Avatars Take Over From Stand-ins to Superpowers

Wed November 12, 2025 11:00 pm CET

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vanessa Borkmann and Christopher Werth explore how avatars are reshaping the way we work, connect, and experiment with identity. 
We all juggle different roles in life – but what happens when our digital selves start doing the heavy lifting? 
From job avatars that attend meetings, to social avatars that network globally, to creative avatars that dare what we never would in real life. 
Where do these digital stand-ins surprise us with real benefits – and where do they inevitably fail? 
Through live audience interaction, we ask: Which tasks would you hand over to your avatar?And when has an avatar created unexpected trouble? 
Together, we map the opportunities and the pitfalls: time savings, courage, global collaboration versus identity conflicts, glitches, and loss of control. 
The dialogue highlights how avatars blur boundaries between empowerment and risk. 
Finally, we reflect: What’s next in our journey with avatars?Where do we want more possibilities – and where should we draw the line? 
An academic yet provocative impulse talk on the future of our digital identities. 

Format

Fireside Chat

App

VRChat

Location

AREA X

Duration

45 min

Presenter

Vanessa Borkmann
Head of Urban Systems Engineering Research Area and Head of Research Group and Innovation Lab eXtended Environments at Fraunhofer Institute
© Deniz Saylan

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vanessa Borkmann has been Research Director at Fraunhofer IAO since 2024 and heads the Urban Systems Design division with five working groups, as well as the Next Urban Food, Farming & Hospitality Lab and a real-world laboratory for neighborhoods, the PionierHUB in Munich. She is also team leader of the “eXtended Environments” group with the “eXtended Environments Lab including a Cave (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment)”. Her research focuses on innovation and digitalization in urban ecosystems and on forward-looking solutions and strategies for the successful transformation of cities and destinations as well as the culture, hospitality, and tourism industries through innovative business models, services, and environments—including in hybrid and virtual worlds. She is the scientific director of the Morgenstadt Initiative, initiator and project manager of the FutureHotel Innovation Network and the Museum Innovation Network.  
She has been a professor of tourism with a focus on hotel management at SRH University since 2018. The graduate engineer and architect studied at the University of Stuttgart and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH in Zurich. She received her doctorate from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Stuttgart with a thesis on “Mental stress and strain on business travelers.” Vanessa Borkmann has received multiple awards for technology management and her own innovative developments and is a member of expert committees, advisory boards, and supervisory boards. 

Christopher Werth
Chief Creative Officer at VOK DAMS worldwide

Christopher Werth is an expert in experiential marketing. He studied theater production and staged at the Schauspielhaus Bochum in Germany. After working as a creative at Jung von Matt and Scholz & Friends, among others, he is now Director Strategy & Concept at the agency for events and live-marketing VOK DAMS worldwide. He writes a gaming column for CulturMag and gives lectures at universities and international conferences.

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