Forum Members Including Leading Experts from Industry, Government, Universities and Research Organisations

Tech leaders, global corporations, policy makers, universities and digital entrepreneurs have joined the European Commission in a new initiative to nurture Digital Entrepreneurship in Europe.
The DG Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission invited 40 experts to support the development of policies and initiatives to enhance Digital Entrepreneurship in Europe.  The first meeting of the European Strategic Leaders Forum on Digital Entrepreneurship took place at the Albert Borschette Conference Centre on Friday 28th February 2014. 

The Strategic Forum is led by a Board steered by President Mr. John Higgins (Digital Europe, Director General), and Vice-Presidents Mrs. Irène Braam (Bertelsmann, VP of Government Relations) and Mr. António Murta (PATHENA, Managing Partner and Co-Founder).

The digital economy is developing rapidly worldwide.  Novel digital technologies, such as mobile and social solutions, cloud computing and data analytics offer new opportunities for the transformation of business services in the knowledge economy. 

Digital technologies hold potential for the creation of new business value to EU companies, thanks to new or higher revenue streams, faster times ‘to-market’, enhanced service provision, reduced costs, increased productivity and competitiveness.  Digitisation can facilitate business transformation and also enables opportunities for the re-location of industry in Europe. How well and how quickly European businesses adopt digital technologies will be a key determinant of growth in future years.

The key objectives of the Forum are to :

• Reinforce the dialogue among business, science, and politics with the aim of shaping an EU ambitious vision, a short and long-term strategy on Digital entrepreneurship and concrete actions to its implementation;
• Advise the Commission on key policy issues and actions to support business transformation and offer European SMEs new opportunities and a leading place in the modern digital economy;
• Promote the development of Digital Entrepreneurship policies by Member States at national, regional and city level, by  improving awareness on the potential impact of digital technologies in businesses as well as on relevant policy initiatives and public-private partnerships in the EU and main international partners.