Industrial metaverse conference 2026 - where the industry of tomorrow is created

The industrial metaverse conference 2026 is considered one of the most important meeting points for industry representatives, digitalization experts, and technology providers dealing with the next wave of industrial transformation. In a time when digital twins, virtual realities, artificial intelligence, and enhanced collaboration along the value chain are no longer futuristic concepts, the conference offers a focused forum to understand, question, and translate these developments into concrete strategies.

Why the industrial metaverse is not just a buzzword

The industrial metaverse connects physical industrial processes with digital, interactive, and intelligent systems. The goal is to make production processes more efficient, safer, and more flexible—whether through synchronized data and teams in real-time, virtualization of complex processes, or AI-supported simulations that complement human expertise. These topics are at the heart of the conference and reflect the strategic importance that the concept now holds for competitiveness and innovation.

Focus: Technological foundations and strategic value creation

The agenda of the two conference days is clearly structured in content and covers the central challenges and opportunities of the industrial metaverse. It begins with fundamental impulses on core technologies and potentials, moves through concrete use cases, and addresses the question of where and how companies can meaningfully enter—a particularly relevant approach for users from mechanical and plant engineering, manufacturing, and production.

Highlights from the program

Industrial Metaverse: Core technologies and potentials: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Bauernhansl (Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA / IFF - University of Stuttgart) opens the conference with an in-depth look at the technological foundations of the industrial metaverse. He demonstrates how digital twins, connected sensors, and AI elements become the basis for new industrial ecosystems.

Physical AI for Industrial Metaverse: Mathias Stach, founder and CEO of AURONIQ Robotics GmbH, highlights how physical AI acts as a link between digital models and real production processes. His perspective is practice-oriented and outlines how adaptive systems can control production processes.

From digital twin to scalable value creation: Christopher Unkauf (CEO Siemens Industry Software GmbH & VP DACH Strategic Markets) explains how digital twins transform organizations towards speed, ownership, and impact - a core aspect for companies striving for more flexible production networks.

Agentic, physics, and physical AI in the industrial environment: Dr. Timo Kistner (NVIDIA) combines technological depth with strategic perspective and shows how modern AI architectures merge physical reality and digital models - a key element for intelligent factories.

Human simulation as a success factor: Prof. Dr. Lars Fritzsche and Dr.-Ing. Daniel Wagner (BMW Group) put people at the center: simulations that map human decisions are among the decisive factors to exploit the potential of the industrial metaverse.

(Image:  ImageFlow - stock.adobe.com)

Practice in focus: Use cases and collaborative approaches

In addition to the strategic and technological foundations, the Industrial Metaverse Conference 2026 places a clear emphasis on industrial practice. Numerous presentations show how companies are already using the industrial metaverse today to measurably improve development, planning, and production processes. The central question is always how digital spaces, real-time data, and intelligent systems accelerate collaboration and make complexity manageable.

For example, Oliver Geißel from Mercedes-Benz AG provides insights into how collaborative digital platforms enable the safeguarding of new production concepts in real time. Shared virtual environments can shorten planning cycles, simplify coordination processes, and allow for earlier, well-founded decisions - a decisive advantage in highly complex production landscapes.

At Schaeffler, collaboration is also in focus. Dr.-Ing. Dennis Arnhold shows how the industrial metaverse connects teams across locations, disciplines, and hierarchy levels. Integrated digital workspaces create transparency, promote interdisciplinary collaboration, and form the basis for faster innovation processes along the entire value chain.

Another practical perspective is offered by the contribution of Dr. Bahram Torabi and Oliver Huther from Sick AG. They explain how the merging of artificial intelligence and industrial metaverse approaches opens up new possibilities in industrial automation - for example, through adaptive systems that not only monitor processes but actively optimize them.

A central technical challenge is addressed by Clarissa Hack (Spie Germany) and Steffen Kappes (Faro Europe): For digital twins to deliver real value, they must remain up-to-date. Their presentation "Keep the Twin Alive" shows how data can be continuously captured, synchronized, and utilized in digital models - a prerequisite for reliable simulations and informed decisions.

With the topic of cognitive robotics, Jens Fabrowsky from Neura Robotics expands the view on autonomous systems in the industrial metaverse. He shows how robots, through learnable architectures, increasingly operate independently, understand their environment, and can flexibly adapt to new requirements - an important step towards truly intelligent production environments.

The importance of open, interoperable structures is highlighted by Dr. Christian Mosch from the Industrial Digital Twin Association e. V. He makes it clear why open standards for digital twins are crucial to meaningfully network different systems, manufacturers, and applications in the industrial metaverse and to create long-term investment security.

The practical block is rounded off by the contribution of Jan Berner (Feynsinn / EDAG), who places the digital thread as a connecting element at the center. Continuous data flows along the entire product lifecycle thus form the backbone of the industrial metaverse - from the first idea through development and production to operation and service.

Together, these contributions show that the industrial metaverse is no longer a theoretical future vision, but already delivers concrete added value in many companies. The conference makes visible how integrated solutions emerge from individual technologies - and how collaboration, data, and intelligent systems become the new foundation of industrial value creation.

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Why you should participate

The industrial metaverse conference is much more than a professional event: it is a meeting place for decision-makers and practitioners who want to actively shape the digital transformation of their industrial companies. Here, experts from large OEMs, technology leaders, research institutions, and innovative medium-sized companies meet to discuss concrete approaches, measurable advantages, and interoperable solutions.

The event not only provides strategic perspectives but also offers practical insights into how industrial metaverse technologies are already increasing efficiency, making complexity manageable, and enabling new business models - from virtual commissioning to collaborative planning along global value chains.

In a phase where global markets are becoming faster, more connected, and more digital, the conference offers a rare opportunity for intensive engagement with a topic that will become a standard of industrial value creation in the medium term.