The AmCham Digitalization Forum was initiated in 2016 in response to wide interest from AmCham member company leaders in better understanding the challenges and opportunities of an ever evolving digital business environment.
From sharing best practices to exploring how different member companies have implemented digital transformations, the series aims to foster confidence, inspire collaboration, and promote cross-industry dialogue across the Norwegian-American business community.
While often discussed in terms of technological adaptation and innovation, the accelerating rate of digital change and disruption also has a pronounced effect on human resources, from employee retention to recruitment. The AmCham Digitalization Forum has taken this issue to heart, addressing issues such as leadership development in a digital age, the institution of digital KPIs, and holistic approaches to helping employees adapt in periods of intense, digital market disruption.
Through our Digitalization Forum series, member companies large and small have explored to importance of cross-industry collaboration, a discussion built upon the real-world experiences of forum participants. Whether discussing peer-to-peer collaborative programs between companies of a similar size to “vertical” collaboration between different sized firms, whether through startup accelerators such as Techstars, acquisitions, or other collaborative agreements, the importance of leveraging cross-industry expertise to accelerate adaptation, foster creativity, and stimulate value creation has been a core component of the series.
Throughout the Digitalization Forum, the importance of having a proactive digital strategy is often a key discussion point. Critical to the formulation of such strategies, however, is increasing one’s awareness of new trends – even in other industries. Forum participants find the opportunity to learn about digital transformation implementation and strategy formulation in response to shifting market dynamics highly valuable.
The AmCham Digitalization Forum offers a safe, unique cross-industry setting that inspires conversation on a variety of digitalization related topics, from private-public cooperation to product development.
We find that by breaking leaders outside of the same old industry-specific dialogues, we encourage people to start thinking more creatively. The AmCham Digitalization Forum allows different industries to learn from each other – and that's where true innovation happens.
As a corporate leader, having a network of peers is an invaluable tool for ensuring future success. Through the AmCham Digitalization Forum, participants can engage with directly with leaders facing similar opportunities – and challenges.
AmCham’s Digitalization Forums are hosted on a quarterly, rotating basis by AmCham’s member companies, featuring twenty participants and a program that runs approximately two hours.
The host of each forum typically gives a presentation on an agreed forum related topic during the first 15 minutes of the forum. From that point, participants engage in a moderated roundtable discussion for the remainder of the session.
AmCham member representatives warmly welcomed Datatilsynet Director Bjørn Erik Thon to the first 2021 meeting of the Digitalization Forum. Given ongoing US-Europe Privacy Shield negotiations, the virtual roundtable dialogue – which ranged from Covid-19 era concerns to the digital platform economy, GDPR, and Grindr – was particularly timely.
In the virtual May instalment of the AmCham Digitalization Forum, guest presenter Gerry McGovern, developer of the Top Task design framework and a board member of the US-based parent company of AmCham member Task Analytics, shared his experience working with companies such as Microsoft and Toyota to improve digital customer experience – work that has also seen McGovern work with the WHO and governments on their digital COVID-19 resources.
“Any trivial problem can be solved with a pen and paper. Any interesting problem cannot.”
So began Professor Are Magnus Bruaset’s deeply enlightening presentation and roundtable discussion on Simula’s cutting-edge eX3 project. As the institution’s Research Director of Software Engineering and High-Performance Computing, Dr. Bruaset emphasized how improved and novel algorithms are at the epicenter of technological advancement – while demonstrating how limitations in traditional hardware are spawning new, innovative designs that require rethinking of methods and software.
For interest in participating