"Putting the city in the shop window."

Around 60 exhibitors, more than 150 participating companies, scientific institutions and initiatives, over 200 speakers - brought digital solutions to life over two days. More than 100 workshops and lectures, over 120 hours of program and around 2,000 interested visitors, including Vice Chancellor and Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Robert Habeck, Volker Wissing, Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport, Federal Minister of Education Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Federal Minister of Labour Hubertus Heil - this was the Market of Digital Opportunities in Jena, which was offered to the public and free of charge for the first time as an accompanying program to the Federal Government's Digital Summit.

Domenique Dölz, Cluster Manager Digital Economy & Science, Jena Digital e.V., and Dorothea Prell, Project Manager Smart City of the City of Jena, rated the Digital Summit with the Market of Digital Opportunities as a great success. Both the two ministers Habeck and Wissing and their two ministries, as well as Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed their enthusiasm for the event, but also for the city of Jena.

"We are delighted with the thanks and the consistently positive feedback from the federal government and the summit participants for hosting the Digital Summit and the new format of the Market of Digital Opportunities," said Prell.

"With the Digital Summit, we used the nationwide attention to position Jena as a digital hotspot in Germany. The Market of Digital Opportunities has made it possible to start a dialog between federal politicians, summit participants and local businesses and to make digital transformation tangible for civil society," said Dölz.

The two main coordinators for the Market of Digital Opportunities thanked all project partners and companies who had provided an exciting and varied program with their contributions at five locations.

Mayor Thomas Nitzsche sees Jena as a stronger location

Lord Mayor Dr. Thomas Nitzsche also drew a positive balance:

"The Digital Summit offered the Riesen-opportunity to put the city and the region in the spotlight. And we made the most of it. We were able to successfully demonstrate the strength of our location in terms of business and science and beyond."

At the same time, Nitzsche thanked all those who contributed to the success of this unique event.

Head of Digitalization Benjamin Koppe: New character of the Digital Summit

Jena's Head of Digitalization Benjamin Koppe emphasized:

"As the host of the Digital Summit, Jena has made the most of this unique opportunity to make a lasting name for itself as a digital location throughout Germany. The market of digital opportunities, at which Jena's digital companies and many other players from our city presented themselves, gives the Digital Summit a new, unique character. As a city, we are encouraging the public to experience the annual conference and to engage in location marketing."

Volkshaus has proven itself as a venue for large conferences

While interested visitors strolled through the market of digital possibilities, experts exchanged ideas at a two-day conference in the Volkshaus.

"As the venue for the Digital Summit, the Volkshaus has proved particularly successful as a conference venue," said Carsten Müller, Plant Manager of JenaCulture. The Federal Government's Digital Summit with around 1,000 participants was the largest and most ambitious conference to have taken place here since the building complex was reopened. "This congress marks a very successful conclusion to the Volkshaus's first financial year and is a great success for JenaKultur and for the Jena Convention team," said Müller.

Many participants had reported back that it was unique that a congress of this size and quality could take place in the center of the city. The accompanying program at locations such as the Imaginata, the Planetarium and the Kassablanca was very well received.

Planning, preparation, realization in record time

The Jena agency ART-KON-TOR played a special role in the preparations. The team implemented the concept from the initial idea to production in record time.

"Thanks to the close and rapid coordination with JENA Digital e.V. and the city of Jena, we were able to master this with ease," said Sebastian Czernetzki from ART-KON-TOR.

The cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) also worked well. In addition to the short preparation time, the distribution of the trade fair across five locations and the security requirements were particular challenges, according to Czernetzki.

Overall calm course of the major event

The security concept for the event worked well. Despite the large number of participants at the Digital Summit and the Market of Digital Opportunities and several registered gatherings on both days, there were hardly any incidents overall. The specialist fire department, which had prepared a technical incident command and reinforced the control center for these two days, did not have to become active.