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

About Tomi Ilijaš – CEO and founder, ARCTUR

Tomi Ilijaš is founder and CEO of Arctur and he holds a MSc degree from Ljubljana University, Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Mr. Ilijaš is an entrepreneur focusing on Hi-Tech innovation, who has shared his knowledge and experience to many start-ups and spin-offs in the region. He participated in several EU funded R&D projects, inventing new business models in HPCaaS and successfully breaking the barriers in bringing HPC to manufacturing SMEs. He was a member of EUROHPC Research & Innovation Advisory Group (RIAG) and member of PRACE Industrial Advisory Committee. Recently, his research focus is on transferring new technologies from Industry 4.0 to different sectors, such as health and tourism.

Tomi Ilijaš will present:

AI driven innovation for better living

AI-Driven Innovation for Better Living’ delves into revolutionary AI use-cases in healthcare, showcasing improvements in disease detection, treatment personalization, and operational efficiency. The speech also covers AI’s role in other sectors, especially tourism, illustrating its potential to foster smarter, more sustainable communities.

As of today, the conference proceedings from the 37th Bled eConference are published and available through open access.

You can find the proceedings here: https://press.um.si/index.php/ump/catalog/book/880

About Marianne ter Veen

Mrs. Mariane ter Veen is director data sharing lead at consulting firm INNOPAY. She helps organisations to fully embrace the opportunities of the digital transactions era by adopting a more open outlook, collaborating across ecosystems and creating new value.

She believes in a world where digital sustainability creates long-term value, transparency and equity for all parties.

As an enabler of this, she is a strong advocate of data sovereignty, which gives people and organisations control over data they generate. Mariane has a wealth of experience in the domain of data sharing, both in public/private partnerships as well as helping individual organisations, and is a popular keynote speaker on European data developments.

Marianne ter Veen will present:

Unleashing innovation through digital sustainability

How can digital sustainability enable the twin transition – the simultaneous pursuit of digital and green transformations – and ensure that digital transformation integrates seamlessly with environmental sustainability? How can digital sustainability shape economic and social growth to address society’s challenges, such as protecting democracy, promoting equality, and fighting climate change?

Digital sustainability can serve as a crucial design principle to unleash innovation and give provide concrete, no-regret steps for advancing the twin transition. It offers practical guidance on integrating digital and environmental goals to foster economic and social progress.

Dear Authors,

The date for submission of your final papers is May 11th, 2024.

Please note that in order for your paper to be included in the conference proceedings, at least one of the authors have to register to the conference and present the paper during the conference program.

Registration form is available at this link.

Thank you all for submitting your research papers to the 37th Bled eConference and thank all the reviewers who helped us to carry on review process. We regret that some of the papers were rejected due to high competition. We hope that authors will find reviews valuable for paper revisions and future research work.

Dear authors,

We are still working on obtaining the last reviews and deciding on papers. Some of you already received your notifications on papers as planned, but the rest of notifications to the authors will be sent by April 19, 2024.

Thank you for your patience and understanding,

Your Bled eConference team