From managing files to managing trust - A Reimagining DAM 2026 recap

31. March 2026 Julia Stephan

There are moments when an industry pauses to reflect, to connect, and to redefine its direction. Reimagining DAM 2026, held in Munich on March 18-19, was one of those moments.

Over two days, more than 150 Digital Asset Management professionals, users, partners, analysts, and technology leaders gathered to explore a transformation already underway.

What became clear was a shared understanding that DAM is no longer confined to its traditional role as an image repository. It is a dynamic orchestration engine, one that supports the entire content lifecycle with speed, precision - and increasingly, trust.

Watch the conference aftermovie:

Real workflows demonstrating the shift One of the clearest signals of this transformation came not from theory, but from real-world DAM workflows shared by some of our customers on stage. These sessions brought the overarching themes of orchestration, trust, and scale into sharp focus through concrete examples.

SNS Group - Asset Ingestion At SNS, a leading sports photography agency in the UK, the focus is on high-performance ingestion workflows where speed is critical.

As Craig Rodger (Deputy Digital Media Manager at SNS) demonstrated, images move seamlessly from camera to publishing through direct ingestion into the image management and photo workflow client Fotostation, where efficient culling and selection, metadata enrichment, and rapid distribution enable near real-time delivery.

In environments like media and publishing, where every second is business critical, workflow efficiency becomes a defining capability for a DAM system.

Sebrae - Content Orchestration Ang lica Cordova (Journalist & Communications Specialist) from Sebrae, an organization dedicated to supporting the 23 million micro and small businesses across Brazil, presented their transformation from a static archive into an active content hub.

Through the introduction of metadata standards and ways to keep control of the complete content lifecycle, while maintaining local autonomy within a shared infrastructure, Sebrae has created a scalable model for content orchestration that ensures both consistency and flexibility across a distributed organization.

Munch Museum - Data Governance At the Munch Museum in Norway, Florence Froidevaux (Digital Asset & Collections Management Manager) illustrated how data governance can be embedded into the core of cultural heritage management.

Thanks to an integration of their Collection Management System Axiell with their Fotoware DAM, the museum has established a single source of truth that supports preservation, documentation, and accessibility, enabling a cross-disciplinary workflow that spans the entire institutional ecosystem.

Learn more about the Munch Museums DAM workflow in this webinar. >

German law enforcement agency - AI-driven image classification A different perspective came from Martina Tschapka (COO) from our partner T3K, who presented a real-life example of AI-driven workflows developed for an anonymized police force.

Here, artificial intelligence is used to filter, classify, and analyze large volumes of visual evidence, enabling more efficient investigations while maintaining strict control and traceability across systems.

Equinor - Content Control Line Falk (Principal Consultant for Communication) from Equinor, a global energy company from Norway, showcased how governance can be operationalized at scale within their global DAM. Files need to be selected, approved and distributed at high speed, all while complying with copyright and GDPR regulations.

To do so efficiently, Equinor's approach to content control is built on clearly defined roles, continuous training, and a trust-first model, where compliance is not enforced after the fact but embedded directly into everyday workflows.

Learn more about Equinors DAM workflow in this webinar. >

Global football association - Real-time content distribution A similar emphasis on speed and orchestration emerged in an anonymized use case from a global football association. Here, the entire workflow from image capture on the field to distribution across news outlets, sponsors, and clubs, is optimized for near real-time delivery.

Every step is tightly coordinated, ensuring that content is not only delivered within seconds, but also properly tagged, rights-managed, and ready for immediate use. In environments where visibility and timing directly impact value, this level of workflow performance becomes a competitive advantage.

Learn more: How to streamline sports photography with AI and metadata

German law enforcement agency - End-to-end evidence management Another anonymized example from another major German police force highlighted the critical role of DAM in managing the full lifecycle of digital evidence.

From initial capture through to courtroom use, every asset must remain secure, traceable, and verifiable. In this context, DAM is not just supporting workflows but safeguarding the integrity of the entire chain of evidence. It shows how trust is operationalized in a setting where reliability is essential to outcomes.

Learn more about Digital Evidence Management in this article. >

All cases approach DAM from very different industries and different use cases. Yet their stories point in the same direction: organizations that succeed with DAM start with people and processes, then apply technology to enable and scale them. Whether automating metadata enrichment, enabling cross-team collaboration, or embedding governance into the way they work, these examples demonstrate how DAM is evolving into an intelligent workflow engine.

They also highlighted something equally important: the human impact. By reducing manual effort and increasing reliability, these workflows are not only improving efficiency but are reshaping how people work.

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