Digitising European Industry Stakeholder Forum 2018

This year - after a successful first Stakeholder Forum in 2017 - the second Stakeholder Forum is co-organised by the Euroepan Commission and the French Ministry for Economic Affairs and Digital Technologies on 27 and 28 March 2018 in Paris.

The event will take place within the large 4-day Global Industrie 2018 trade fair. The Stakeholder Forum aims to bring together all the different actors involved in the digital value chain, such as the European Commission, Member States, national initiatives, industry representatives, SMEs, academia and Digital Innovation Hubs to share experiences, exchange best practices and discuss the implementation of the DEI initiative.

The first day of the Stakeholder Forum will be opened by a speech from Delphine Gény-Stephann, French Secretary of State for Economic Affairs and Finance, and a video message by Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society. This will be followed by high-level policy presentations and discussions in a plenary session.

On 28 March, there will be dedicated parallel workshops on Digital Innovation Hubs, Public-Private Partnerships, financing instruments for digitisation, digital skills, and rolling out of digital industrial platforms. Within the session entitled "Standards for the leadership in digital technologies", it will discuss how Research & Innovation projects can contribute to standardisation, and how standardisation activities can reach SMEs by linking to testbeds and Digital Innovation Hubs.