While our events throughout the year offer you plenty of opportunity to exchange, learn and network, for our yearly VIP evening we pull out all the stops to create a ‘can’t miss’ experience! This much anticipated and appreciated event brings together 300+ CIOs, ICT decision makers, policy makers and digital technology leaders, for an unforgettable night of interaction, innovation and inspiration. And this year was no exception, as our speakers took us on a very timely voyage through geopolitics, technology and control of data.
Takeaways from Beltug’s VIP Evening 2025.
17 / 03 / 25
You can take a look at more photos from the evening here.
We started with a look at today’s rapidly shifting intercontinental relationships, from Prof. Dr. Paul Timmers, visiting professor at KU Leuven. Building on his wealth of experience (including as previous Director at the European Commission/DG CONNECT and co-creator of WeltWert) he shed light on the impact of the current situation, with a look at where Europe fits in it all.
Then, we zoomed in on control of data, and specifically the Data Act, with Ioana Mazilescu, the EC’s Deputy Head of Unit for digital transition and judicial training and chairperson of the B2B Data Sharing and Cloud Computing expert group, and Beltug President Claude Rapoport, who is a member of the expert group. They highlighted the Data Act and its impact on cloud contracts, providing practical examples of opportunities. They also shared that there will be a series of EC webinars in April 2025 for businesses, policy makers, lawyers and experts to discuss the Expert Group’s final report. Beltug members are welcome! Interested? You can find more information here.
CEO Danielle Jacobs gave us a quick peek at the results of Beltug’s 2025 B2B Market Study report which focusses on large organisations (200+ FTE). A few key findings included that over 90% of large organisations now have an incident plan in place for cyber attacks and over 55% rate the impact of complying with regulations as ‘high’ or ‘very high’. There is quite a bit of interest in private 5G networks: 50% of the large organisations have or are interested in implementing one. Among organisations concerned about cloud, 87% cite data security as a key issue, while 70% are specifically worried about data being stored outside of Europe.
Beltug members can download the full report here (after login).
Then Danielle gave us a look ahead at Beltug’s initiatives for the coming year, including new Task Forces, which provide a platform for members with similar concerns to share and discuss on specific topics. She also highlighted our international co-operation, and our co-creation of value-added content with a variety of key players and stakeholders.
Finally, she celebrated a new milestone with us, as Beltug has reached 3000 members! We are delighted with the trust you all place in us, and are excited to continue to deliver content and events, while giving you opportunities to share your knowledge and learn from your peers.
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The Beltug Team