Masters of Digital 2026 is Europe’s premier forum for shaping the future of digital policy and innovation.
Europe stands at a defining crossroads. The global tech race is accelerating, and the question is no longer if Europe will lead but how fast it can turn the vision of the Digital Decade into reality.
This year’s Masters of Digital is dedicated to “Redesigning Europe’s Digital Power”, focusing on three interdependent pillars: leveraging Artificial Intelligence for industrial competitiveness, ensuring robust digital security in a fragmented world, and achieving meaningful simplification of the regulatory landscape to unlock growth.
Together, we’ll move beyond declarations and define the decisive steps to secure Europe’s digital future.
Virtual registration is guaranteed. Due to venue capacity limits, we ask that you indicate your interest to attend in person as part of the virtual registration – we will be in touch if we are able to allocate you a place.
Legal studies; 2006, MBA. Held commercial positions at Shell, Berlin, Hamburg and Rotterdam. 2006, began working for consultancy firm McKinsey & Company. From 2011, Member of the Senate of the States General; Deputy Leader of the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA) in the Senate and Member of the Senate committees for Finance, Security and Justice, Social Affairs and Employment, and Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development Cooperation. Since October 2017, Minister of Finance. Former: Chair of The Supervisory Board, National Maritime Museum; Member of the Board, Friends of the Hubrecht Institute; Ambassador, Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology.
Karsten Wildberger is a former business executive who has been serving as as Federal Minister for Digitalization and State Modernization since 6 May 2025. This office was newly created by Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Karianne Oldernes Tung is a Norwegian Labour Party (Ap) politician from Stadsbygd in Trøndelag. On 16 October 2023, she took over as Minister of Digitalisation and Public Governance in Jonas Gahr Støre’s Government.
From 2013 to 2017, she was a member of the Storting for the Labour Party in Sør-Trøndelag. During this period, she was a member of the Standing Committee on Health and Care Services until June 2015, after which she served on the Standing Committee on Transport and Communications.
Prior to her appointment as Minister, she was CEO of the interest organisation Trondheim Tech Port.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl is Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE
Cecilia leads the world’s largest industry association for the digitalising industries DIGITALEUROPE. The association represents over 45,000 digital companies in Europe with 41 National Association across 35 countries in EU plus Ukraine, Moldova, United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey and an office in Washington, D.C. (US).
DIGITALEUROPE represents companies from the following sectors each headed by an Executive Council: ICT, Defence, Health, Energy, Finance, Mobility and Public sector, and the association has quadrupled the size of the organization since 2017.
The organisation strives to create open markets that are attractive for innovation, business investments and growth. The team works in the following services areas: Industry representation towards the EU, members states, US and other international policy leaders like G7, NATO and EDA; public-private partnerships, that creates security and competitiveness; boosting business opportunities and investment for the benefit of society and security.
Cecilia is a member of the European Commission’s Industrial Forum and High-Level Forum on European Standardisation. She is also a member of the Stakeholder Cybersecurity Certification Group of ENISA (the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity).
In March 2023, Cecilia received the Ukraine Peace Prize on behalf of DIGITALEUROPE in recognition of her work supporting Ukraine during the war. In June 2025, she was further honoured with an award from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence for her continued support of Ukraine through DIGITALEUROPE, including initiatives such as supporting dual-use innovation, building EU–Ukraine digital partnerships, advocating for ICT in emergency mechanisms, and donating equipment to schools and hospitals.
Formerly, Cecilia has served as advisor to the Danish Foreign Ministry on digital diplomacy and the Danish Defence Ministry on digital security and defence. In 2020 she was appointed as a member of the Advisory Group to the Secretary General of NATO on Emerging and Disruptive Technologies and has profound understanding of digital defence and security and hybrid threats.
She also held a seat in the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, in the B20 Digital Transformation Taskforce, and in the European Commission’s Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition.
Cecilia has more than 25 years of experience in the ICT industry. She previously held international positions at IBM and Oracle and was the CEO of two scale-ups, building business across Europe, US and Asia. She served as Board Member of the Danish Chamber of Commerce and was President of the Board of the Danish ICT association (ITB), the President of the Danish Business and Export Grant Committee for 9 years.
Peter Weckesser is Chief Digital Officer at Schneider Electric. In addition, Mr Weckesser serves on the Executive Board of DIGITALEUROPE as President.
He is the Chief Digital Officer of Schneider Electric and a member of the Executive Committee since June 2020, when he joined the company. In his role, he leads the global organization responsible for the digital transformation strategy of the company in multiple dimensions: 1. evolving Schneider Electric’s internal digital technology landscape to support business objectives and enable ambitious growth, 2. leading our IoT technology platform and data excellence to empower end-to-end industry, building, and sustainability digital solutions and software, 3. driving AI at scale through business-value-focused applications across our solution and service portfolio, as well as internal processes.
Before joining Schneider Electric, he held executive-level positions in Airbus Defence & Space and in Siemens.
He holds a Degree in Physics as well as a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. He is passionate about scaling digital technologies to create sustainable business value.
Jack Chambers is the Deputy Leader of Fianna Fáil and T.D. for Dublin West and Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, in the Government of Ireland.
Minister Chambers is responsible for leading the Department in its mission to provide better public services, improve living standards, drive infrastructure delivery for the people of Ireland and to support the digitalisation of our economy and society.
Minister Chambers previously served as Minister for Finance, the Government Chief Whip and was also Minister of State for Sport, the Gaeltacht, Transport & Defence. He was elected to Dáil Éireann on his first attempt in the 2016 General Election and was re-elected in the 2020 and 2024 General Elections.
He is a medical doctor having studied at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland and he holds an degree in Law & Political Science from Trinity College.
Across multiple sessions and with high-profile speakers, this Masters of Digital edition will be packed full of insightful discussion and debate.
Keep an eye out for the agenda release soon…
Catchup on the previous edition of Masters of Digital which focused on AI governance, digital sovereignty, and fostering innovation for a competitive, values-driven digital Europe.
The Master of Digital Award was given out for the first time in 2021 to recognise individuals that have been trailblazers in digital transformation.
Past winners include Nadia Calviño, Ursula von der Leyen, Valeriya Ionan for the people of Ukraine and Enrico Letta
Tune in on the 26th of February to Masters of Digital 2026 to see the next winner announced!
The Future Unicorn Award is a collaboration between the 41 national trade associations affiliated with DIGITALEUROPE. Participants must be nominated by these associations and be European tech companies in the scale-up phase.
From 2025 onwards, the Future Unicorn Award recognises excellence through two distinct categories: The Future Unicorn Award and the Dual Use Award.
The 2026 finalists will be revealed later this year, with the winners announced at the Masters of Digital Gala Dinner on the evening of 25th February 2026.
Download our Sponsorship Brochure to find out more about the benefits of sponsoring the 2026 edition.
The in-person event will take place at the Steigenberger Wiltcher’s, Brussels. Places are by application only due to capacity.
The online aspect will take place on our dedicated events platform. Unique links will be sent out ahead of the event to those registered.
*Titles correct as of time of participation
If you are interested in finding out more about the event, please contact the team:
For updates on Masters of Digital, join the mailing list or follow us on twitter: @DIGITALEUROPE