap standpoint? What are a few of the key things that you think attendees will learn by being at Celosphere? What will they come away with? And how can they use it in their business after the fact?
Alex Rinke: Obviously, they will be the first to see the innovation that we're bringing to Celosphere. And as I told you earlier, it's very, very exciting. They will not just see it, they will get trained up on it, they will understand it, they will learn much, much more about it.
The second thing is they will meet and learn from a very impressive lineup of the best of the best. The best Celonis customers to date, organizations like ALDI, Bosch, BMW, Dell, DHL, IKEA, Mars, Merck, the best organizations in the world that are already successfully realizing tons and tons of value by leveraging Celonis. So realize, learning from them means understanding the challenges that you might run into, or you're already running into, and how to solve them.
Learn more: How ALDI SÜD plans to turn sustainability and logistics into a win-win
And it's not just about learning from all these sessions, you know, I always say that the Celonis run sessions are the least interesting. The customer run sessions are the most interesting ones of course. So it's not just about learning from them, it’s also about getting the business cards and the friendships and the network so that you have someone you can call in any situation. So this peer to peer networking is very, very important.
And I think the third is that our customers will walk away with an emboldened sense of vision and confidence on how much impact they can create, on their bottom line, on their top line, on their business performance, on sustainability, on the key things that will matter over these next month, quarters and years. And they will really, I think, get that vision and their confidence from each other. And I think, make a bigger impact on the organizations as a result of it.
It's all about innovation, peer-to-peer networking, making friendships, and an emboldened sense of confidence on the impact that each one of us can have.
Join us for Celosphere ‘22
Celosphere 2022 will be held live at Triebwerk München in Munich, Germany on November 9th and 10th. In-person attendees will have unlimited two-day access to the full Celosphere agenda, including; 50+ sessions from industry leaders, analysts and execution management experts, exclusive Celonis learning journeys, hands-on technical training, community networking opportunities, peer roundtable discussions, guest speakers and more. Virtual event-goers will be able to stream the conference keynotes and select breakout sessions and connect through virtual networking.
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