This is a guest blog post written by Avanade alum, Gemma Fiorentino.

Today, digital is affecting all areas of our daily lives – from our workplace to our home. And, it is fueling discussions across many industries around how to drive a digital transformation. As with any other modern phenomena, this evolution affects people’s behaviors and heavily impacts corporate strategies and government actions aimed to support this change.

Avanade recently attended a unique event called Digital Venice aimed at spotlighting IT leaders, civic hackers and young innovators that can actively contribute to the discussion of Europe’s Digital Agenda with government leaders. To support this kind of transformation calls for massive action from both businesses and governments. Governments across the globe are currently working on initiatives to help prepare their countries for the changes implicated by the up and coming digital transformation.

Europe is gradually adjusting to this shift – companies are slowly integrating digital into their strategies and governments are placing digital on the agenda. The necessity in Europe is to create a unique digital marketplace that could act as a trampoline for Europe’s mid-size businesses to instantly become globally competitive.

Digital Venice has been defined as a “strategic summit” by Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who is very much focused on the politics around innovation and digitalization. According to Renzi, any business can become a digital business. This is a decisive turn for any company that wants to be competitive in an increasingly digital world. European Union Vice President Neelie Kroes also strongly promoted this event as critical to the digital future of Europe.

In conjunction with Microsoft, Avanade played an important role at one of the event’s key sessions called #RestartEurope. The event centered on five workshops around five core topics: Digital Education, Digital Economy, Digital Jobs, Digital Democracy and Digital Cities. It brought together students, innovators, researchers, policymakers and technology companies to collect ideas and proposals on how to drive a digital transformation for Europe.

Andrew Smith, EALA Service Line Lead, Avanade

Representing Avanade, Andrew Smith, EALA Service Line lead who took part at the opening round tables on the hot topics of digital. Roberto Chinelli, Sr. Director, AD, facilitated one of the five innovation workshops, focused on the themes of the European Digital Agenda: Digital Education, Digital Economy, Digital Jobs, Digital Democracy and Digital Cities. Avanade Italy also contributed through the participation with Antimo Musone, Roberto Nocera, Elisabetta Colicchia, Marco Petrucco and Alice Deias who were among the 100 young innovators taking part at the discussion at the event.

It was great to see the participants – including several young innovators from Avanade Italy – bring together their ideas to create a Venice Document containing a variety of proposals that has been submitted to Matteo Renzi and Neelie Kroes, who will work around it to create the basis for the new Digital Agenda of Europe. Events and initiatives like this are critical to driving digital transformation. Digital is already a reality today. We must invest in and promote it for a better future.