Digital Summit 2023: City of Jena applies to host the event

With the support of the Thuringian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Science and Digital Society, the city of Jena has submitted its application documents to host this year's Digital Summit of the Federal Government.

"More than 150 companies in Jena are working on the digitalization of business and production processes, cloud solutions, AI technologies and software developments. This makes the high-tech location an important center of the digital economy. It is therefore only logical that the city wants to host this major digital policy event. We are very happy to support this bid," says Economics Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee.

"We would be delighted to put our technology-open, agile city and its globally active digital economy in the spotlight and to send forward-looking impulses from the heart of Germany," says Lord Mayor Dr. Thomas Nitzsche.

"The Digital Summit was already scheduled to take place in Jena in 2020. During the preparations, we experienced broad interest from the public and a supportive alliance of local companies and institutions. Due to the pandemic, the summit ultimately took place entirely digitally,"

explains Benjamin Koppe, Head of Digitalization. That is why the Free State of Thuringia and the city are now making another attempt to host the German government's most important digital congress. Thanks to the existing plans, which were well advanced together with the Federal Ministry of Economics, the city of Jena would be able to host this year's digital summit within a short preparation period.

A digital festival for and with the entire city is planned as a city-wide supporting program. The aim is to get interested citizens excited about and actively involved in the topic of digitalization.

"Jena would be a good choice as a host city to discuss the key issues of digital change. With our decentralized conference concept, we would like to present different locations and facets of the city center to the summit participants," added Nitzsche and Koppe.

The Digital Summit is the federal government's largest digital policy conference and has been taking place since 2016 with changing themes. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection and the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport are jointly organizing this year's summit. The summit provides a platform for experts from business, science, politics and society to discuss the latest trends and developments in the field of digitalization.