SEMIC 2023, the Semantic Interoperability Conference, organised by the European Commission in collaboration with the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, achieved an all-time high with 458 on site visitors and 803 followers online.
Compared to SEMIC 2022, SEMIC 2023 experienced a substantial rise of 23% of participants who attended the conference in person, while the online viewership grew by 3%.
Insights from leading figures
In addition, the event benefitted from the attention of multiple eminent speakers who took the opportunity to make newsworthy announcements. EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn and Portuguese Secretary of State Mário Campolargo called on all relevant actors to make a deal on the Interoperable Europe Act. The Directorate-General for Informatics (DG DIGIT) Veronica Gaffey stated that, through the Interoperable Europe Act, the EU Commission will continue to help public administrations in their journey of digitally transformation.
Nadia Calvino, the Spanish Minister for Economy & Digitalisation, declared that a conclusion on the AI Act is also a top priority under the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council. Earlier on, Juan Jesús Torres Carbonell, the Spanish Secretary General of Digital Administration, called on Europe to put interoperability as a priority for every level of each public administration.
"We need to bring the digital culture and mindset to the European public administrations. Not only to the IT departments, but to everyone", the Director of Digital Services at DIGIT Natalia Aristimuño Pérez pointed out during her intervention in the panel discussions.
During the conference, special attention was also given to a brand-new report from the EU Commission’s Joint Research Center on how AI can be used to improve Interoperability in the public sector.
One day before this conference, 132 experts in different fields travelled from all over Europe to join three parallel workshops for detailed discussions on the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Interoperability.
A word from the people behind the scenes
Seth van Hooland and Alexandra Balahur, who are leading the SEMIC team in the Interoperable Europe Unit at DG DIGIT, were the engines behind this year's event. Alexandra is thrilled about the great enthusiasm in which SEMIC 2023 has been received.
“We are honoured by the record number of participants in SEMIC 2023, from across EU Member States and the world, from public administrations, academia, industry, start-ups, NGOs and others. Furthermore, we are pleased that so many high-level speakers from across the Union emphasised the importance of the Interoperable Europe Act, and of improving interoperability in the public sector inside Member States and across Member States' borders. At SEMIC 2023, we have seen how interoperability and AI can support each other and that they are of paramount importance to achieve the digital transition of public administrations. We also would like to thank everyone who contributed to organising and making this event a success, in particular the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. We are looking forward to the next steps of this journey!”
While more visual materials on SEMIC 2023 will be published later, a selection of pictures of the event can already be seen below.
Under the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the SEMIC conference is projected to return to Belgium in June 2024.
