AAVIT Celebrated its 4th Anniversary
AAVIT Celebrated its 4th Anniversary
In mid-September, we held our 4th annual AAVIT members’ meeting in the beautiful premises of Villa Richter, culminating in a social evening for our partners and friends to celebrate another successful year of our association. Take a look back with us at AAVIT’s achievements to date.
Membership growth
AAVIT currently has nearly 300 direct and associate members. Our membership base has grown substantially in the last year, with many major Czech and international technology companies joining us in the fields of healthcare, artificial intelligence and big data.
Strengthening international cooperation
Creating more favourable conditions for the development of digital technologies is one of the main objectives of our international activities. A pillar of this is our membership of DIGITALEUROPE, which enables us to directly influence the shape of the digital market in the EU.
In the past year, we have participated in several strategic meetings, including two NTA summits in Brussels and Budapest, where we addressed the topics of regulating the digital economy and fostering innovation. A highlight was our participation in the first plenary session of the new European Parliament in Strasbourg. At this event we also attended a DIGITALEUROPE reception where we presented our priorities for the coming five-year period – promoting the European Single Market, artificial intelligence, digital services and their regulation, and effective use of digitalisation.
We consider the election of AAVIT Director Jaromír Hanzal to the DIGITALEUROPE Board of Directors as the first ever Czech representative to be our greatest achievement and recognition of our work. Thanks to this, we have an even greater information lead and access to many key people in the digital field, not only in Europe but worldwide.
Supporting the digital economy and transformation
Expanding our membership base also brings us new expertise and ideas. This has enabled us to open up new topics, engage in new projects and generally increase our activity for the benefit of all our members.
In the past year we have focused on organizing educational/networking events and workshops, not only for our members but also for the general public. We organized 7 in-house workshops and conferences focused on current trends and challenges in the digital sector. In addition to our own activities, we actively participated in 8 international events, including 2 trade missions, providing our members with further opportunities for international networking.
On the domestic scene, we have also persistently focused on serving on a number of working groups that influence the shape of public support instruments for digitalisation, development and innovation. We have been invited to provide media commentary on several digital-related topics and have participated in a number of roundtables and discussions, including regional ones. We also consistently monitor and influence the implementation of national and European digital legislation.
Trade missions and global networking
In the past year, we have participated in two major trade missions – to Chile and Uruguay and to Algeria. The first mission to Latin America was attended by our members and was organised by the Confederation of Industry and Transport of the Czech Republic, in the presence of the Minister of Industry and Trade, Josef Sikely. The Algerian mission was conducted under the patronage of the Chamber of Commerce and served as a networking and presentation of our members at the Algerian trade fair. Both trips also focused on networking with representatives of the local startup infrastructure and innovation ecosystem.
Among the major events in the CEE region is undoubtedly the CEE Digital Summit, organized by our Polish partner association Związek Cyfrowa Polska. The theme of the last summit was the importance of digital technologies for modern warfare and effective defence in Ukraine.
Last but not least, we have been involved in a number of meetings in Poland and Slovakia, organized by our foreign partners on the issues of big tech regulation and digital skills development in the region.
New edition and challenges of IT Fitness Test
This year again, we are proud to be a sponsor of the international project IT Fitness Test V4 and Ukraine, coordinated by the Slovak organisation Digital Coalition, which focuses on testing the digital competences of pupils, students and teachers in the V4 countries and Ukraine. Last autumn, we successfully concluded the 2023 edition, which tested over 80,000,000 pupils, students and teachers. This year’s edition is underway from April 2024 and the current results suggest that we could repeat the success of last year’s edition.
In addition to increased media attention, the IT Fitness Test project gives us the space to discuss with relevant government institutions the issue of digital competences, which is one of the cornerstones of building a digital economy.
Cluster activities and new awards
We have also made significant progress with our cluster initiative over the past 12 months. We have received validation from the European Cluster Collaboration Platform in the form of Bronze Label certification, the official cluster certification at EU level. As part of our activities, we have conducted many of the previously mentioned international matchmaking missions and workshops.
The culminating project was our first major conference called Quo Vadis, Digital Czechia, which took place before the European Parliament elections and was attended by a number of Czech (Euro)MPs, prominent officials, representatives of the private sector and associations from the digital sector.
The past 12 months can be considered the most successful era in the history of AAVIT and our goal is to build on this period in the future. Thank you to all our members, partners and supporters for being part of our story and contributing to building a prosperous future for the Czech Republic.
