prizes & awards
Nathalie Crutzen, Smart City Institute director, elected Digital Wallonia Champion!
The Smart City Institute is proud to announce that its director, Nathalie Crutzen, has been nominated Digital Wallonia Champion. This is an official recognition of the importance of her work and, consequently, of the work of the Smart City Institute (SCI) in the digital field, and more precisely, in the field of connected and smart territories.
The role of the Digital Wallonia Champion
Currently, there are no less than 145 Digital Wallonia Champions, all from different backgrounds but with one common point: a strong expertise in the digital field. The status of Digital Wallonia Champion implies three major missions:
- Promote digital technology and its uses. The Digital Wallonia Champion is chosen for his or her involvement in digital development and is therefore an ambassador of digital excellence in Wallonia.
- Disseminate the actions of Digital Wallonia and more particularly the results obtained by the implementation of these actions.
- Propose ideas. Digital Wallonia Champions are evolving on the ground. It is therefore easier for them to identify the specific needs in terms of digital strategy in the concerned sectors. Their role here is to transmit their opinions, suggestions and requests to Digital Wallonia but also to the Walloon Government.
This nomination as Digital Champion is an opportunity for Nathalie Crutzen and for the Smart City Institute to establish their position as experts in the Smart Cities/ sustainable and intelligent territories sector. It is also an opportunity to participate in inspiring events with renowned experts and to expand one's network with numerous digital companies.
About the Digital Wallonia strategy
The Digital Wallonia strategy is an initiative created by the Agence du Numérique (AdN), the Walloon public service entirely dedicated to the digital transformation in Wallonia. The AdN's missions are varied: to monitor technological innovations and digital uses, to advise the Walloon Government and its services in this field, and to lead or coordinate operational or communication actions aimed at the digital transformation of Wallonia based on the Digital Wallonia digital strategy, approved in December 2015.
In concrete terms, the Digital Wallonia project is based on 5 structuring themes:
- digital sector,
- digital economy,
- digital skills,
- digital administration
- and finally, digital territory (i.e. connected and smart territory), through which the AdN supports the Smart CIty Institute, as a partner.
Our first contribution as Digital Champion
The Smart City Institute had the pleasure of participating in the first edition of the Digital Wallonia Summer School, held at the University of Namur on 30 August. It was a large workshop organised with the aim of reflecting on strong measures for 2019 but also on a vision and a structuring framework for the next 5 years.
To prepare for this day, the Digital Wallonia Champions were first given 5 questionnaires covering each of the major axes of the Digital Wallonia plan: the digital sector, the digital economy, open public sectors, connected and intelligent territory and skills and employment. With these forms, the Digital Wallonia Champions were asked to evaluate the level of priority of the objectives defined in the strategy adopted at the end of 2015 and to make recommendations for new orientations.
On D-day, after the questionnaires had been analysed, it became clear that the 2015 proposals were still relevant. In the form of 5 workshops on different themes, the participants in the Summer School discovered the proposals from the forms and selected the most relevant ones in order to work in groups, by theme, to identify the major ambitions of the digital Wallonia. They then selected the main ambitions which were presented in the final plenary session.
The official presentation of the new Digital Wallonia strategy took place on 6 December 2018, on the occasion of SHAKE Digital Wallonia.
Photo credits : Digital Wallonia
