Eventful PTA Group event from June 2 to 4.
The PTA Group’s summer seminar has become a popular tradition at the IT consulting firm headquartered in Mannheim. For good reason: Because the event offers employees ample opportunity to exchange information about current projects, technologies, trends and experiences. Thanks to the varied program, there was once again plenty of time for nice conversations with colleagues from all the offices. Like last year, the PTA team met for a get-together at the Lufthansa Seeheim conference hotel, this time from June 2 to 4. The team event, disco evening and culinary delights were once again fixed features of the event, offering those present additional opportunities for personal exchange and getting to know each other.
“Our choice fell on the Lufthansa Seeheim conference hotel again this year. The ambience there is right, we feel comfortable and see it as an optimal location for our summer seminar,” explains the management of PTA IT-Beratung GmbH. “For this year’s Summer Seminar, we have made our agenda even more active and, for the first time, we have created two one-hour workshops in addition to the familiar technical presentations.”
As always, the PTA team was opened and welcomed by the PTA management, who got everyone present in the mood for two varied and exciting days. Nutritionist Kirsten Brüning opened the technical discourse with a very practical topic. In her presentation “Brain Food – fully concentrated at work”, she addressed the question of how to protect oneself from cravings – especially for sweets – and still maintain a high level of concentration. The speaker gave tips for a balanced diet and an overview of the nutrients that are important for brain and nerve cells.
Fit for the Digital Pension Overview
Carefree and well-structured retirement – this is also a component of any employment biography. Therefore, in the second topic slot, Heinz Schäfer gave an informative overview of the legal and financial framework of the Digital Pension Survey. For the latter, in fact, the legislator has laid the foundations for cross-pillar and transparent pension information with the overview. In the lecture, Heinz Schäfer presented and explained the complex technical background.
Back to the Future (or the other way around?)
Julia Rybka and Matthias Weise got to the bottom of this question. In their view, technologies exist that are reaching or even passing their peak while still exhibiting some degree of futurism. Energy production based on nuclear fission is one such case: the experts made it clear in their discourse that the operational business in this sector is becoming an industrial legacy, even though we are only just beginning to understand and explain the underlying processes.
After a leisurely lunch break, the active workshops were on the agenda. In different groups there was a wide range of activities from card and board games, systemic short coaching sessions, table tennis duels, the world of photography and the use of different lenses to “office survival training”. After the respective active workshop, the participants took a short breather and returned to the discourse on content.
Smart Data for the Smart City
This was the title of the technical presentation by Viktoria Wermke and Hagen Rehr. But when does a city become a smart city? What do sensors have to do with it? How do the public realm, climate data, traffic counts, water levels, and district heating quantities interact? And how can a low range wide area network pull the strings? Answers and professional starting points on how to solve these requirements with technical finesse were given to the audience by these two PTA experts.
With method and structure to design thinking
In the last presentation of the afternoon session of the first day of the seminar, Christian Blatt gave extensive insights and tips on how working with Design Thinking can become manageable in an increasingly complex professional environment. In addition to experience and routine, the speaker is convinced that a methodically sound and imaginative approach supports the delivery of confident results and the appropriate solution approaches.
Report of the management and open end in the disco
At the end of the diverse and eventful first day of the PTA Summer Seminar 2023, the PTA Management Board around Matthias Wossidlo, Dr. Tim Walleyo, Dennis Haßlöcher and Peter Fischer gave, as always, a detailed overview of the economic situation of the entire PTA Group and how the company is positioning itself in the future. The final get-together was celebrated by the participants in the context of a joint meal. At the end of the day, people danced in the disco or enjoyed refreshing cocktails at the bar in summer temperatures.
Summer Seminar Day 2: With momentum into the theme workshop
At the beginning of the second day of the PTA Summer Seminar, the second workshop started with verve. Here, those participants with the same professional interests gathered to exchange ideas in individual topic groups. Others shared their industry or subject knowledge from the PTA world, and groundbreaking in terms of new technologies was also on the tableau. Afterwards, in the last topic slot of the Summer Seminar 2023, Gerhard Ahrens gave an expert overview of a very current and also important topic: He showed how software can be developed more sustainably and how green coding can make a valuable contribution to climate protection. In his presentation, he addressed how sustainable this development is in terms of the medium- and long-term maintenance of software, where stumbling blocks lurk, and how these can be identified, evaluated, and addressed.
Team event, champagne reception and final BBQ.
After a leisurely lunch together, the seminar participants started into the joint team event. This year’s program included an outdoor strategy game based on the well-known board game “Settlers of Catan”. In small groups, team spirit, strategy and the courage to take risks were required to master as many tasks as possible and earn a bonus for doing so. The yield had to be used and invested again in the course of the game in order to be successful in the end. At the end of the event, which lasted about four hours, the champagne reception led into the social part of the evening. At the end of the second day, everyone enjoyed the BBQ under the open, early summer sky and had a nice final evening together. And then it was time again: After a delicious breakfast on day 3, the participants made their way home – certainly with one or two thoughts of the eventful PTA Summer Seminar 2023.
