Report from DE-LAN Mid Term conference

Mid-term conference of DE-LAN, which was held on January 26 in the Committee of the Regions in Brussels, brought together representatives from partner regions, visionary key-note speakers and practitioners. During the conference, several topics were presented and discussed, related to the concept of Digital Ecosystems and regional development.

Digital Agenda for Europe, strategic vision, presented last year by Neelie Kroes, Digital Agenda Commissioner, is asking for increasing efficiency, competitiveness and innovations. Digital (Business) Ecosystem concept responds to these challenges through collaborative environment perspective. An experience with D(B)E shows several layers (technological, social, economic, cultural) under the umbrella of sharing of knowledge and skills in general and in details.

Advantages and benefits of challenging concepts, Living Labs (LL) and Digital Ecosystems, were broadly discussed during the conference. Prof. Alvaro de Oliveira, president of the European network of Living Labs, has made the overview of Living Labs development in Europe, Africa and Brazil, some shared projects and plans for future. He has presented also in more details results of work of some of 274 European LL.

Further at the conference it was mentioned, that European regions are facing big changes, related to main features and impacts of eGovernment transformation, which are leading to more open, networked and transparent governance so, that we are speaking about Digital Government Ecosystem, as the significant part of the overall Digital Society Ecosystem. In this relation, the inspiring role of the Open innovation was highlighted by Francesca Bria in her key note presentation about Future Internet for smart connected Cities and Regions- Towards European Smart Innovation Ecosystems.

Practical DE-LAN pilots, which are now running in the 5 regions, were presented in the frame of the overall process of exchange of experiences. At the end participants have expressed the interest to hear about final project results at the Final project conference.