Press Release:Business Breakfast 2026 – Networking with Brainpower
by Marco Seltenreich
At the beginning of the 9th STRABAG Real Estate Business Breakfast at Vienna’s Tech Gate, the numerous industry guests in attendance were given a warning: “Attention, things are about to get curious!” The man behind this unusual opening was keynote speaker Markus Hofmann, who made the case that, despite the growing possibilities offered by digital technology, we should not blindly entrust all business matters to AI.
Courage, creativity and curiosity are qualities you cannot simply buy. Nor can they be delegated to artificial intelligence without limitations. World memory champion Markus Hofmann presented compelling arguments to support this view at the invitation of STRABAG Real Estate Austria’s Managing Directors Erwin Größ and Johannes Mayr. He turned the spotlight on the human brain – a powerful tool that remains indispensable for business success.
Hofmann first became known to a wider audience in 2005 as the coach of an 11-year-old contestant on the TV show Wetten, dass …?, who correctly matched 100 tartan patterns on Scottish kilts. At the Business Breakfast, he coached guests in various memory techniques, including how to remember names and faces.
There was broad agreement among attendees that success will undoubtedly be defined differently in the future than it has been in the past. “If we want to create affordable housing, continue developing our cities and successfully drive the energy transition, we need more than entrepreneurial commitment. We also need reliable framework conditions and faster decision-making,” says Managing Director Erwin Größ. “AI, with its ever-increasing capabilities, may make some of these things easier and faster, but it will not solve the fundamental challenges for us.”
In addition to a practical session encouraging guests to think for themselves, attendees received a book by the bestselling author and something to delight their senses: pralines made at the chocolate manufactory in the Reallabor Fassfabrik – one of numerous creative interim uses within STRABAG Real Estate’s exciting development project in Vienna’s 23rd district.
Alongside a hearty breakfast and lively networking, many guests undoubtedly left this successful and rather unusual STRABAG Real Estate tradition with a more nuanced perspective on ChatGPT & Co. – and, above all, with renewed confidence in the fundamentally human qualities of courage, innovation and curiosity.
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