SMART Region: A New V4lley Emerges is an online side-event of the 13th SMART Conference, and its ambition is to expand digital opportunites and digital knowledge to the regional level.
SMART – organised by IVSZ for the 3rd time – is one of the most outstanding technology, innovation and business conferences in Hungary. The growth of the conference as well as its resilience and adaptive responses during the global pandemic makes the event a great starting point in bringing together companies, researchers, analysts, experts, policy makers and other relevant actors of the digital ecosystem from all over the region.
The motto of the event is quite self-explanatory: being an important facilitator of the digital transformation in Hungary, the ambition of IVSZ and its regional partners is to collaborate in expanding the digital opportunities and growth in the region. Domestic companies are gaining more and more opportunities to start moving towards international markets. If they can assert themselves at the regional level, they already have a chance against global and European businesses. We believe that countries in the region have distinctive characteristics that set them apart from the business culture of the west, which, beyond some obvious challenges, is also a tremendous opportunity when they cooperate and call forth the unition of the vast knowledge they’ve built over time. We recognize that our opportunities and digital transformation is deeply intertwined with those of the other CEE countries.
The aim of the next period is to help create a digital single market in the region that supports and accelerates the pace of digitalisation and the competitiveness of businesses from startups to large companies.
The approximately 3-hour online event, starting at 11.00 a.m. will consist of a panel discussion, and a workshop where regional good practices will be introduced followed by an interactive part. The workshop is aimed at establishing the hub.
Scaling to the Regional Level: New Perspectives (panel)
We believe that by building bridges and collaborating on a regional level, both CEE countries and its companies, businesses can gain tremendous opportunities for international success. We believe that regional collaboration can pave the way to a new V4lley, and by join our forces and knowledge the region can step next to the most succesful digital and innovation ecosystems in the world. What exactly do we need to achieve this? Our markets have quite similar features and processes, but what possibilites can be unlocked by regional teamwork? Can we or should we armonize our policies and create a digital ecosystem together? Is there any need for a common strategy for us, and what should it cover? How comprehensive our mutual plans can be? In this panel discussion we well look at our current affairs, define our starting points and maybe inspire regional stakeholders to expand their thinking.
Digital Region Workshop – invite only
The technological and digital landscape of the region is ever changing and quickly shifting, thus can be difficult to define and even more challenging to comprehend. Policy-makers are making an enormous effort to fit new and beneficial policies into the picture. The exact metrics, the right research and measurement methods are critically important in determining future digital strategies, thus they are important engines of the national and regional competitiveness and also of economical resilience.
During the Digital Region workshop we will focus on gathering the current measuring methods, metrics and related initiatives of digital economy to determine how we can get a clear picture of the region and to answer the most critical questions on a regional level.
