At the opening of the autumn conference of the German Broadband Initiative(Initiative D21), experts from the digitalization industry came together in the aconium GmbH hall on the afternoon of the second day of the “Digital Regions – Today and Tomorrow” trade fair to talk about the opportunities of digital transformation for cities, regions and citizens.
Moderator Kerstin Stromberg-Mallmann welcomed Nick Kriegeskotte (Head of Telecommunications Policy, Bitkom e. V.), Lena-Sophie Müller (Managing Director, Initiative D21 e. V.), Dr. Ingo Hofacker (Senior Vice President Internet-of-Things, T-Systems International GmbH), Christian Pegel (Minister for Energy, Infrastructure and Digitization of the Federal State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) and Tim Brauckmüller (Managing Director, aconium GmbH).
The first question to be clarified was what each participant understood by the term digital city and how the digital transformation could be applied in rural regions. There were different opinions on this and an exciting discussion ensued with numerous practical examples. The participants mainly talked about the need for e-government and new mobility concepts, but issues of data security and e-health applications in urban regions were also key aspects of the panel.
There was agreement that cities are taking on the pioneering role for rural areas and that fiber optic expansion is the basic infrastructure of the future . There was disagreement as to who should take the lead in implementing the digital transformation in local authorities. In particular, small and medium-sized enterprises, the administration and competence centers were mentioned. At the end of the discussion, all the experts agreed that the digital transformation is still in its infancy in many areas and that regionally tailored concepts and solutions are particularly effective in convincing citizens of the benefits of digitalization.
Photo above: Panel discussion at the fall conference of Initiative D21 as part of the “Digital Regions – Today and Tomorrow” trade fair and conference organized by aconium GmbH. Messe Berlin, 25.10.2017.
Photo credits: aconium GmbH / Florian Schuh