A Festival Celebrating the Internet

The purpose of Internet Week Denmark is to strengthen the Internet economy in Denmark. We fulfill this purpose through facilitating meetups between private and public actors who work with and within the Internet economy.

The backbone in Internet Week Denmark is a week long festival that brings attention to the In-ternet economy’s impact on growth and job creation, as well as the attraction and retention of tal-ent and entrepreneurship. In addition, it is a week with an array of activities, debates, workshops and hackathons on how the public sector and its citizens meet each other in the digital space.

First and foremost, Internet Week Denmark is a professional festival with both large and small quality events at which knowledge and experience is shared and access is given to international experts as well as national experts within the field. People from the digital profession meet in open spaces and surroundings, across mobile apps and services, web and it development, and trust and intimate environments for knowledge sharing and commercial interests are created. With Internet Week Denmark, innovation and cooperation across sectors is supported with the aim of strengthening the Internet economy and the business sector in general.

However, Internet Week Denmark is also a public festival that generates network and supports initiatives that enhance the digital sophistication and education of citizens in Denmark. It is cru-cial for both growth and Danish welfare model that citizens are involved and digitally educated, since this creates the fundament for the society of the future.

The first Internet Week Denmark took place in 2014, and throughout an entire week more than 3000 participants helped celebrate Denmark’s successful and growing Internet environment. The idea behind Internet Week Denmark stems from Smart Aarhus, a partnership between Aarhus Municipality and a group of institutions and companies. Smart Aarhus wishes to be an interna-tionally renowned, Scandinavian model for urban development, and it sees digital technologies and services as a central part of the solution for the city in the future.

The format was simple. During five week days, 123 events and activities were held in and around Aarhus. During the week large and small companies were hosts to various crowdsourced events, and educational institutions and networks contributed with knowledge, presentations and public debates.

Internet Week DenmarkDenmark's Internet Festival in Aarhus

123 events hosted by:

• Private companies 54,4%• Educational Institutions 12,7%• Public authorities 17,7%• Network and institutions 11% • Internet Week Denmark 4,2%

Within the following topics:

• Digital citizenship • Gaming, Learning & Experience • Digital Business, Marketing & Commerce • Start-ups • Social media • Media, Journalism & Publishing • Mobile • The Dark Side of the Internet • Big data • Digital Leadership

123 events

Entrepreneurship“Growing Investors” was an event with the purpose of scal-ing capital to continued growth and development for IT startups. The aim was to educate investors and create an understanding of digital entrepreneurship. More than 100 investors met up with a long list of app developers, web services and digital products, and valuable contacts were created.

Innovation “Lower the Barrier - seniors online” was an example of a collaboration between the private and the public sec-tors. The event was a contribution to how you can create solutions in the aim of getting seniors online and thereby creating a possibility for all citizens to navigate in the digitalized public services.

InspirationThe digital sector organized a large number of events and contributed with presentations, inspiration and knowl-edge sharing. There were meetings and network where digital employees shared new knowledge and experiences and students received inspiration on future career options.

3 examples

Digital employeesMarketing & MediaStudentsEntrepreneursInvestorsDecision makersCitizens

3000+ attendees

“We participated in Internet Week Denmark where we hosted a debate on Digital Leadership. The purpose was to to find an answer to what consequences the digitization of companies has on managerial roles. We had a full house and ensured that the participants had time to reflect on the topic during the debate and during an open networking session afterwards. We were happy to be able to give our inputs to the week through this event.”

Ejvind Jørgensen, CEORambøll Management

“Internet Week Denmark is its own thing and not just another conference. Like Folkemødet on Bornholm, but for the Internet. The digital agenda is crucial for all of Denmark, and Internet Week Denmark plays a new and important role in this field.”

Janus Sandsgaard, Chief ConsultantDanish Chamber of Commerce

“We both think and hope that the many hours of direct support and dialogue, we had with our users during Internet Week Denmark, will result in an actual product or at least an idea we can develop further and that is why we see a great potential and welcome this type of events in the future.”

Flemming Laugesen, CTOeBay Denmark

“Internet Week Denmark put digital sophistication on the Danish agenda. This important topic, which should be included the thought processes of more Danes, has a great impact in the future of Denmark. Partly, on how we ensure that our children engage in safe and valuable relationships with other people in a continuously more important virtual world. And partly on how Danish Chil-dren and young people can learn the necessary skills to be able to fulfill the role as future entrepreneurs, creating amazing digital products that can produce a tax income for Denmark and new jobs.”

Jan Neiiendam, CEOInteractive Denmark

“At Jyske Bank TV, we closely follow the technolog-ical developments, the newest trends and the most groundbreaking innovative thoughts with reports from conferences in Las Vegas, San Francisco and New York. The fantastic thing about Internet Week Denmark is that inspiration, thoughts and ideas from the greater world moves into a local context in a way where we can discuss and inspire each other in our local environment in Aarhus and Silkeborg. It makes a difference. There is no doubt that Jyske Bank TV will cover Internet Week Denmark even more in 2015.”

Lasse Høgfeldt, Head of DivisionCommunications, Jyske Bank

““We encouraged all our employees to participate in relevant events to gather inspiration and share experi-ences. The selection of strong events was high and our employees have gained a lot from their participation.”

Henrik Løvig, CEOBoligPortal.dk

During the festival, Internet Week Denmark was in top 3 of the most mentioned Danish hashtags on Twitter (#iwdk)

Social Media

44.000+ website visits

2500+ tweets

1002 likes on Facebook

532 followers on Twitter

400+ news subscribers

120+ media mentions

““At Publico, we are obviously proud of the many men-tions in the media. We participated as a PR partner on a pro bono basis and it was our job to make sure the festival was generously mentioned in the media as a serious and national event. When Internet Week Denmark is held yet again, we will absolutely be ready if we are invited to be PR partner once again.”

Uffe Lyngaa, CEO, Publico Kommunikation

“Internet Week Denmark is an important initiative that, in a very beneficial way, sheds light on the reality for many new startups, but simultaneously also stays relevant for the digital transformation many “older” companies are in the middle of right now.”

Claus Hovge Andersen, Managing Director, Jyllands-Posten

60+ newspaper articles, 55+ online news articles, 3 TV stories. 5 radio interviews.

Partners

“Invest in Denmark was very pleased with our partici-pation in Internet Week Denmark, both as sponsor and event organizer. We were impressed with the level of enthusiasm the organization behind showed both before and after this large, complex event. We were incredibly happy with the result of our event, which resulted in a number of new leads and service for existing customers.”

Søren Tranberg HansenProject Manager, Invest in Denmark

Founding Partners

“Internet Week Denmark in Aarhus is essential when it comes to putting IT on the agenda AND MARK that IT is the most important driver for growth and welfare and not just a tool. For that reason we obviously support the festival by parti-ciapting and making sure our knowledge is available within current topics such as security, education and smart cities.”

Ole Lehrmann AndersenCEO, Alexandra Institut

“Creuna has participated in Internet Week Denmark because it is important for us to support the digital environment in Aarhus. We were “born” from this environment and therefore feel responsible to play a part in the ongoing development of the environ-ment. Furthermore, we depend on this exact envi-ronment when it comes to recruitment and retention of employees.”

Roar Nissen, Managing Director, Creuna

“The event “Growing Investors” was a milestone for the investment and entrepreneurial environment in Aarhus - and we need more of this! During and after the festival, both entrepreneurs and investors showed a great interest in utilizing the momentum the event had created to build even better connections with investors and entrepreneurs in the region.”

Lasse Chor, EntrepreneurMayor Startup City

“VIA enhances business development through educa-tion, research and innovation and in these fields the Internet contains endless opportunities for organisa-tional and business developments. VIA was in 2014 awarded Denmark’s most entrepreneurial education and knowledge institution, and consequently we are proud to have contributed to make the first ever Inter-net Week Denmark a success.”

Peter Friese, ProrektorVIA University College

“Mjølner Informatics chose to become a sponsor of Internet Week Denmark because we feel it is an important initiative to promote the Aarhus area’s position as a driver in the field of IT. This contributes in the preservation of an innovative environment and making sure that the experts stay in the city.”

Mikkel Yde Kjær, ManagerMjølner Informatics

“We believe that Internet culture in Denmark is a part of the creative raw material that Denmark should build upon. The week is a festival for social and digital media and, among other things, it gives Geelmuyden Kiese the opportunity to share and gain knowledge and establish new partnerships.”

Benjamin Rud ElberthDigital Manager, Geelmuydien Kiese

Produceret af Internet Week D

enmark sekretariatetA

arhus Komm

une og Business Region Aarhus. ©

2014