“Digital transformation at the turn of an era. Sustainable. Resilient. Future-oriented.” Under this motto, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection and the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport hosted the 16th Digital Summit of the Federal Government in Jena on November 20 and 21, 2023.
Jena is no stranger to this: the Smart City model city is considered a digital hotspot and applied to host the event with a convincing concept. In addition to the main congress in the Volkshaus, the city also organized the “Market of Digital Opportunities”, where citizens could experience digitalization up close. At various locations in the city, they were able to take part in discussions and workshops, attend presentations and view various solutions relating to sustainable digitalization.
The event attracted a total of around 1,000 visitors, 200 digitalization experts, 60 exhibitors and 150 companies. Of course, among all the visitors, the top politicians and thus initiators of the summit, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Federal Ministers Robert Habeck and Volker Wissing, were not missing. And right in the middle of it all: We, with our own stand.
At this event, our employees were able to show that we understood the task at hand – sustainable, resilient, future-oriented digitalization – and prioritized it early on. Under the guidance of our technical consultant Eike Gutt, visitors to the stand were able to see our innovations for themselves. He took visitors on a data journey that illustrated the path and concrete benefits of data in urban and regional development, starting with a municipality’s need to expand its infrastructure, through the collection of data to the implementation of the project. As the data collected can be used for other purposes once the project has been completed, no further trips are necessary to collect data – which protects the environment. We were also able to make data collection sustainable. With our self-developed power-operated measuring bike and ground-penetrating radar, data on the existing infrastructure can be collected right down to the last corner of the city and, of course, in the countryside too. Using AI – one of the main topics of the summit – the vast amounts of data can be evaluated and made usable for decision-makers. In this way, minimally invasive construction measures can be carried out precisely and unnecessary work, material consumption and consequential damage can be greatly reduced.
The presentation of our technology and the data journey was supported by a self-explanatory video. Many politicians and citizens took the time to find out more from our colleagues on site.
When asked what he took away from the digital summit, Eike Gutt replies: “A lot of positive things. Our stand was not only visited by experts, but also by members of the public. This shows that there is also a lively interest outside the digitalization sector in the technical innovations for implementing the digital transformation. This is exactly what is needed if municipalities want to develop into smart cities: A common understanding of the necessary steps and technical solutions on all sides – politicians, companies, digitalization experts and the population. The interest and encouraging discussions with State Secretary Stefan Schnorr and Head of the Digital Connectivity Department Gertrud Husch from the BMDV confirm that we are on the right track.”
It was an honor for us to participate in the Digital Summit. We look forward to the next time.