On October 12th and 13th, the unique and ever-growing OX family met once again, this time in Europe’s capital, Brussels. After the success of OX Summit Washington in back in May, expectations were high. Here at OX we always promise to deliver a “Summit Like No Other” and this, our 9th in Europe, proved no exception. Business leaders, technology experts, partners, prospects and customers from around the world arrived Thursday morning at The Egg, an architecturally stunning venue in the heart of the city.
CEO and co-founder Rafael Laguna kicked off the Summit with trademark passion. As well as an update on Open-Xchange’s exciting growth plans he discussed the problems of a world becoming ever more dependent on five inbred and unaccountable technology companies. He made the compelling point that when a Facebook algorithm can decide the outcome of an election it’s time to take a long hard look at the kind of digital society we want to leave behind for our children. As an alternative Rafael proposed a federated ecosystem of trusted software, hardware and open platform companies, bonded by core principles of privacy and openness.
Next up on stage was Toon Vanagt. An entrepreneur for almost three decades and co-founder of the Belgian business database data.be, Toon was perfectly positioned to discuss the developing relationship between culture and technology. He described how open data was crucial for both enabling the technological advances of the future and protecting the privacy rights of consumers. He offered a tantalising vision of a world where knowledge and data creates power for the many and not just the few.
We then had the privilege of hearing from MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht, the father of the European GDPR. With implementation now only months away it was the perfect time to hear from *the* expert on the topic what Service Providers need to know about the EU’s new privacy law. He emphasised the opportunities that the GDPR will bring to the digital single market and the chance that Europe has to set the global standard for data privacy and security.
We also heard from Tim Schumacher, Founder of eyeo.com on the force that ad-blocking is exerting on digital media. There was a riveting panel discussion on how internet providers can deal with hate speech and being caught in the middle between users and governments.
Have you missed one or several presentations? Not a problem! Watch the keynote videos and download all the presentations of OX Summit in Bruxelles.
OX Summit continues to be the industry event that brings together the software vendors and service providers that are fighting the status quo of outdated business models and exploitative data practices. As always, the next OX Summit starts when this one comes to a close. We’re already been busy planning next year’s events for what will be the tenth OX Summit in Europe! We can’t share the final details with you yet but can confirm that we’ll be touching down in both the US and Europe. Thank you to all who attended Summit this year, we look forward to welcoming you back in 2018!
