Speakers

Vincent Beckmann

Professional cyclist & Account Manager

Working for the vision of Outdooractive and developing sustainable outdoor tourism.Taking care of existing customers and acquisition of new customers in the international context of the tourism and travel industry. Developing countries and destinations to become a digital leader in the outdoor travel market and be an expert in digital visitor guidance.

Forcing the internationalization of the Outdooractive platform as the world’s largest platform for outdoor tourists.

Mathias Behrens-Egge

Founder and Managing Partner at BTE

Mathias Behrens-Egge has been the founder and managing partner at BTE since 1989. At BTE, he leads the corporate divisions of active/nature tourism, visitor information, and management. Additional areas of focus include regional and destination development, and facilitation.

He studied landscape and open space planning with a focus on tourism economics and regional development at the University of Hanover (Dipl. Ing.). Since 2009, he has been a guest lecturer in “Tourism Economics for Planners” at the same university.

He is a founding member and board member of Digitize the Planet e. V. and works on improving usable digital data for visitor information and management.

Paul Bieber

SEO Manager

Content is king. Context is queen. This statement is probably known to everyone working in digital marketing. But why does great content need experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness in the future?

Paul is the SEO Team Leader at Outdooractive. For more than 15 years, he has been working with companies on their visibility on Google, Amazon, and other platforms. His professional journey has included stints at the formerly successful startup Trigami in Basel and the agency Columbus Interactive from Ravensburg. As a lecturer, he has also been present at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, the University of Konstanz, and the Humpis School in Ravensburg. At Outdooractive, Paul combines his passion for professional ice swimming. He is, among other achievements, a multiple record holder, world record holder, and has been a world champion and vice world champion in winter swimming.

Dominik Huber

Outdooractive AG – Research

Dominik works as a Senior Research Manager in the Research and Development department at Outdooractive in Germany. He studied human geography at universities in Munich, Berlin, and Christchurch (New Zealand), and earned his PhD in tourism at the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute (AUT University Auckland). Dominik’s main interests at Outdooractive include visitor management and overtourism, data analysis, and sustainable tourism development in emerging markets. In his role as Senior Research Manager, he leads innovation projects, supervises theses, and supports student courses as an industry partner. Dominik has published various research articles in high-ranking tourism journals (IJTR, Tourism Management Perspectives, Tourism).

Silvan Kaspar

Outdooractive AG – Director Cartography

The map is one of the cornerstones of the Outdooractive platform. It not only provides orientation but also serves as a source of inspiration. But what does it take to create and continuously develop the best outdoor map? What makes it so special?

Silvan has been working as a cartographer at Outdooractive since 2012. He studied cartography in Karlsruhe and is a certified ski instructor – the latter clearly indicating his favorite season.

In his diploma thesis, which he wrote in collaboration with the University of Zurich, he examined the cognitive abilities involved in reading thematic maps such as choropleth maps and cartograms. He continues this foundational work at Outdooractive. In addition to the visual representation of maps, Silvan’s team consistently works on the geodata, which is the true foundation of a good map!

Michael Larcher

Mountain and ski guide, he leads the Mountain Sports Training and Safety department at the Austrian Alpine Club (ÖAV). From 2011 to 2018, he headed the project alpenvereinaktiv.

Alpine Clubs + Outdooractive = alpenvereinaktiv.com

Since 2012, the Alpine Clubs of Germany (DAV), Austria (ÖAV), and South Tyrol (AVS) have been cooperating with Outdooractive. The digitization of key club topics such as tour information, huts and trails, mountain sports safety, visitor management, and nature conservation are today the vision and driving force of a trusted collaboration.

Sonja Miller

Organization of National Natural Landscapes

Pirmin Mösle

Outdooractive AG – CTO (Technology)

Stefan Neubig

Outdooractive AG – Technology

Not least thanks to impressive applications like ChatGPT and others, artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot topic. Through the smart and measured application of AI, new possibilities are emerging for the tourism industry, ranging from personalized and more sustainable travel experiences to the optimization of operational processes. But where to start? What exactly can we expect from today’s AI, and what are its limitations? This article provides insights into how partners of the Outdooractive platform are already benefiting from AI today and how they will continue to do so in the future.

Stefan Neubig is the Head of Data Engineering and AI at Outdooractive and a doctoral candidate at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). His daily work focuses on the design and implementation of scalable and advanced algorithms and AI solutions in the context of personalized and sustainable outdoor experiences. A core theme of his research involves the development of explainable multi-stakeholder recommendation systems using Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), Large Language Models (LLMs), and Knowledge Graphs (KGs). Stefan publishes and reviews papers for numerous academic conferences and is a member of the scientific committee of the ENTER conference. His passion is integrating the latest technologies into tourism applications with the goal of innovatively enhancing the sustainability of tourism.

Simon Reuter

Outdooractive AG – Research

In collaborative research and development projects, Outdooractive Research, together with companions from science and practice, addresses the challenges and future questions of sustainable outdoor tourism. In a panel discussion, long-time research and project partners, along with Senior Research Partnership Manager Simon Reuter, will discuss the role that technological and data-driven innovations can play in achieving ecological, social, and economic sustainability for the common good.

“With his background in sustainable tourism management and cultural studies, Simon has been working for years at the intersection of tourism, development cooperation, and environmental protection. A passionate hiker and mountaineer since childhood, his path eventually led him to Outdooractive, the world’s leading platform for outdoor tourism. He leads research and innovation partnerships focused on sustainable regional development, visitor management, biodiversity conservation, and climate protection, all based on data and technological innovation. Simon lives in Quito, Berlin, and the Allgäu, and one day, he would very much like to have a dog.”

Peter Schmidhuber

Digital Consultant ADAC SE

Peter is a graduate geographer and enthusiastic mountaineer who has spent many years as a youth leader and ski and high-altitude tour leader in the DAV Moosburg section. He has also served as an instructor for over 20 years at the Central University Sports Munich (ZHS) in the field of mountaineering.

At the ADAC Verlag, he held various positions as responsible project manager for digital and analog outdoor projects from 2005 to 2010 at ADAC Verlag GmbH.

Martin Soutschek

Outdooractive AG – Research Director

The path towards responsible, resilient, and regenerative outdoor tourism is challenging and requires not only pioneering spirit but also reliability, courage, and leadership. The final lecture examines why a change in consciousness is necessary, one that values the local identity of places and understands our actions as part of a living and interconnected system of humans and the environment. Trust in data, technologies, and partners who collectively provide solutions will play a crucial role in the future in determining how effectively innovations can unfold positive impacts for behavior change “by design” to bring about new actions and decisions on both the supply and demand sides.

Martin works as the Head of Research at Outdooractive in Germany. He has a background in geographic information science and spatial analysis. In addition to his passion for outdoor tourism, geotechnology, and open data, he is interested in business model innovations, regenerative tourism approaches, and digital leadership topics. With over 15 years of industry experience in developing and scaling the Outdooractive platform, he has faced many challenges and has often failed, but he has also learned that a clear vision and an inspired and committed team practicing perseverance and endurance are key to overcoming the challenges of digital transformation. His enthusiasm for never stopping learning and sharing insights has led to publications and presentations at a variety of tourism industry events. He is always looking for the next opportunity to explore and discover something new.

Craig Wareham

Outdooractive AG – CEO UK

Outdooractive reaches millions of active users worldwide. We will take a closer look at who these users are, what they do, and how they can help us predict the future.

Craig Wareham, B2C Director, leads Outdooractive’s B2C business with the aim of building a rapidly growing, global, and highly engaged community. Additionally, he serves as the UK CEO, responsible for Outdooractive’s business and team in the United Kingdom. Craig was a co-founder and head of the ViewRanger app business, which was acquired by Outdooractive. Prior to founding ViewRanger, he was a member of senior management teams at innovative, rapidly growing computer graphics and visual technology companies, and he lived and worked in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley.

Hartmut Wimmer

CEO & Founder Outdooractive AG

Hartmut Wimmer, founder and CEO of Outdooractive, is a pioneer in the digitalization of outdoor tourism with over two decades of business experience. Being a passionate outdoor enthusiast himself, the idea emerged to create a virtual home for like-minded individuals to share their experiences and adventures in nature. As an engineer and pioneer, he is creating a digital world where an outdoor tourist can also find offerings from tourism destinations worldwide.

Hartmut Wimmer is one of the trailblazers in the digitalization of outdoor tourism with over two decades of business experience. In 1994, he founded his own engineering firm and successfully tackled various architectural challenges. Faced with numerous problems in travel planning, he decided to find a solution to gather all necessary information and data in one place – thus, in 2008, he founded Outdooractive. Since then, Hartmut has been striving to create the world’s largest outdoor platform while simultaneously connecting the community and all stakeholders of outdoor tourism with state-of-the-art technology. As a passionate outdoor enthusiast himself, it was his mission to build a virtual home for like-minded individuals to share their experiences and adventures in the great outdoors. Hartmut holds a degree in civil engineering from the University of Munich and has personally contributed to the success and growth of the Outdooractive platform by sharing hundreds of his trips and trails on outdooractive.com.