Brain Food for Pioneering Spirits: What is actually possible with 3D printing today, beyond the classic house-printing headline? In Room #861 of the Deep Talk Club, under our overarching theme “Pioneering Spirit with brAIn,” the group digs into 3D-printed shoes, dental crowns, food, weapons, and even organs — and why this technology only reveals its true scale once you see how it interlocks with everything else. Listen in on the examples that came up and the perspectives that emerged in dialogue…
Note: This session was recorded live in German as part of the Deep Talk Club, so the video above is German-language audio only. What follows is an English translation of the conversation, lightly edited for readability — the back-and-forth between the moderator and participants is preserved, but the original timestamps and speaker names have been left out.
A wonderful good morning to you. Today we’re talking about 3D printing. So we’re continuing, step by step, through all these technological developments, and today it’s about 3D printing — what’s actually behind it, what’s the potential in various fields and industries? There are certainly countless examples, and today I’d like to give you the opportunity again to jump in more actively, to bring in application fields you know, and maybe some of you have even tried 3D printing yourselves — really bring in your experiences and step into the exchange, so we can start a shared reflection space and see where it takes us. The classic use case that everyone’s probably heard something about is the area where, in the future, houses might get produced with 3D printing. But that’s far from everything — there are countless examples. And I’m really curious what examples and concrete application fields you’ll bring in, whatever comes to mind. As I said, if anyone has a 3D printer themselves, has tried it out, or made something with it, I want to explicitly invite you to share that experience too. And with that, you’re warmly invited this morning to join us and bring in your first thoughts, impulses, and experiences. Just a quick reminder for everyone that the room is recorded the whole time and the recording gets published afterward — so anyone who joins automatically agrees to that. And we have three small room rules for anyone who might be joining for the first time today, so you’re not surprised if I don’t respond to every hand-raise: a profile photo where you’re clearly recognizable, first and last name, and at least one sentence in your bio. If someone doesn’t want that, maybe wants to stay anonymous or whatever the reasons might be, you of course still have the option to join the interaction through the chat instead. So feel free to share thoughts or questions there, and I’ll check in from time to time and make sure to pick those up too, as long as they haven’t already been addressed. And with that, I’d like to open today’s reflection space and see who’d like to join me this morning. And I already see Marc raising his hand — warmly welcome, a wonderful good morning, dear Marc.
Good morning everyone, great to be back with you all. I haven’t printed anything myself yet, and I actually only looked into the topic yesterday, and I found exactly what you said too, dear Yasemin — I’d also heard that houses get printed. So I did a bit of reading, and I want to thank you here, dear Yasemin, because this was a topic I’d genuinely never engaged with, it just doesn’t come up for me. But yesterday I had this realization again about staying childlike, keeping your eyes open — meaning, when we use Google to look not at what’s already happened but at what actually is this, who’s behind it, what can it be used for, then suddenly whole new doors open up. And that’s how I came across, as a basis for today’s room, the fact that some people call this the fourth industrial revolution, and they estimate that by 2025 we’ll already have a market volume across various industries of nearly 50 billion euros. And that really impressed me.
Yes, wonderful, thank you, thank you so much. And yes, exactly as you say — maybe you haven’t had any contact with it yourself yet, maybe you’ve read something small about it somewhere and thought, wow, that sounds interesting. But once you dig deeper and really start researching a bit, you’re relatively quickly amazed at everything running in the background and what it’s already being used for. I’m active in various groups myself too, and especially in an investor group, for example, where various projects get presented regularly, and I remember a project being presented where entire architectural constructs were actually in development. All the machines involved, what they cost — it’s really exciting to get a peek into that, and the scale at which it’s meant to be rolled out. That means it’s not a single house being built there, for example, but really entire projects being planned and moved into implementation in the architectural sector, and accordingly investors are also being sought in these areas to finance these machines at the start, and so on. So this is a very, very exciting field, and as you said, it’s not just construction, which many people have probably already heard about — there are other areas too. And I’m curious whether more areas will come up from you all too. And with that, let me welcome Stefan at my side — a wonderful good morning, dear Stefan, what do you say about it?
Yes, good morning, Yasemin. Good morning, Marc, and everyone else here in the room. So, the whole topic of 3D printing has actually already arrived in Germany, relatively long ago too, fortunately — we’ve been dealing with 3D printing since 2013/14. I had my touchpoints particularly in the startup space, or with younger companies, where I noticed around 2015/16, when a lot of technical possibilities were added to 3D printing, that a lot of prototypes started getting developed — companies that first went into a project phase, that used to have to spend hundreds of thousands of euros on molds at manufacturing facilities for prototypes, suddenly found it paid off to buy or rent a printer for a few thousand euros instead. So if you look at it on a small scale, it’s actually been around for a while. I live in the Bergisches Land region, and there, for example, the city of Solingen was the first city in Germany to form one of the largest 3D printing networks in Europe. That means several hundred companies came together there with a strong interest not just in investing but in acquiring these printers, and they discovered, let’s say, scalable models in it. I still remember, and this is really ten years ago now, sitting with my youngest at the smartphone, and we created an action figure through an app and had it printed. That was definitely an exciting thing, because it was, well, you can’t quite call it a toy, because it was still a bit fragile, but I can honestly say, at that level it was already a lot of fun. But if you look at the whole thing from a business perspective, or generally what significance this has for us as a society or as Germany as a business location, we’re lagging far behind there too. If I think of Japan, which is already planning and printing entire suburbs with 3D printing — there’s the famous bridge in Amsterdam that was built with 3D printing, that you can actually walk across, ride a bike across — that’s already been there for seven, eight years. So there are a lot of projects — there are car brands that have printed prototypes in 3D. At New York Fashion Week, fashion was already designed and presented using 3D printing. And what I’ve always found exciting too is that 3D printing has made its way into the food industry — in the form of vegan steaks, for example, that come out of a 3D printer. I’ve only had the chance to try it once at a trade fair, wasn’t quite my thing, but it didn’t taste like cardboard or some chemical substance either, and I found it astonishing how far this has already been refined, down to the smallest detail. And the last thing I want to say — because Marc mentioned the revolution — yes, it is a revolution, because if we keep in mind, globally, which countries depend on which materials — for example, Africa is already quite far ahead with 3D printing, because they simply don’t want this dependency on Europe or the US or other countries anymore, and just print their own materials. That means, over the next 10 to 20 years, there will really be strong shifts in the world market, especially regarding the export of certain goods.
Yes, amazing, thank you, thank you so much, and that really shows how diverse the possibilities are here too. And I can just recommend, whether that’s online, typing in “3D printing” or “fields of application” and things like that, or even on shopping platforms like Amazon, just typing in the keyword “3D printing” to see what results come up — just to get a feel for what the system actually spits out, how diverse and colorful it is, what kinds of devices, what’s behind it — really to dare a first approach to this topic. And you put it so nicely — regardless of all these various fields of application you already listed, there’s also the possibility, for example, of getting a 3D printer yourself and trying out one thing or another.
Yes, and we’ve actually done exactly that. My husband, who’s very technically inclined but also our resident builder — he can fix all sorts of things — has a total passion for this kind of thing, and at some point, quite a while back now, we bought a 3D printer, and he really wanted to try it out, and he developed various things with my son, or you can also find certain templates online for 3D prints. So with a bit of research, if you know specifically what you want to make, you can browse online and find corresponding programs or templates you can use to actually make something with the 3D printer yourself. And you can get really, really creative with it — I remember them trying all sorts of things, starting with phone holders and so on. It’s really astonishing when you actually look at the results. And you can make it all fairly colorful too, which maybe not many people know — because when we think of it in the context of house building or something, it’s usually fairly plain colors we encounter. But these materials, you already mentioned this, it’s also about raw materials and so on, and here suddenly a completely different, colorful world opens up with new materials being used, which in turn creates entirely new possibilities. And humans really are very, very “creative,” in inverted commas, whatever that may mean — you can shape a lot with it. And the vegan steaks thing was actually new to me, Stefan, I find that really exciting — maybe you’d like to tell us a bit more about that. Do you know the background of how something like that works? Do you have an idea? Stefan?
Maybe Stefan can’t speak right now, let’s see. Marc, would you like to add something?
Yes, very gladly. I’ll say something about the food later. There’s a 3D printer from a company called Noofood, and it’s not only possible to print meat, but also juices, drinks get printed too. And with the meat, I also thought before that there were only meat substitute products, but they’re much, much further along — it’s really unbelievable. It’s now even possible to print meat with muscle fibers and fat cells — not just something that tastes similar to meat, but really with muscle fibers and fat cells. And there are even hybrid products where you can combine the advantages of animal and plant proteins. It’s really something else — it’s really science fiction.
You’re completely right — when you engage with it and see how far along they already are, what’s being done there, it’s really, you become a child again and say, that can’t be real. I wouldn’t have thought that, and there are even food products based on algae, and they use those to make edible figures for children, and so on. It’s an incredible field.
Yes, wonderful, thank you, thank you so much. And so, in inverted commas, the limits are probably more in our imagination in a lot of places, I think, and I think 3D printing is actually a good example of that. That means, we’re often limited in our imagination in a lot of places, because we simply can’t initially picture that something like that might be possible. But once you engage more intensively with these topics, there’s this surprise, in inverted commas, at where it’s used, or what it can be used for, and is actually already being used for — and you can discover a lot of “aha” moments for yourself here. I looked around online in the meantime too, and found further examples — on the site project3ddrucker.de, for instance, the following fields of application are also listed: manufacturing custom-made, complex, and high-performance parts, manufacturing tooling and production aids, on-demand manufacturing of spare parts and replacement parts, and in many places also reducing costs and lead times by up to 90 percent compared to outsourcing. I find that really exciting too — this really is about resources, both the materials used, up to maybe human resources too, and of course things like whether it comes from abroad or can be produced here, and so on. So a lot of aspects come together here. Do you have any further additions?
Yes, gladly, Marc. I read this too, I wouldn’t have known it, but what’s really interesting, what I discovered, is that in the future we won’t just be able to print things — that’s already great, printing buildings too — but Oregon State University is investigating whether it’s possible to capture carbon dioxide from industrial emissions before it gets locked into 3D-printed building materials in mineralized form. And you have to know that the construction industry has a very, very high share of CO2 emissions — I can’t say the exact percentage, but it’s a very, very large share. And if it becomes possible in the future to make buildings where you print parts that also reduce CO2 emissions, then that’s not just an important thing in itself, but it also helps improve the environment in that case.
Yes, wonderful, thank you, thank you so much. And I’d like to take the opportunity again to extend an invitation to our listeners too — feel free to join, tell us what your experiences are, even if you have no experience at all, or if you’re surprised by this and so on. 3D printing is the topic we’re looking at today, as one of the further technologies that’s really developed a lot in recent years, and where we can look forward with great curiosity to what’s still to come. Whether that’s because you’ve tried something in this area yourself, maybe even done a 3D print yourself, or just have information from the internet, from newspapers or similar, maybe documentaries or reports you’ve seen — just bring in whatever you’ve heard here too. Definitely feel free to bring in negative aspects too — maybe there are concerns or similar, so we can look at this from that perspective too. I find that really relevant as well — we’ve found with a lot of topics already that there’s never just one positive side, but often, depending on which perspective we look from, we can have different perspectives on it and arrive at different assessments accordingly. Sabine, a wonderful good morning — I’d like to bring you in first, and then Stefan can follow up again.
Good morning everyone. I’m not an expert, I really have no idea. Nevertheless, I have three points of contact. At the optician’s recently, a 3D-printed pair of glasses was presented — I found that quite interesting, you don’t even notice it, but it’s pretty cool when you consider what craftsmanship is usually behind that. Second point, my son, who’s currently still in Canada, learned about this at school — so we build the bridge to education again here too. They were supposed to solve some problem and practically program something and then print it out on a 3D printer. You’d have to ask around here how many kids see a 3D printer at school. It makes you a bit more attentive — someone once told me, in our library there’s a 3D printer that can be used, I didn’t know that either. And the third thing is actually more of a question — listening to you all, I find this incredibly exciting. I’m a layperson, I’ve never seen a 3D printer. I just wonder, how does the material get in there? Because everyone here is so knowledgeable — maybe you can explain that to me a bit more. When I heard just now that a steak gets printed, or vegan, doesn’t matter, that juice gets printed — I imagine that as a huge mess. Maybe you can enlighten me.
Wonderful, thank you, thank you so much. Stefan can surely say something about that too — Stefan, would you like to follow up directly?
Yes, good morning Sonja, Sabine — sorry, misread that. So, I don’t want to present myself as an expert on 3D printing here, that would be a bit presumptuous, but I’ve had touchpoints with it for many years, also from a customer perspective, where the 3D printer was a game changer for them, and completely different business models could emerge as a result. Regarding the materials, that’s actually the big limitation. Of course you can only use certain materials in certain price ranges, which get inserted, let’s say, like a toner cartridge, and then get mixed accordingly, with the proportions calculated beforehand. But you can certainly watch tutorial videos on that, which probably explain it a bit better if you’re interested in how the materials are composed. What I found particularly special, and I’ve watched videos more closely on this too, is that medical or medical-adjacent products get created — replacement parts arising from 3D printing get used, for example important connective pieces that don’t grow back, or after an accident where certain bone structures need to be restored, where things actually get created by the 3D printer that then get implanted or surgically inserted into the body. And I find that exciting too, these fields of application. And the only reason I wanted to speak up again was, well, we always complain at a high level — overall, we’re actually quite well covered with everything here in Germany. But we’re certainly allowed to criticize the fact that, when I hear this again — you’ve often brought examples from your son, and when I hear about Canada, or partly also universities in the States, that’s a completely different level of how they handle new technologies and what access our children or young people have to this topic — it’s really not properly supported here. Even the network I mentioned — the Americans have the German market in their grip there. They started very early building portals where you get an overview of who has which 3D printer and what I can print there, at what price. And then I can conveniently book that through these American servers. But actually, this 3D printing then happens somewhere here in North Rhine-Westphalia. And who’s actually making the money — the brokerage fee goes to the operators of the American portal. And that’s always really bothered me, that here in Germany we don’t structure such important technologies to make sure access exists, that it’s organized, regulated. And that’s still very, very, I’ll say, difficult to manage and understand how it works, even with 3D printing.
Yes, wonderful, thank you, thank you so much. And I’d like to pick up again on what you said, Stefan — none of us are 3D printing specialists, it’s simply about looking at this technology in the interplay, especially with the other technologies we’re covering as topics under the overarching theme Pioneering Spirit with Brain — that ultimately means nothing other than approaching these topics with a certain curiosity, and without being an expert or having to become one, actually looking at what’s happening on the market. And that’s exactly the intention of the overarching theme — that we really approach various topics, regardless of how deeply we might already be in these fields professionally, or already use certain areas ourselves, simply to show this diversity of advanced technologies on the one hand, and afterward really bring it together and let an idea develop, to make an imagination even possible in the first place — what does that mean with regard to future developments, where is this journey actually heading? And only once I start engaging with these various, sometimes initially completely different-seeming technologies, and really let myself in on this journey, exploring with full excitement, whether that’s YouTube videos, reports I can read online, or similar — just to get a feel for it, and especially food and so on. I don’t know, Stefan, maybe you can confirm or deny this if you’ve already seen it at a trade fair — I could imagine that, in the end, it’s probably not that much of a mess, because in principle these are liquid substances that get used, liquefied, in corresponding tubes or whatever, that then run through the printer and ultimately create, I don’t know, a pizza or something else through 3D printing. So I think the mess, in inverted commas, remains manageable. Of course, afterward you have to clean the printer where the printing happened, but well, we know that from cooking too. Stefan, Marc, can you say something more about that?
Yes, by the way I’m on my way to Cologne, if it gets a bit louder in the background. Generally, with the 3D printer that this particular company had set up, it was already quite a bit better — you can now get 3D printers for a few hundred euros, but as a rule you have to assume you’ll spend many thousands of euros if you really want multiple options. I don’t think you can get a decent, usable 3D printer today for under a five-figure range if you actually want to use it to design something usable in business, really as a prototype, for example. But if I want to create figures or other things, I can get really great printers nowadays for 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 euros — there are also a lot of great sites that give an overview. With this food 3D printer, it was indeed the case that besides food coloring, various — as I said, I can’t say exactly what was used — there were liquids, there was partly solid material, and it tasted, yes, it also had the taste of what it was supposed to represent. It looked great, I have to say that too. And in the meantime there’s also, I recently saw a directory of restaurants that offer this too, where I can actually test whether it’s really an alternative.
Yes, great, thank you, thank you so much. And especially when we think about the substances again, they can be used in various states, so to speak — you can really use a lot of things in liquid form, for example, or liquefy them to create something with, in inverted commas. Especially thinking of tomatoes or spinach or something, that shouldn’t be a problem at all, in inverted commas. And if that’s accordingly in the packaging, tubes or whatever, or little bottles that I insert, and it runs through the printer and ultimately, I don’t know, creates a pizza or something else — or Stefan had the example with the steak — I think that’s quite imaginable and understandable if you watch a video or two on it. So I find that really exciting, especially because these aren’t necessarily areas you’d classically think of when you think of a 3D printer. So I think that’s really cool. Sabine, does that help your imagination a bit further? That was your question, wasn’t it?
Yes, that helps me a lot further. I still imagine it a bit naively, but I think I’ll go to the library and look at the 3D printer. That was really great. And what I wanted to say too, Stefan, you sound like an expert to me — thank you for the explanation.
Wonderful, thank you, thank you so much. Well, let’s welcome Jürgen and bring him in too, and then we can draw cross-connections again. A wonderful good morning, dear Jürgen — what experiences do you already have with 3D printing?
Buongiorno, cari. Thank you, dear Yasemin, and a nice day to all of you in the room. Now I hope I’m not bringing my statement at an inconvenient time — you might have already discussed this, or whatever. But your last sentence actually confirms me — “dear Yasemin, what experiences have you had?” I have a very current experience to share. I thought for a long time about whether to bring this up, because I know dear Marc, for whom just the mental bridge to this topic is already a source of pain — it’s about the dentist. I recently got a crown, and this crown was made immediately, on-site at the practice, by a 3D printer — the whole session was over within an hour. And since I know the dentist very well, I looked at how it works. I assume you’ve already talked about the dimensions such a printer can have and whatever else, but what stuck with me is this one thing: the 3D printer, in this specific case with the dentist, doesn’t do it alone — I understood that. Because the quality of this 3D print particularly depends on the scanning technique the dentist uses as support, to calculate the dimension and shape of this crown, in order to then feed the calculation result to the 3D printer. And the scanning technique’s need for manual corrections, in certain cases, in turn depends on the resolution and quality of the screen and the performance of the software behind it. And that was the takeaway for me — I know 3D printing is a huge topic, but in what network of connections this technology is embedded, how dependent it is in its progress on other technologies, and how this innovation and this pioneering achievement, in inverted commas, pulls in and challenges other fields, and then also qualifies them. I found that, for me, not just a learning effect but an insight — that with a topic like 3D printing, you might think, what does this have to do with me? I once heard you can 3D-print a steak, so what, I’ll never eat that anyway, case closed. No — it’s actually the interconnection that really shows the true dimension of a single technology. That’s what I took away from this experience with 3D printing. Thanks for listening.
Yes, wonderful, thank you, thank you so much. That fits in the right spot too, I think, because we’ve already opened up various examples, and Sabine also made the connection to education again, in relation to her own son in Canada — that it was about doing some programming for the 3D printer, and that’s exactly this interconnection topic, and that’s the aspect we want to look at under this Pioneering Spirit with Brain theme, so to speak — how all these technologies, in inverted commas, are connected and need to be viewed in their interplay. And that’s why I think it’s great, because on the one hand it opens up the dimension of even being able to imagine how this networking that runs in the background can be thought of, and on the other hand it also makes clear, regarding how our world of work is changing, to get an idea of what demand actually arises here, against the backdrop of all these technologies — what’s needed in the background, what form of jobs, in inverted commas, and so on, and what this interplay might actually look like afterward. And to even be able to approximately imagine that, it’s exactly important — important and right, I think — to really engage more closely with these technologies and get an idea of what’s actually happening in the background, which we might not notice much of in everyday life in a lot of places. So, great. Stefan wanted to follow up here too.
Yes, I’ve learned that you can make Jürgen happy if there’s a dentist nearby, and combined with a 3D printer, I think everything’s covered. And yes, it’s generally the case that business models have simply emerged there too — I was actually thinking of Marc just now — there are, for example, cap manufacturers or T-shirt manufacturers who produce part of, or not part but their entire collection, of, say, T-shirts made of wood, caps made from a 3D printer, and they’re very, very high-quality. It’s not like it’s just some model line where you say, let’s see if this works too — it’s definitely worth thinking about whether an investment there pays off, because actually, if I have it produced cheaply somewhere else, I’d have more individualization options with the printer. And if you don’t exactly know how to operate it or how to get started, there are a lot of options — for example, here in the Bergisches Land region, the regional economic development office has contact people for the topic of 3D printing. You can get advice there on which type of printer is recommended, or who could act as a contact person to get consulted. So anyone thinking about their business and saying this could be a great addition, at least think it over in development — I’d actually recommend that, because the market now covers and serves this, meaning there does seem to be supply and demand there. And then one last thing quickly on the versatile uses of 3D printing — near me there’s a big field where model-building enthusiasts, and I mean “enthusiasts” very affectionately, because I find it incredibly impressive when someone is so devoted to a hobby that they put more or less every free minute into it, I always find that great — when they launch their jets or planes or other model constructions there, and of course there are a lot of crashes, accidents and so on, things that used to get expensively reordered from specialty shops now just get printed by themselves. And there are so many platforms and instructional resources to do all of that independently — it’s definitely worth engaging with this topic a bit more closely.
Really exciting, thank you, thank you so much. And the question that comes to mind for me, Marc, directed at you — would this maybe be something to think about, producing merchandise products in-house?
What does that do to you when you hear that?
Nothing good, dear Yasemin, nothing good. I’m more of a fan of producing products, block sales, many parts, all produced in one big manufacturing run. What that would do to me would first of all be more work — because if I now have to produce a thousand individual products, I’d have to put one at the machine, that takes an incredible amount of time and effort. I’d have to completely restructure my business model. But if I produce 100 or 500 pieces of identical products, that’s more comfortable for me than producing 1,000 individual ones — though for the 1,000 individual customers, of course, the 1,000 individual products would be nicer, that has to be said clearly.
Yes, I’m curious what Stefan says about that.
Well, dear Marc, I didn’t mean it in the sense that you should now start printing your own caps and selling them straight out of the printer, but rather that it’s just a thought about facing market changes to that extent. And you’re a very, very open person in that regard, willing to say, I’ll just try it, I’ve listened a bit to customer wishes, and I can of course pass that on to the manufacturer. But maybe you also have your own creative idea based on the input you got, that you shape a model yourself, so to speak, the way companies design prototypes, so the further manufacturing industry simply has an example, an idea, and a template. That was actually my point.
Yes, wonderful, thank you very much. Just to clarify, I didn’t actually mean it the way you thought, Stefan, but I meant it actually directed at Marc, to think in that direction too, because we know that Marc also works with China, for example, and that’s fine as long as everything works, in inverted commas — but at the same time there’s definitely the possibility of thinking about alternatives and doing research here too, before any crisis exists, and before you’re standing there with the feeling, oh no, this or that no longer works for certain reasons — but maybe it’s worth having alternative thoughts too. Of course production still takes somewhat, or noticeably, longer today than if I had large-scale production, in inverted commas, in place. But even here it might be worth looking, in inverted commas, whether there are already production facilities working with 3D printing, for example, and delivering in large-scale production, in larger quantities, so you don’t need to deal with it yourself, but it would at least be an alternative path, an alternative possibility, and I think, especially looking at this under the overarching theme Pioneering Spirit with Brain, it would at least be worth taking a look, starting the research, and then you can still consciously make a decision. What do you say to that, Marc?
Yes, exactly, and that’s exactly why we have these rooms. Thank you very much for the input — yes, a lot is going to happen. I think, especially with textiles, it’ll probably go in the direction of, first, sustainability, and then in the direction of LEDs — meaning textiles will at some point change their colors, they’re currently working on textiles so that, through technical fibers and so on, I can turn a blue T-shirt into a red one. A huge amount is going to happen there. And then, maybe, since we have an incredible number of singles, probably at some point someone will come up with the idea that if I meet someone else who’s also single, something in the textile could be set to light up or signal, so that the inhibition to approach someone gets removed, because I see, oh look, ours are both lighting up green, you seem to be single too, hello — I have no idea what all will exist. But I do assume that technology will have more and more influence on textiles, and because of that, textile production will flow to different countries again — because you can only do that if you’re technically right at the forefront. And then it’s not just about being able to spin and weave anymore, but about the connection with technology, bringing things together into something new.
Yes, thank you, thank you so much. And I’d also like to pick up Vera’s question from the chat — are there companies in Germany that manufacture 3D printers? Does anyone know? Maybe someone can address that too.
There are definitely a lot of companies in Germany that offer various prints, so to speak — whether printers also get manufactured in Germany, I don’t personally know. I can’t imagine, though, that there’s no German company that manufactures 3D printers per se — the question is just how widespread that is. I mean, we already see that the fields of application are very, very diverse, so accordingly a 3D printer isn’t just a 3D printer, and you’d have to look explicitly at whether a German company manufactures and offers 3D printers, and specifically the 3D printer I might need for my purposes. If we look across Europe, we’ll definitely find plenty in many different areas, and the nice thing is that it keeps developing further. Maybe one of you actually has a concrete tip on that? Feel free to share if you know something. Jürgen.
Yes, what triggered me to say something else was, on the one hand, mass production, on the other hand textiles, and I have a third, different field of application. I was born in what used to be Germany’s, and back then also Europe’s, typical shoe city, Pirmasens. And there’s still a shoe trade school there with a very good reputation, and 3D printing is a topic there too. Without going into intermediate steps, as far as I’m aware currently, the goal isn’t just to produce the base of a shoe, the last, via 3D printing anymore, which already represents an enormous simplification and acceleration of the process — they’re on the way to producing the entire shoe, in one piece, in the future. That might mean little to people outside the shoe world, but every shoe is made up of various parts, from the sole to the upper to the shoelace. And there too, for me, the whole shoe getting produced, the implication from this technology is so significant, because for that — and now looking at Marc with his caps — I no longer need yarn, I no longer need glue to fix seams. That means, because of this innovation, entire subfields that at first seem completely unrelated will have to think about how to deal with the process-related consequences of this 3D printing technology — potentially, they’ll no longer be needed. That’s something that will definitely come our way, I believe — I’ll go out on a limb here — that in the not-too-distant, in a foreseeable amount of time, we’ll be able to go somewhere and have our individual shoe, in all its parts, made by a 3D printer within an hour. Just to back that up, here at Lake Garda, in Arco, there’s already a small company offering exactly that — you can go there and within, I don’t know, a few hours you have your individual sneaker.
Yes, wonderful, thank you, thank you so much, and I think what you just said is important here too — it’s not just about looking at whether what I have right now is maybe still cheaper, or the processes are already in place, I already have my partners and so on, but I’m allowed to think ahead into the future too. That means, what does the landscape look like in a few years? And can I, with what I use for production today, with the means available to me today, will I even still be able to fall back on that in the future, or who will still use that for themselves? So really keeping this development in view, to think in alternatives and get into preparation. And that of course doesn’t just apply to Marc — that’s just one example, it affects many other areas too. And that’s why it makes sense to engage with these technologies and look here, to actually be able to develop an idea and imagination of to what extent, or at what point, this touches my industry or my field, and whether action might be needed here too. Stefan?
Yes, I just wanted to briefly answer the question — yes, there are German companies that manufacture 3D printers, and the German car industry based here also develops and builds its own models. Ford, for example, opened a center in Cologne earlier this year, the 3D Print Center, and as far as I know there’s also a public event once a month where you can inquire about it, you’d have to check with Ford in Cologne on that. But it’s definitely very interesting — if you take a closer look at Jürgen’s shoe example, if you look at Adidas’s collections now, there are already completely finished shoes that are made 100 percent from a 3D printer. Now, of course, Adidas has multi-million-euro 3D printers in production, so they have different options, but they definitely exist — they’re in series production, they’re also very popular. As I said, I’ve tried them on myself, with some skepticism because the look is quite distinctive in parts, but I found the shoe had no quality drawbacks for me at all, in terms of what Adidas wants to achieve with sports shoes overall.
Yes, wonderful, thank you, thank you so much for this example too, and Sebastian also confirms in the chat, sure, there are companies and startups that manufacture 3D printers in Germany, small and large ones. So, as I said, you’d have to differentiate and see what kind of 3D printers are being manufactured, whether that’s actually what I’m currently looking for. But a lot is happening here, and especially as a country where we like being active in crafts and manual work, I can very, very well imagine that. At the same time, there’s always a distinction to make — one thing is manufacturing the 3D printer itself, the other, as Jürgen said, is what runs in the background. That means it’s actually not just the 3D printer that “executes” certain things, in inverted commas, but there are entire technologies behind it, programming and so on, so the result can actually be achieved. And so there are various components coming together here. And I just find this so exciting — I think it’s really great, how many examples and what diversity from different fields there are, whether that’s dental medicine, food, the food industry, footwear or textiles, we started with houses and so on — that shows what diversity is behind this, what becomes possible with it, and in which direction the whole thing can develop, to at least get a feel for it, and maybe also make you want to keep digging further into it. Given the time, I’d like to move into the closing round, and give you the opportunity — I saw Marc and Sabine flashing again, so you can follow up with your contribution and add your closing word at the same time, so I can also announce tomorrow’s room. Marc, Stefan, Sabine, Jürgen, in that order please.
I have two more points to add. You said earlier that we’re also allowed to mention a negative aspect, and I think that here too the courts and politicians are needed, because what you can also print are weapons, and currently, in America and certain countries, the production of weapons made of plastic, from 3D printers, is increasing — also the combination of hybrid weapons, where you buy certain parts and print others. So that can be used in the other direction too, and legislation needs to keep an eye on that — the printer itself doesn’t do it, you need software for that, and that can then be regulated by only allowing certain software. That was one point. And the second point, which we actually haven’t mentioned yet, is medicine. There are bio-printers, and there are now even works with printed bones, printed kidneys that are functional, and there’s even a printed heart. And if you think about that in the future, that’s unbelievable. Even the uterus — there are parts there too, allowing women to have children again by printing certain parts that help them get pregnant again. And when you see what that brings us in medicine, it’s just wonderful. And one last thing, dear Yasemin — you said something I found important, that we don’t always have to imagine how it works, because my mind shuts down when it comes to engaging with things — if I say I don’t understand this, it’s not an issue, then I just don’t think about it. But taking things as given, simply being a child, what would it be like if everything could just work, and then letting your thoughts wander in fantasy — wow, how great is it if we can print organs in the future, what does that mean — without having to necessarily understand the process right away. Thanks for listening, and a great day to you all.
Yes, wonderful, thank you, thank you so much. I think the point you made about weapons as a critical aspect is really valuable too — thank you, dear Marc, for that, because here too — no matter which technology, which development, which topic we cover, there’s never just one perspective or one view, we can always open up negative points and concerning points too, elsewhere as well. The same applies, by the way, to the medical examples you brought — of course we can start discussing this on an ethical level too, do we even want this? Do we actually want printed kidneys, bones, hearts and so on? What does that mean for the world’s population, if life can now be extended immeasurably, in inverted commas, if too few people die, and so on. So there are many, many discussions to have here too, and they’re rightfully worth having, to find answers to them. At the same time, we shouldn’t let ourselves be misled by this, just as with AI or other things, only talking about concerns and seeing the dangers, but always considering, what does this mean for me, for my field, for my business, and so on — where do I have influence, where do I not have influence, that gets regulated elsewhere, and then I can look at how I handle it. So really looking at these discussions on different levels, not just discussing the whole thing on one level, because that might only open up the one perspective and cause us to miss the opportunities on the other side.
And then I’d like to briefly follow up, Stefan, because Marc said something so lovely — that actually connects to the topic we touched on yesterday with you, Stefan, briefly — I don’t know, yesterday we had this, it was about future skills and about a production that’s being made on that. Stefan, I officially give you permission here to advertise your production if you’d like. Stefan was so kind and generous to invite me, and we talked about future skills, and here we have the connection to education again, because what Marc just said, this aspect — I don’t necessarily have to always understand what’s behind it and how it functions in its functionality, but rather relearn this childlike quality, so to speak, just look, just be curious, without knowing what’s actually coming tomorrow, maybe really just let your thoughts juggle here — and future skills means overarching key qualifications, essentially we’re talking about key qualifications for self-determination, self-organization, self-efficacy, and now a new term has been chosen to make a further distinction from key qualifications — it’s not just things like social competence, media competence and so on anymore, but to signal that further aspects are now added. In this context, people talk about future skills, and this is where the full complexity comes in — this unplannability, being able to endure areas of tension, not knowing exactly and still having to act agilely, always appropriate to context and situation — and that means learning also has to be supported differently now, and there we have this education context again, very strongly present. That’s why it was important for me to make that connection here again, and the rest you can gladly take over, Stefan.
Yes, first of all, it was really, really fun for me yesterday, getting to know you in person at the production. I hope you felt very welcome with us. We produce this format regularly — it’s about, well, I have a digital agency that focuses on storytelling, strategy, and also format production and creating high-quality digital services, and to that end — now I can’t hear you anymore, Stefan.
I don’t know, can you still hear him or not? Stefan, can you repeat that please, you were gone for a moment.
So you have a production —
Yes, exactly, right — there was a call coming in, I don’t know if that blocked things. So it’s about our agency producing various kinds of video content — not just for TV, but also for the business formats we create and produce. And you were part of that yesterday, and I really, really enjoyed it — you’re always a huge asset, not just with your expertise but as a person on-site too. That’s what I wanted to say too, that was really great. In the end, of course, we talked about future skills, as you already outlined — and ultimately it was also about looking ahead, from the perspective of entrepreneurs but also generally as a person, what skills, what demands, what do I need to prepare for in the coming years, and how do I also need to present myself as a modern employer, and what thoughts should I be having, and what does that mean for us as a society in dealing with these new demands. That was definitely an exciting topic, I think, and we’re preparing that now too. And the other thing, actually in that context too, because we also had a focus on AI among other things, was that this playfulness needs to come from humans first, engaging with topics. The same applies to 3D printing — though it’s a bit different there, because with 3D printing, sure, you can get a low-cost entry by having some figures printed, but when it comes to actually using it in business, you naturally have to invest in it too. That’s not as simple as paying, say, 70 euros a month for Midjourney or 25 euros a month for ChatGPT — those are different cost factors when using AI. So I think 3D printing is currently more positioned in business or high-end hobby territory, and I find that a real shame — which is why I want to advertise for it again. Printing is and remains a revolution that will significantly change our economic world over the next ten to twenty years — the world market will change significantly because of it too, and it’s a lot, a lot of fun engaging with this topic.
Yes, wonderful, thank you very much, dear Stefan. Sabine.
Hello, I’m already outside on the street. I’m on my way to the Buga, to a creative event from the network — I had no idea something like that existed at the chamber of commerce. There are a lot of creative minds networked there, I was already there this week and I’m totally in flow. Not that I’d claim to go too deep into it, but the people who were there, that was really good — and you, Stefan, would definitely fit in there too. But I wanted to say two other things. On the shoe topic, I found that really interesting, because there was a hype in my daughter’s class where they all wanted to get the limited edition Nike shoes, and the prices went endlessly up. If there were 3D printers, I could just print them myself, wouldn’t need the limited edition anymore. The second thing — I was recently with my daughter, who had some foot pain from jogging, and I found this phenomenal — a physiotherapist in a sports shop made an imprint of her foot and all sorts of things, and said, you actually need something completely different. In the end he sold her completely different shoes than she wanted, and said, run in these now, I don’t remember how many kilometers he said, and then please go see a doctor and have them check it again. If I imagine that now, it won’t be long before all of that happens in one go — you’ll stand on some kind of photocopier and get handcrafted shoes made for your feet, exactly what you need for jogging. A really great event today, as it has been all week, I keep making big eyes — I find it wonderful what everyone’s doing. Thank you, bye.
Yes, wonderful, thank you, thank you so much, Sabine. Jürgen.
Yes, thank you all again, lovely that I still had the chance to jump in today, it’s a bit difficult at times right now, but I want to leave you with one thing, because it concerns the group of people who are also often represented in our rooms — on the one hand entrepreneurs, and on the other hand consultants. And what I took away for myself, regarding the consulting focus of strategic analysis, which an entrepreneur should actually do on a recurring basis — in competitive analysis, today it’s no longer just about who’s a competitor, what product do they make, and what processes do they use, but also very importantly, what technologies do they use. And with 3D printing, there’s no question that this will have very significant implications in the near future — thank you also, dear Sabine, for your statement adding to the shoe topic. Thank you and a nice day to you all.
Yes, wonderful, thank you, thank you so much, and let me build a bridge to AI again here too, because that’s exactly what should become clear here — that all these technologies can’t be viewed in isolation from each other. There are now AI tools, for example, that make it possible to actually get into competitive analysis and use AI for it, to see what’s being used in the background, for example, which systems are in use, and so on. So we see how these technologies, viewed in interplay, can then be used again to deploy this or that in a positive sense for oneself, for one’s business, and for all the analytical thinking, and so on. And I think it’s really lovely that today, for the first time really, this becomes so clear, how this interplay actually functions, and we’ll keep feeling that more and more clearly over the coming days and weeks. And that’s also the goal under the overarching theme Pioneering Spirit with Brain — to really keep bringing in this networking, building these bridges, and showing these possibilities, to give you an idea too — where does it really make sense, or why does it make sense, this “for what purpose,” to engage with these topics, and not have the feeling that this has nothing to do with me, but really look at it with a childlike, playful spirit, just discover, and see what I can take away for myself, or where I might be able to use it. And at the same time, in that spirit, tomorrow we have our expert talk with Dr. Franz Hütter — I’m really, really looking forward to him joining us again tomorrow. Together with him we’ll look at virtual reality and augmented reality. So you’re all very, very warmly invited to join again tomorrow morning at 8, to get a closer look at this exciting world of virtual reality and augmented reality, and then, right after the expert talk, to step into the exchange again, maybe address your questions to him or bring in your own experiences. So I’m looking forward to welcoming you all here tomorrow morning at 8 together with Dr. Franz Hütter. With that, I wish you a great day, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
