OMR Festival 2026: Europe's Digital Sovereignty Moves Centre Stage
Hamburg. With around 70,000 visitors from more than 40 countries, the OMR Festival has reaffirmed its position as Europe’s leading platform for the digital economy and marketing. Over 1,000 exhibitors, more than 800 speakers and an international attendance share above 20 percent made this year’s edition the most international in the event’s 15-year history. Pre-sales for 2027 are already open, with the festival expanding to three days for the first time (3–5 May 2027).
Two closely linked themes dominated the programme: Europe’s geopolitical repositioning and the question of who controls artificial intelligence.
Klingbeil and Wildberger: confidence as a competitive asset
Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil called on the industry to show more strategic self-confidence. He had no interest, he said, in seeing Germany’s future decided in Beijing, the Kremlin or the White House. Klingbeil also signalled stronger support for scale-up financing — a long-standing bottleneck in the German digital economy.
Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger, marking one year in office, sees AI as Germany’s chance for an industrial comeback. The key, he argued, is reducing dependencies while pursuing both strategic partnerships and the development of homegrown models.
Sovereign by design: Schumann’s case
The sharpest corporate intervention came from Rolf Schumann, Co-CEO of Schwarz Digits. For him, AI is the “operating system of the future” — but the decisive issue is not the technology itself, it is who owns the data behind it. In China, he noted, data belongs to the state; in the US, to corporations; in Europe, still to citizens themselves.
Between hype and realism
While Nick Turley (OpenAI) outlined the shift toward agentic, proactive AI, Meredith Whittaker (Signal Foundation) and Josephine Ballon (HateAid) urged caution: data protection, the handling of personal data by AI agents and the fight against sexualised deepfakes belong on the agenda alongside the innovation narrative.
The tone in Hamburg was noticeably more nuanced than in 2025 — a sign that the debate within the European business community is maturing.
Hamburg as Europe’s digital hub
Hamburg’s First Mayor Peter Tschentscher highlighted the city’s role as host and the festival’s function as a catalyst for the international digital community. For German and European business, the message from Hamburg is clear: anyone hoping to compete globally in AI, data and digital infrastructure must define their own rules — and enforce them consistently. The twelve months leading up to OMR27 will show how seriously politics and industry are willing to back that ambition.