Co-founder and Managing Director — building Germany's leading retail-tech event from the ground up.
RETAIL NXT
Ruben DoppelsteinHamburg
Build whatmovesindustries.
Business Builder · Media · Events
Building media, conference and trade-show businesses where retail, technology and people come together.
Connect on LinkedIn01Perspective
Experience creates instinct.
I have spent more than a decade at the intersection of media, events, content, communities and commercial businesses.
From established publishing environments to agencies, independent organizers and entrepreneurial event businesses — I know the industry from different angles.
Today I build and grow platforms that connect industries, people and ideas.
02Experience
0+
Years · one evolving industry
01
Media & Publishing
Audiences, content, brands and commercial media models.
02
Agencies
Clients, creativity, execution and commercial objectives.
03
Event Organizers
Conferences, trade shows and communities as businesses.
04
Management
Strategy, growth, teams and P&L responsibility.
03Where I am strongest
Commercial substance.
Not ideas on a slide. Businesses with a model, a market and a number behind them.
01
P&L ownership
Full commercial responsibility: pricing, margin, forecast and the decisions that protect both.
02
New formats
Turning an unaddressed industry question into a conference, trade show or media platform that sells.
03
Decision-maker access
Long-standing, trusted conversations with retail, brand and technology leadership.
04
Partner & sponsor models
Commercial structures that convince partners once and hold across editions.
05
Team leadership
Sales, content and operations aligned on one commercial agenda.
06
Positioning
Sharpening what a platform stands for until the market can repeat it back.
05Vita
Formats, Brands and Projects I have shaped.
A selection of formats, brands and projects I have built, led or shaped over the years — across media, events, retail and technology.
Led the owned-format team through the pandemic and kept the CIO summit commercially strong.
Hamburger IT Strategietage
Grew the conference into year-round community networking for CIOs and senior IT leaders.
CIO move
Integrated NEXT Conference with Accenture Interactive into Reeperbahn Festival — where tech meets culture.
NEXT
Led rebranding and strategic realignment of Germany's largest education and training congress.
DALK
Turned a traditional media brand into a streaming and live-event destination.
TV SPIELFILM LIVE
Helped shape and position the Women's Day format in the market.
emotion Women's Day
Supported the brand during the Long Night of Fitness with live activation and community building.
FIT FOR FUN05Current focus · RETAIL NXT
Retail is changing.
We build the room.
Managing Director of RETAIL NXT — a 100% subsidiary of Fleet Events, part of the Hamburg Messe und Congress group.
Full-time, hands-on: strategy, commercial model, partners, content and team. Launched in 2023 and growing fast.
2016
Launched into the market
From white sheet to industry platform
0+
Participants
Grown edition over edition
0+
Partners
Brands, retailers and technology companies
0%
Fleet Events subsidiary
Hamburg Messe und Congress group
Managing Director · RETAIL NXT
RETAIL NXT
Connecting leading retailers, brands, technology companies and decision-makers — as a conference, a community and a media platform.
Explore RETAIL NXT ↗RETAIL NXT Podcast
Conversations with the decision-makers.
Patricia Lichtenberg
Retail & Technology
Über Kühlschränke, Bezahlen ohne Kasse und den Mut, Abkürzungen zu vermeiden
Martina Novotny
Data & Cooperative Retail
Über Daten als Gamechanger und die Power einer Genossenschaft
Frank Postel
Breuninger
Von KI bis Kundenliebe: Breuninger auf dem Weg in neue Märkte
Frauke Rodeck
Omnichannel & Loyalty
Über Omnichannel ohne Kannibalisierung und Loyalität im digitalen Handel
06Profile
“The real value of an event is not attendance. It is the conversations, decisions and relationships that would not have happened without it.”
Ruben Doppelstein is a media, event and trade-show executive based in Hamburg.
His work combines strategy, commercial growth, partnerships, content, communities and leadership.
His current focus is the transformation of industries through technology, digitalization and AI — particularly within retail.
07Connect
Let’s talk about what’s next.
Media, events, trade shows, retail, technology and business building. Direct enquiries are answered personally.
Or connect on LinkedIn ↗