Throwback at the Digital Coalition Summit in Warsaw

As we have mentioned in the past, in the second half of September we attended a major digital summit in Warsaw, Poland. This was our second participation after last year’s premiere, when we also became a member of the CEE Digital Coalition. This brings together ICT and business associations from the Tri-Mediterranean region (what is now Eastern Europe and Austria).

It was interesting for us to meet colleagues from countries whose economies are facing similar challenges to ours. The summit included a political discussion on the future role of the countries of the region in the Tri-Mediterranean area and ways to strengthen their influence in the European debate. On the other hand, we also discussed practical issues and debated the impact of the ICT sector in building an innovative ecosystem where start-ups or high value-added SMEs can thrive. We managed to establish contacts with new partners from the CEE region and we will use the experience and knowledge gained in our cluster project. Especially in terms of preparing for the implementation of important legislative proposals.

Jaromír Hanzal, Director of the Association, spoke on the panel CAPTURING THE POWER OF DIGITAL ECONOMY. His aim was to discuss how to create an environment that supports digital innovation and to assess the impact of digital transformation on our economies and societies.

The Summit also saw the presentation of an interesting comparative study of the countries of the Tri-Mediterranean region, focusing on their ICT sectors. It reveals a number of interesting findings, which we will discuss in more detail in the future.

In the future, it is also planned to invite representatives of entities other than business and IT associations, including students, to the Summit.

The main outcomes of the Summit are:

• to communicate policy priorities to the Spanish Presidency,
• to discuss the Coalition’s participation in the 3SI Summit and the Vilnius Business Forum in Lithuania,
• to discuss the Coalition’s participation in the Masters of Digital conference,
• to discuss the development of future reports and analysis with the Polish Economic Institute.

Overall, we were impressed by the enthusiasm with which our Polish colleagues approached the organisation of the Summit. We were also struck by the dynamic development of Warsaw, which reflects the progress Poland has made in recent years. For your interest, we are enclosing some statistics on this subject: