“After the vision is before the vision” - this phrase has become a common saying among the HICO team. Why? Well, for one thing, development doesn't just stand still. We experience innovations in AI, data and BI on a monthly basis!

On the other hand - and this will not change any time soon - innovation and progress only work as a team. By keeping each other up to date, inspiring each other, sharing best practices ... and maybe even talking about what we've learned from recent projects.

 HICO's “in-residence trade fair” is now in its seventh year - but looking back on the event on March 13, there was little to be said.

 On the contrary: “This was the strongest Vision X Future to date,” said HICO Managing Directors Michael Schwan and Bastian Lossen in unison in their closing remarks. What had happened in the hours before?

In addition to inspiring presentations and spontaneous demos by colleagues from Qlik (Matthias Herkommer, who was able to come in spontaneously for Manuel Reimitz, who was ill, via an MS Teams call) and Jedox (Wolfgang von Loeper, who gave a spontaneous AI implementation demo), rousing keynote speeches ensured enthusiasm. And the one by Rolf Hichert, elder statesman of financial reporting, also caused a few pennies to drop: So that's what IBCS is all about!

One innovation was the Marketplace: this time we knitted a format around the lunch break that was intended to combine the (not negligible!) intake of vitamins, trace elements and fiber with the intake of conversations. And it worked. But no wonder, after all, we had unicorns and dinosaurs to support us.

Yep, you read that correctly.

The Marketplace, where partners, customers and HICO Competence Centers now bustled about, became a forum for information and exchange: software demos (Qlik, Jedox, VAULT, Mail & Deploy) were shown, implementation hurdles discussed, approaches shared.And along the way, the name badges were turned into bonus cards - which were stamped at the stands to confirm the completed visit (more precisely: provided with highly elegant dino stickers!). A whole series of full bonus cards were submitted at the end - so that the lottery had to decide and one lucky winner was finally able to take home a brand new Apple Watch.

Particularly popular: Vaulter - who is much more than just the mascot of the HICO-AI team. Admittedly:The cardboard cameraman in attendance was mainly there for attention-grabbing purposes. But behind the cute façade is state-of-the-art technology - a reverse chatbot that asks questions and sorts and saves the answers - company knowledge that could otherwise be lost. The HICO VAULT could be tried out and generated some enthusiasm (download whitepaper Preserving Corporate Wisdom here)

But that wasn't all: the breakout sessions and discussion forums that began (the full program can be found here) hardly wanted to end. Philipp Leimgruber (Siemens) and his data mesh architectures got technical; Richard Reimchen from Migros Bank talked about self-service in banking BI, medmixes Sara Pereira and George Tsoulkas presented the COPA model for streamlining analyses and Thomas Bodenmann served up KPIs on the ROKS.

The final and parallel discussion forums on questions relating to AI (hype or reality?), lakehouses (evolution or revolution?) and planning and analytics (two worlds - two tools?) brought the day to a worthy close. Well, at least they tried. Some panelists simply didn't want to stop. Admittedly: It was really nice, after all, at the Radisson Blu Zurich Airport. And that's not all: the connections that opened up between software providers, data experts, users and interested parties are crying out to be deepened. So: we'll definitely be back next year. With even more networking time. And even more dinosaur stickers.

In September, however, we will first meet at the Hilton Frankfurt (a. M.) City Center. Information will follow. To register (free of charge as always) click here.

Impressions from Vision X Future 03/2025: