Doing Business in Germany…

What’s important when negotiating with German business people? How can you convince skeptical German customers to part with their money? What should you avoid doing or saying when you’re dealing with Germans? What will make a good first impression, and how can you develop lasting business relationships?

The eco experts on the panel all have years of experience in international business, and can offer sound advice on the German way of doing business.

Germany is well known to love bureaucracy. And ignorance is no defense. So, what are the important laws and regulations that businesses need to take into account if they are moving into the German market?

Lawyer Dr. Thorsten Hennrich will provide an overview of the most important issues regarding contract and employment law, taxes and e-commerce, before looking at German data protection law and data transfers for international companies.

Patent Attorney Dr. Rolf Claessen will then give an overview of intellectual property law, patenting and brand protection in Germany.

eco Board Member Klaus Landefeld takes a look at the regulations and fundamental issues relating to “strategic” state surveillance through digital communications media, and the obligations which telecommunication providers are faced with.

He explains the legal and constitutional problems with the reintroduction of blanket data retention in Germany at the end of 2015 and the encroachment of privacy rights represented by the collection of personal data.

In 2015, Klaus Landefeld participated in the hearing of the German federal committee investigating the surveillance activities of the NSA and other secret service agencies.

The data center industry is a remarkably youthful industry, which has seen enormous growth and upheaval in its mere 20-year history.

In this presentation and the following panel discussion, Leader of the eco Competence Group Datacenter Infrastructure Dr. Béla Waldhauser, CEO of Telehouse Deutschland GmbH, looks at the current wave of consolidation in which large data center operators are buying out smaller ones to gain strategic advantages, or are merging with equivalent-sized companies to strengthen their portfolio against the competition.

So, what is going on in the industry right now, and where is it headed? What are the consequences for smaller operators and how can they adapt to the changing data center landscape of the coming years? Dr. Béla Waldhauser will be joined on the podium by several data-center and Internet infrastructure specialists.

What is the prognosis for the German Internet industry to the end of the decade?

Lars Riegel, author of the newly published eco Association & Arthur D. Little report “The German Internet Industry 2016 – 2019” will give an overview of the major findings and forecasts from the study, and provide a deepdive on the potential for growth in the hosting industry.