On Friday, November 27, 2020, we completed the fourth edition of the Personal Democracy Forum Ukraine. This time, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it took place online. In total, the conference gathered 30 experts from Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Hungary, and other European countries. During the discussion panels, they discussed what a balanced digital transformation, both on central and local government levels, but also in the non-government environment, should look like.
We organized as many as 8 discussion panels devoted to various issues of the digital transformation of Ukraine. The first day of the conference focused on the challenges that government and local self-government face in the process of digitalization. The second day was devoted to the role of civil society in digital transformation. On the last day, experts discussed the importance of digital inclusion, digital economy, and digital security.
The audience actively participated in experts’ discussions - we received over 200 applications from people who registered to the event. However, the overall reach of the conference was much higher thanks to the livestream on social media. According to preliminary estimates, the event on YouTube and Facebook reached a total of over 20,000 users!
The greatest merit, however, is the current topic and the excellent experts who ensured a high level of panel discussions. We are also pleased with the attention that the event was devoted to by high-ranking officials from the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, headed by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digitization Mykhailo Fedorov, who inaugurated the first day of the forum with his speech.
The event was organized in partnership of TechSoup Foundation with Civil Network OPORA, ePaństwo Foundation, OSCE/ODIHR and TransparenCEE network, and sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy, which has been supporting TechSoup's initiatives for years.
While organizing the online event, modern technology was very useful, however we hope that next year's forum will be held offline!
In the meantime, we invite you to view the record of all three days of the meeting. We hope they will inspire you to join the community that the participants of Personal Democracy Forum Ukraine have been creating and developing for years!
In English: pdfukraine.org/2020_main_en
In Ukrainian: pdfukraine.org/2020_main_ua