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European Stakeholder Forum

The first European Stakeholder Forum gathered about 500 delegates for consultation and discussion on the Digitising European Industry initiative. The Forum aimed to raise awareness and to foster networking between all stakeholders, in particular between the various national and regional initiatives, Digital Innovation Hubs and platforms.

The first European Stakeholder Forum took place on 31 January and 1 February 2017. It was a public event with two main objectives:

  • reaching out to stakeholders from the full digital value chains for broad awareness raising, consultation and discussion on the practical action lines of the DEI initiative
  • ease networking between all stakeholders and namely between the various national and regional initiatives, Digital Innovation Hubs and platforms.

As part of the DEI governance announced in the Digitising European Industry Communication of April 2016, a European Stakeholder Forum will continue as annual event and will be held once per year

Click here to register to the event

The Stakeholder Forum was co-organised by European Commission and Member States. The first occurrence of the Forum was hosted by German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).

The event was organised around a conference programme including a policy session with welcome speeches from Commissioner Oettinger and State Secretary Machnig, an industry panel and working sessions focused on workshops, presentation of achievements, and sessions of the working groups with the objective of achieving a wider discussion. It included workshops on digital innovation hubs, digital industrial platforms, standardisation, skills for the digital age, IT security and regulatory challenges. In particular, the Stakeholder Forum aimed at presenting the first results of both Working Groups launched at the Roundtable of 20 September and consult more widely on these. These two specific mission-oriented Working Groups were focused on Digital Innovation Hubs and Leadership in digital technology value chains and platforms with the objective to work out detailed implementation.

A parallel exhibition programme focused on presentation of the achievements of the national and European initiatives in about 15 booths. External visits to local companies showcasing their use of digital technologies were also organised by the BMWi.

The Stakeholder Forum is part of the governance of the DEI initiative.

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