As an industry analyst, Jochen Krisch has been shedding light on the most exciting developments in e-commerce for more than 20 years. 

The computer science graduate began his career in 1995 at ProSieben and Home Shopping Europe (HSE). Since 2005, he has been running Exciting Commerce, one of the most influential industry blogs, and in 2011 he launched the K5 Conference, which is dedicated to the retail of tomorrow.

Lecture: Creator instead of banner. Why influencers are redefining performance in affiliate marketing

According to the Affiliate Trend Report 2026, influencers and creators are among the most important developments in affiliate marketing. While traditional affiliate models are often heavily dependent on SEO traffic, creators open up completely new ways of activating target groups. They combine reach, trust and storytelling with measurable performance.

In the first part of the presentation, Markus Kellermann will show why creators are becoming increasingly important in affiliate marketing and what role they will play in the publisher mix in the future. Julia Boiarchukova from Vodafone will then provide exclusive insights into a current campaign in which creator content was specifically combined with cashback mechanisms.

Lecture: AI Search Optimization 2026: What works, what doesn’t and what role do affiliates play?

ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews are currently changing how people make purchasing decisions – and who becomes visible in the process. The good news: AI Search can be influenced. The bad news: Not everything that is currently being sold as “GEO best practice” works. Some even harbor enormous risks!