ASPEN at Rethink Digital Fest in Łódź – creativity is the currency of the future!
On October 23, 2025, the 4th edition of the RethinkDigitalFest event took place at the Łódź Special Economic Zone S.A.
Heller Consult had the pleasure of participating in this prestigious event.
The event was divided into 3 stages:
- SPACE TECH
- DIGITAL ECONOMY
- CREATIVE powered by Filmteractive
Na scenie CREATIVE powered by Filmteractive
During the RethinkDigitalFest event, the CREATIVE stage powered by Filmteractive bustled with the energy of ideas, emotions and inspiration. This is where business met culture, and creativity showed its real power in the business world.
The stage was opened by Adam Pustelnik, deputy mayor of Lodz, and Olgierd Cygan, founder of Filmteractive and CEO of Future.Company, reminding that today creativity is not an ornament of business – it is an engine of innovation.
What caught the attention of the participants?
- Creative sector without borders – a discussion on how Poland and France are jointly building bridges between culture and economy.
- Evian as a brand icon – Dawid Borowiec, Global Director of the evian brand (Danone), proved that a brand can become an emotion if it boldly tells stories.
- Innovation driven by creativity – experts discussed the synergy between business and art, which creates new qualities and perspectives.
- AI in advertising – a debate full of examples and controversy: does artificial intelligence really understand humans?
- Business and imagination – BNP Paribas showed that investing in culture and art is an investment in the future.
- Financing creativity – Creative Europe Desk Poland proved that support for the creative sector has real power.
Karol Opara and the SPACE TECH stage - Polish innovations in space
During Rethink Digital Fest, the SPACE TECH stage showed that the future of space technology is happening now – in Łódź, with the participation of Polish experts and international partners.
Topics included:
- Backstage of the IGNIS mission and the Polish footprint in space (Dr. Aleksandra Bukala, Polish Space Agency; Weronika Antczak, ESA).
- Support of SMEs by the European Space Agency (Maria Zaretskaya, ESA).
- Startup inspiration and the Space Pitching Arena competition – winner DEPOTracer, honorable mention KopterSoft.
Our colleague Karol Opara talked about the ASPEN project, showing how innovation is opening up new opportunities in the space industry.
Karol Opara is a specialist in optimization theory and artificial intelligence, and his interests also include interdisciplinary applications of data analysis. For more than a dozen years, he has worked with Heller Consult, where he develops and implements innovative methods for monitoring infrastructure and traffic. For five years, he led the ASPEN project, funded by the European Space Agency, which developed and marketed technology for assessing the evenness and damage of road surfaces, bike paths and sidewalks using smartphones mounted in cars, bicycles or electric scooters. He currently serves as a professor at the Institute of Systems Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences and as a visiting professor at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan.
The SPACE TECH stage showed that Poland is not only chasing the world’s lead – it is becoming an active participant.
DIGITAL ECONOMY - the future of the digital economy
The DIGITAL ECONOMY stage was where visions, data and technology leaders met: from AI to innovative startups.
Highlights:
- Europe AI – Marcin Plaskowski (European Commission) presented the development of the AI ecosystem in the EU.
- Generative AI in practice – Mark Miller of Google on how GenAI is changing our information search.
- Security and innovation – a discussion on the importance of cooperation between administration, business and science.
- Polish AI projects – the PLLUM project, a Polish language model being developed by the University of Lodz.
- Startup Boost – collaboration between large companies and young innovators and a practical look at scaling projects.
The 4th edition of the Rethink Digital Fest event confirmed that Lodz is the center of creativity, innovation and digital technology in Poland. The meeting of business, science and culture showed that the future belongs to those who combine creativity with technology.