Conference “Net Futures 2016: Driving Growth in the #DigitalSingleMarket”, 20-21 April 2016, Brussels

NET FUTURES wishes to maximize competitiveness of the European technology industry. The conference will gather over 1.000 attendees, to form an interconnected community involving companies, organizations and people in

• Research & Innovation
• Market Validation & Living Lab Research
• Business Development, Entrepreneurship & Enterprise Strategy
• Policy Making

It is our firm belief that by bridging the gaps between these communities, innovations will more easily and effectively find their way to the market.

Below we present the invitation to the Conference from the Director CONNECT/E "Net Futures" European Commission Mr Mário Campolargo:

 „Dear Net Futures Community,

After the presentation of the conference as such and plenary speakers, let me give you now a brief tour of this year's parallel sessions of our Net Futures 2016 conference :

As you may already know, the conference is structured around three tracks:

Developing standards & Interoperability

Making the most of the Data Economy

Democratising the Internet

The blue track , as the title suggests, will provide insights into interoperability and standardisation by offering sessions on IoT and 5G standards and the use of experimental facilities, like FIRE, for benchmarking and interoperability.

The orange track will address challenges within the growing data economy, such as the European Free Flow of Data initiative which is part of the Digital Single Market strategy announced by the Commission last year. Software is considered to be strategically important and, in one of the sessions, its impact on the radical transformation of the economy and industry will be explored.

The green track is, in my opinion, the most 'market-ready' track of our conference: panellists will debate the opportunities of the sharing economy, FIWARE will explain their open platform technology and the benefits of their ecosystem and, last but not least, we will reflect on possible solutions to fill the digital skills gap in ICT.

Furthermore there will be an entire session dedicated to international co-operation on experimenting for the Future Internet: giving you an overview of the funded collaboration between Europe, US, Brazil and Japan, and real examples showing how global experimentation can enable innovation.

So which session appeals most to you? I recommend you take a closer look at the descriptions and the speakers before making your selection. You can register online now.

See you soon!

Best regards,

Mário Campolargo

European Commission

Director CONNECT/E "Net Futures"