Norbert Hillinger – the “5 Premium Speakers questions”
Norbert Hillinger has been working as a trend and futurologist for various consultancies for 15 years. He supports companies in the retail, finance and entertainment industries in their innovation activities. Norbert Hillinger is also a sought-after speaker, appearing on stage at international congresses and customer events. His presentations also focus on the topics of the future and innovation. How will we work tomorrow? How does global trend scouting work? The future in retail: How will we go shopping tomorrow?
Norbert Hillinger in an interview:
1. What are the core subjects of your keynote speeches?
I studied journalism and corporate communications with the goal of becoming a film critic. I didn’t end up in journalism, but the entertainment industry and especially the topic of film has accompanied me my entire professional career. For years, I have been supporting several major film studios in Germany in marketing their films creatively and with the help of the latest technologies, and I have always been deeply immersed in the logic of the film industry in Germany and Europe. My second core topic is retail. In my hometown Berlin there are a lot of pop-up and concept stores as well as innovation hubs of big players, and also many retail tech startups were founded here. With my service Berlin Retail Tour I connect global retailers coming to Berlin with the “innovation makers” in the capital and thus get deep insights into the current retail trends.
Lastly, as co-founder of a new work startup, I am very deep into practical topics around new work environments and the digitalization of the workplace and am happy to share these insights in my talks.
Which audiance or which branch do you reach with your speech?
In my presentations, I primarily address corporate decision-makers and try to present complex interrelationships in the triangle of trend – innovation – future in a practical way and thus make them tangible. Very often, however, I also moderate workshops in which the aim is to produce results in the shortest possible time with a team of project or product managers using a wide range of creative methods. In the past, I have worked with companies from the following industries, among others: Entertainment, Retail, Mobility, Food & Beverages, Financial Services, Energy, Health & Life Science, Telecommunication and FMCG.
3. Are you a PREMIUM SPEAKER? Where do you get your insights from?
Especially in the first years of my professional career, I was able to gain a lot of experience on international stages and also learn by making mistakes. After working primarily as a “prompter” and thus as an impulse generator off stage in the last few years, I would now like to use my insights from over 15 years to provide the audience with refreshing impulses and first-hand inspiration, gained through the work with the futurologists from Themis Foresight.
4. What will be in the future? Does «time» play an important role in your work?
It would be presumptuous to claim that one can predict the future, because in truth one can only create it oneself. I therefore see my role as a bridge builder and translator between those who are already “making” the future today and those who would like to do so. Of course, time, or even more precisely timing, plays a role when it comes to innovation, because even the best idea can fail if it comes to market at the wrong time. So it’s a matter of finding the sweet spot between being “ahead of your time” and “lagging behind the market”.
5. Tell us your life motto? What do you want to give your listeners to take with them?
«Creativity Is Intelligence Having Fun» – Albert Einstein