Dear friends,

We have concluded the 37th Bled eConference in a new setting that allows for even closer discussions and networking. After the first feedback, we can say that the change was well received.

Since Sunday, we had the opportunity to listen to many interesting presentations and stimulating discussions on the topic »Resilience through digital innovation: enabling the twin transition«.

Traditionally, the conference started with the Doctoral Consoritum, where 7 PhD students presented their research projects.

The official conference opening on Monday morning featured insightful keynote speeches from Marianne ter Veen, who shed light on how digital sustainability can create long-term value, transparency and equity for all stakeholders, and Tomi Ilijaš, who demonstrated how AI-driven innovation can improve the lives of individuals, organizations and societies. The opening session continued with a panel addressing the paradigm of evolving data spaces from a technological, sustainability, and humanistic perspective.

Over the three days, 47 research papers and 5 ongoing research papers were presented, focusing on the following topics: Digital Health, Digital Education, Digital Consumer, AI & Data Science, Decision Analytics, Business Models, Digital Transformation of Public Services, Smart Sustainable Cities, Restructured Work, and Digital Ethics.

The main theme of the conference was also reflected in the competition for the best student innovative digital solution, the “Students Bazaar”. The top three places were awarded to teams of Slovenian and Dutch students:

»HelpInHands – Application for Connecting Elderly and Volunteers« by Maja Medved, Maja Juntez- in Gjorgji Srnjakov, Univerza v Mariboru, Fakulteta za organizacijske vede,

»Ecommuter – Calculating Carbon Footprint for Your Employees«, by Nick Kuiper, Chaim de Gelder, HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Nizozemska, and

»Travel of Taste – Mobile Application for Traditional Food and Drinks«, by Blaž Šimunkovič, Blaž Kvasnik, Žiga Brcar, Univerza v Mariboru, Fakulteta za organizacijske vede.

In addition to that, we hosted the workshops: Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Open Data Maturity. Wednesday morning started with the panel on “Empowering Paths: The Importance of Building a Support Network for Women and Girls in IT” and concluded with two awarded “outstanding paper” presentations:

Alinda Kokkinou, Breda University of Applied Sciences & AVANS University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands with the paper “Cultivating a Data-Driven Culture: Exploring the Role of Data Analytic Capability, Employee Empowerment, and Transformational Leadership”

and

Ondrej Mitas, Albert Mandemakers, Breda University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands, Ruben D’Hauwers, August Bourgeus, imec-SMIT, VUB, Belgium with their paper: “Empowering Data Sovereignty: Strategies of Data Intermediaries in Data Ecosystems”.

The outstanding reviewer award was presented to Annemae van de Hoef, HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Congratulations to all award winners!

Finally, we would like to thank all keynote speakers, presenters, discussants, track chairs, reviewers, and panelists for their valuable contributions and constructive feedback. Above all, we would like to thank you for all the positive feedback we continue to receive.

Over the next few days, we will be uploading photos and publishing highlights from the conference on the website and social media.

We wish all participants a safe journey home and look forward to seeing you again next year.

Your Bled eConference Team