Save the Date

Together with EXPONENTIAL Europe/ Messe Düsseldorf we cordially invite you and your colleagues to our event:

UK-GER Bilateral Symposium
“Defence meets Wirtschaft”

Date: Wednesday, 25 March 2026
Time: 10:00 – 22:00 h CET
Location: EXPONENTIAL Europe, Messe Düsseldorf

This exclusive event will bring together leading figures from government, business and technology to discuss defence, innovation and economic resilience, complemented by high-level keynotes, engaging panels and valuable networking opportunities.

Program

11:00 – 11:30 h: Welcome Remarks

11:30 – 12:30 h: Ministerial Keynotes
– German Minister (Auswärtiges Amt and/or Defence), tbc
– UK Minister (Defence & Security), tbc
– Marie-Agnes Strack Zimmermann (Member of Parliament / Chair SEDE Defence)

12:30 – 13:00 h:  Security & Threat Briefing Intelligence community perspectives (UK,GER,UKR)
– High level threat assessment with focus on Western Europan theatre but to include Hybrid Cyber Threats from further East.
– Ukraine battlefield and cyber lessons (UKR)
– Investing in Ukraine local defence industry: opportunity and challenge

14:00 – 17:15 h: Panel Discussions

14.00-14:45 Panel I: Autonomous Conventional Battlefield – Land, Sea, Air implications of autonomy & AI
 – What are the major threats we are observing on land, sea and in the air?
 – What are the key weapon systems of the futre and are they rapidly making large formations of expensive conventional equipment progressively redundant.
 – Does this change the “Boots on the Ground” requirement? Not forgetting
conventional hulls at sea and manned aircraft.
 – As AI develops what are the implications for command and control over large expanses of territory and long boarders.

14:45-15:30 Panel II: Efficient Innovation and Procurement – Lessons and pragmatic changes.
Given this quantum change to the battlefield and the increased threat ,NATO and allies need to accelerate procurement, innovation and opportunity. What are the key lessons we have learnt in the past 12 months.
 – How can we imporove this further and what blocks need to be removed
Are the defence budgets GER, UK and EU adequate and able to react swiflty enough?
 – Is access to these budgets open to SMEs as well as the “Greats”?

15:30-16:15 Panel III: Total Cyber War – Satellite to tactical comms, infrastructure vulnerabilities & responses (Content further advised by British Standards Institute/NCSC)
 – We are at war – so how does this manifest itself on a day to day basis with past examples. UK and Germany are our focus today but but what other examples to illustrate global impact?
 – Visible corporate impact of wide dimension is being experienced in both countries. What does this look like and what is the assessed financial damage in the cases we are talking about?
 – In the public domain what overriding principles must companies in both countries focus on to drive “Resiliance Engineering”?
 – We hear about global and local threats. We are in NRW s what impact do we have on our doorstep?

Soon you will find further information here.

Defence meets Wirtschaft – Moderation & Speaker Guidance (pls. click)