Retail Mobility Future Workshop

By now, we are used to our customer appointments, team meetings and training sessions taking place in the digital space. We have now been able to gain a completely new experience with our „RETAIL MOBILITY FUTURE“ workshop.

On April 13 and 14, the time had finally come: after months of preparation, our workshop on the topic of „Retail Mobility Future“ took place completely digitally. 25 participants, consisting of students from the MSA (Münster School of Architecture), professors, supervisors, experts and the mann Objecta team, met at the ZOOM Meeting and worked together on MIRO boards.

Under the direction of Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Ulrich Blum MArch (AADRL) and moderated by Moritz Wesseler, the students developed a first „pitch“ in preparation for the advanced semester and the upcoming Bachelor's thesis.

Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Ulrich Blum, Professor of Digital Design and Construction at the MSA since 2017, is also part of the ZHA workplace team (ZH Analytics and Insights) at Zaha Hadid Architects in London.

On both workshop days, a panel of experts from business, technology and research were also on hand to mentor and support the students.

Prof. Dr. Moritz Loock - Assistant Professor of Energy and Sustainability Management at the University of St. Gallen, Head of Institutional Research on Future Issues on the impact of rising CO² prices on established business models.

Prof. Dr. Stefan Reindel - Director of the Institute of Automotive Economics (IfA) at the Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Sciences (HfWU) and Scientific Director of the ifa automotive business school.

Dipl.-Ing. Architect Thomas Kuhlmann - Head of Service Stations, Construction & Technology at Westfalen AG in Münster

Michael Hedtke - Deputy Chairman (Spokesman for Marketing & Sales) of the Association of Volvo Passenger Car Contract Partners Germany and Managing Partner of Autohaus Hedtke GmbH & Co.

Frank Selzel - Head of the AUTOHAUS editorial team, Springer Fachmedien München GmbH

On both days of the workshop, the students were able to present their ideas to the experts from various departments in so-called „breakout rooms“; in addition to providing feedback on the content, they also gave valuable practical tips.

Our own advice was also in demand: students could approach our workshop team at any time, present their ideas and receive support.

The mann Objecta workshop team (Dipl.-Ing. interior designer Claudia Möller-Morlang, Dipl.-Ing. architect Stefan Collerius and managing director Michael Bonenberg), greatly supported by Moritz Wesseler (former tutor at the MSA), accompanied the students from the beginning to the end of this intensive and busy time.

At the end of the second day, the students presented their ideas in six groups in a pitch. From „mobility hubs“ to „self-changing and morphing spatial structures“ in the shopfitting concept, there were a wide variety of highly interesting approaches. Ulrich Blum and the experts then gave each team constructive feedback on the amazingly inspiring results of the two workshop days.

In conclusion, it can be said that the topic of „Retail Mobility Future“ is not only of concern to car manufacturers and sellers - what could the mobility retail sector look like in 2025 or 2050? The first student answers to this question have given us all plenty of new ideas and food for thought on retail mobility in the near and distant future. We look forward to continuing to support the students in the coming months and are available to provide you with advice and assistance - if you are interested in the topic in more depth, please contact us!