INSPIRE Conference 2017 workshop “geoICT SMEs as key-players in the INSPIRE driven innovation: the role of the smeSpire network”

INSPIRE CONFERENCE 2017

Keywords like “Digital Single Market”, “public sector modernisation”, “data economy” are pervading many EU policies with the aim to improve citizens’ and businesses’ life.

In the current economic crisis, businesses, particularly the small-seized ones, are looking for inspirations to turn the new technological challenges into growth opportunities for them.

But how this can happen is not entirely clear.

15 panelists representing the main INSPIRE stakeholders (DG-ENV, EEA, DG-JRC, INSPIRE National Contact Points, geoICT SMEs), creating an unprecedented pool of complementary competences and experiences, will seat altogether “around a table” to answer key burning questions and to suggest directions to be taken for the future of our INSPIRE community:

Q1. Are the policy makers, responsible for the implementation of the strategies, priorities, plans and agendas above mentioned, aware of the key role that location based information and geospatial technologies can play in the whole policy lifecycle?

Q2. Are national governments aware of the benefits that EU initiatives such as INSPIRE and PSI Directives, REFIT Programme, better regulation agenda can bring to their communities? Are they ready, from an organizational point of view, to cope with the legal requirements or to constructively influence the debates around the above mentioned initiatives?

Q3. Can INSPIRE and its legislative framework be the way forward to streamline data interoperability workflows within and across different policy areas?

Q4. Is the ecosystem of the geoICT SMEs aware of the big potential represented by geospatial technologies, as enabling factor for many of the keywords above listed? Are the geoICT SMEs ready to offer mature solutions to support the stakeholders involved in the implementation of the above mentioned initiatives?

Don’t miss this exciting workshop and join us on Tuesday 5 September 2017 at Room A @ 9 am.

The workshop is promoted by the smeSpire network, which is an informal network created during the FP7 project smeSpire “A European community of SMEs built on environmental digital content and languages”, with more than 700 members (80% of which are SMEs) sharing common interests around problems and solutions related to INSPIRE implementations.