On November 1, 2023, the Chamber of Commerce for Information and Communication Technologies MASIT held its traditional Annual Conference for the 18th time. At this central and most important event of MASIT, the focus was on the latest trends, innovations and practical advice from leading experts in the industry. With the theme “Building Bridges: Towards Our Common Digital Future”, and under the motto #DIGITALUNITED, we managed to send our message for the unification of all stakeholders in society, who have a huge role in the processes of digitization and digital transformation in the country.
In front of an audience of about 300 guests, we spoke loudly about the digitization of processes at all levels, in the public and private sectors, with a presentation of innovative topics, trends and solutions that are available on the market by ICT companies, but also about the experiences and practices on the topic of digital transformation.
This year, we had a unique opportunity to hear two eminent honorary keynote speakers who, with their fascinating scientific background and rich experience, managed to bring us the most current areas in digitalization in an excellent way. Mr. Alexander Risoy, CEO of our member company NEBB, who first of all referred to the industry he comes from, as well as the symbiosis between IT and OT (IIOT), which is one of the main carriers of digitization and the fourth industrial ‘revolution’. The main emphasis in his presentation was that at the center of the big picture of digitization, it should actually be the welfare of humanity. Throughout his presentation, we had the opportunity to look at real projects and his experiences, illustrated with interesting slides. The final part of Alexander’s thirty-minute address was precisely from that humane aspect of digitization in the function of people.
Blagoj Delipetrev, PhD, is an artificial intelligence consultant and former scientific advisor at the European Commission’s Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy, where he was one of the people responsible for the AI WATCH project, contributing to the development of the European Strategy for Artificial Intelligence intelligence. He specializes in generative artificial intelligence, large language models and the impact of artificial intelligence on society, having more than ten years of experience in AI research and project management. With two PhDs in Computer Science, specializing in Machine Learning/AI and Optimization Algorithms from Delft University of Technology, Netherlands and Cloud Applications from Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. Dr. Delipetrev, in his presentation on the topic: “Generative artificial intelligence, key to our digital future” addressed the challenges, predictions, recommendations, but mostly the benefits of using artificial intelligence and emphasized that “artificial intelligence will not replace you, the people who use artificial intelligence will.”
The conference sessions were framed in a concept that kept the attention of the guests until the very end. Through the session “Cyber security as a prerequisite for a digital future”, experts in the field of cyber security emphasized the importance of building leaders who will lead the processes of strengthening national and regional capacities in the area of cyber resilience and cyber security. In the next session further, we heard presentations from IT companies that provide digital solutions and learned how the USAID Partnerships for Economic Growth Activity contributes to increasing the productivity of private sector companies. We undoubtedly concluded that only with digitalization, self-sustainability and greater competitiveness and efficiency of companies can be achieved. In that direction, it is of great importance to hear all sides and all aspects. That is why our official partner at the conference – ProCredit Bank had their own session, in which we heard from the private sector, non-IT companies, who were pleased to tell us their inspiring success stories related to their digital evolution and achieved results from the introduction of digital solutions for the processes in their companies.
This year, for the first time, we had a conference where we did not have a host. More precisely, we had, but it was also in the spirit of the theme of the conference. Namely, the conference was primarily opened by Ada, who is the first digital assistant in the public sector, and further throughout the event, it was led by our digital host – Adam.
How the conference went through photos, you can see in the album #DigitalUnited on our FB page, at the following link.
We express our gratitude to everyone who was a part of this most innovative edition of MASIT – the Annual Conference so far. Special thanks to our partners, supporters and sponsors, with whom we managed to complete this central event of MASIT and send all participants and guests away with positive impressions.
