Beforehand, in the Folium (Sihlcity), Peter Rehnke, Managing Director Havas Digital, showed the current possibilities of digital marketing: Cookies and canvas fingerprints are only substitute drugs with a short half-life - even if they "support" each other, he said. New technologies such as Facebook's "Atlas", iBeacons, ultrasonic transmitters and NFC would enable tracking and influencing of the entire customer journey.

The bestselling author Marc Elsberg then read exclusively from his latest novel "Zero - They Know What You're Doing" and presented his view of the smart data world in a half-hour talk. His core thesis: whoever has power over algorithms has more power than politicians themselves. "With a self-driving car, who decides whether it should go into an SUV or a compact car when it only has those two choices?"

This was followed by a lively panel discussion with Matthias Ackeret as moderator. In addition to Marc Elsberg and Peter Rehnke, two other panelists were able to point out further aspects of the topic of digital data: Nathalie Glaus (lawyer) explained the current legal status of digital data and Michel Lazecki (CEO Adwebster) stated that within the next 2 years the possibilities of predictive targeting and thus the ability to predict consumer behavior with high probability will become much more precise. The largest Swiss ad network is working intensively on this.

The topic led to lively discussions at the subsequent aperitif, with guests making lively use of the opportunity to ask the experts further questions.