First EUROCONSUMERS INTERNATIONAL FORUM Bridging the Gap between Consumers and Business [in the Digital Ecosystem]

Euroconsumers held its First International Forum on 12 November, in Brussels, stressing the need of collaboration, trust, and interoperability to unleash the digital ecosystem.

Powering a pragmatic modern dialogue, the Forum – Bridging the Gap between consumers and Businesses in the Digital Age – brought together more than 45 speakers, high-level representatives of European institutions, leading global companies, consumer organisations and academia from around the world. An innovative format saw them interact with a public of more than 120 people from the several sectors, with simultaneous activities on 3 different stages (see the video).

The Forum initiated a dialogue between consumers, businesses and policymakers, on burning issues, from data security and fake news to AI, fundamental rights and empowerment, technological sovereignty, greening technology, smart transport solutions, digital platforms and the fairer sharing of the economic benefits of digital technology.

As its main deliverables we highlight:

• the willingness of some of the largest global companies to work together with consumers associations in order to understand and embed consumers’ needs in future products and services, recognizing consumers as a central actors of the digital economy;

• the recognition that data are the currency of the digital economy and trust between consumers and brands is of utmost importance to the economy at large;

• an innovation concept which presupposes consumers involvement, obtaining a fair value share;

• the importance of the interoperability of the entire ecosystem that would not only give the ability to transfer and render useful data and other information across platforms and stakeholder, but would also create an integrated market, more security, more trust and would ultimately truly unleash the potential of the innovation.

The event also inaugurated the annual Euroconsumers BeXt Awards, for the household appliance and electronic device brands that achieve the highest standards in meeting consumer expectations, based on the results of Euroconsumers’ rigorous comparative tests and consumer surveys.

For more information about the Forum and the BeXt Award please read the full article here and see the video.