Because of the Corona crisis, the responsible persons had organized the event this year in an innovative hybrid format. And so the 38 high-ranking speakers and the audience at the IfTI Global Symposium under the motto "Business Development in a World of Change" took part partly on the Gengenbach campus and partly online. In addition to the Armenian Deputy Minister of Economics Avag Avanesyan, the State Secretaries Volker Schebesta from Baden-Württemberg and Xiana Méndez from Spain also gave presentations. In addition, representatives of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris attended. Many participants from international development banks and companies such as LBBW and PwC Strategy& had also found their way to the Ortenau. "We are proud of the enthusiastic feedback from the participants from more than 25 countries," said IfTI Director Professor Andreas Klasen, delighted with the great success of the hybrid format.
The core topics of the two-day conference were the management of key challenges in the areas of innovation, trade and economic development in times of corona and global political uncertainty. In addition, the international guests discussed the convergence of development and trade finance as well as the topic of infrastructure finance in Africa. Following the individual presentations and roundtable discussions, there was always the opportunity to ask the experts questions. The numerous listeners, both on-site and online, made active use of this opportunity.

The IfTI
More than ten scientists from Germany and abroad conduct research at the Institute for Trade and Innovation (IfTI) at Offenburg University of Applied Sciences in the fields of innovation promotion, trade policy and export financing, among others. Knowledge transfer plays a decisive role for the institute. The Gengenbach researchers have already carried out several innovative research projects for several European governments and multilateral funding banks.