Chief information officer at Times of India publisher Bennett, Coleman and Co Sachin Gupta will be among speakers at ppi Media’s ‘Open Days’ event in Hamburg in June.

The two-day event takes place at the Empire Riverside Hotel from June 23-24.

Sam Shollei of The Standard Group in Kenya will outline measures taken to master the challenges of the African media industry; Ute Becker of OWL-Online will discuss the transition from NW's online relaunch to its new brand strategy; Nancy Lane of the US Local Media Association will update on North American trends for local media; Russmedia’s Markus Raith will discuss ‘growing out of a niche’; and Michael Kuth and Christian Wagner of Bremer Tageszeitungen will take delegates ‘from economy class to augmented reality’. A speaker on corporate publishing is also planned.

ppi Media speakers include Norbert Ohl (Shift happens, the new ppi Media), Jan Kasten (The new media as a playing field for innovative software), Markus Feldenkirchen and Christian Veith (German and US updates) and Manuel Scheyda (Digital impetus and structural consequences),

There will also be a tour of Hamburg's St Pauli district and a dinner, at which the speaker will be former St Pauli FC soccer player Ben Adrion, who is founder of theViva con Agua charity.