Events

31st Ministerial Congress

At the Ministerial Congress, to be held on 2–3 September 2026, decision-makers from the public sector will come together to discuss current and future developments, challenges and prospects for the modernisation of public administration. This year, the event will focus in particular on the topics of platforms and sovereign infrastructures, a robust and secure public administration, data-centric approaches and the use of artificial intelligence, as well as the design of a modern and efficient public administration. Whether Digital Sovereignty made in Germany is a myth or a model for the future will be discussed in this context by Pamela Krosta-Hartl (Managing Director of ZenDiS) together with Dr André Göbel (FITKO), Dr Alfred Kranstedt (ITZBund), and Felix Till (BearingPoint).

CIVI/CON 2026

Today, municipal infrastructures are complex, closely interconnected systems that form the backbone of essential public services. This makes them both indispensable and particularly vulnerable. Municipalities and municipally owned companies therefore face the challenge of making their infrastructures crisis-proof, secure and fit for the future. At CIVI/CON 2026, stakeholders from municipalities, municipal enterprises, politics, academia and the digital sector will come together under the overarching theme ‘Resilient Infrastructures – Shaping Together, Acting with Sovereignty’ to explore how resilience and innovation can be combined and to identify practical pathways towards resilient infrastructures.
Leonhard Kugler (Managing Director, ZenDiS) will discuss how resilient digital infrastructure can be created in practice for the state and essential public services in the panel ‘Digital Sovereignty as a Joint Endeavour’, alongside Ina Laukötter (District Administrator of Gütersloh), Miriam Scherff (Mayor of Wuppertal) and Elke Temme (Managing Director, Stadtwerke Bochum Holding GmbH).

Handelsblatt Summit Future IT 2026

The digital transformation is gaining new momentum: technological innovations are advancing at an exponential rate. Artificial intelligence, demands for Digital Sovereignty and cyber security are fundamentally transforming business models and management structures. IT decision-makers are called upon to combine operational efficiency with the strategic assessment of future technologies such as Agentic AI. In the field of cyber security, AI has taken a significant evolutionary step forward. This is fundamentally changing the cyber security landscape and heightening concerns about a new wave of cyber attacks. The Handelsblatt Summit Future IT, taking place from 7 – 9 September 2026 under the motto “Scaling and Innovating in the Era of AI”, will explore how strategic IT management is thus becoming, more than ever, a decisive factor in a company’s success in guiding it successfully through the digital transformation. On the topic of “Digital Sovereignty in (Corporate) Reality – Aspiration versus Reality”, Alexander Smolianitski (Head of Products & Delivery, ZenDiS) will take part in a discussion on the second day of the congress, alongside Ludwig Eggersdorfer (KGAL), Erik Moeller (Sovereign Tech Agency) and Ralf Werner (Open Grid Europe).

Horizons by heise 2026

At Horizons by heise, digital transformation becomes a tangible reality: under the guiding question “How can digital transformation really succeed?”, the conference brings together executives, technology decision-makers and innovation leaders from business, public administration and academia to not just talk about transformation, but to tackle it head-on with concrete use cases and clear strategies. Digital Sovereignty also plays an important role here. Pamela Krosta-Hartl (Managing Director of ZenDiS) will explore why genuine Digital Sovereignty requires more than just a location promise, and how companies can strategically embed data sovereignty, in two presentations:

• 12:00h: Inspirational talk “Digital Sovereignty: Servers in Germany – and Everything’s Fine?” | Pamela Krosta-Hartl
• 12:15h: Panel “Data under control: Sovereignty as a Competitive Advantage” | With Pamela Krosta-Hartl, Katja Garcia Vila (MTU Areo Engines) and others

KGSt-FORUM 2026

Under the motto “Network. Municipality. | Experience • Inspire • Strengthen”, the largest local government networking event in the German-speaking world will take place once again from 16 to 18 September, bringing together administrative experts from local authorities and institutions to discuss current issues in local government practice and develop forward-looking solutions. Digital Sovereignty is also a key theme at this year’s event, at which ZenDiS will be taking to the stage to discuss various aspects of Digital Sovereignty – from the local to the European level – across three panels:

• 09:00 – 10:30h: Panel "How Sovereign Is Open Source? Theory Passed! And What Does Practice Tell Us?" | With Leonhard Kugler (Managing Director, ZenDiS), Johann Bizer, Anika Groß, Martin Hoffmann, Lars Hoppmann and Stefanie Kaulich
• 11:30 – 13:00h: Panel “Sovereign Cloud: Thinking and Acting on a European Scale – Cloud Platforms for Modern Public Administration in Europe” | With Leonhard Kugler, Christian Engelhardt, Christina Rost, Nikolaus Hagl and Luca Franke
• 15:30 – 17:00h: Panel “Municipalities, Cloud and Sovereignty – Between Pragmatic Day-to-Day Practicality and Strategic Independence: A Realistic Look at the Cloud Future of Municipalities" | With Victor Moster (Product Manager, ZenDiS), Peter Adelskamp, Michael Clivot, Laura Dornheim, Holger Drust, Stefan Hiltrop and Rena Wißmeier

Open Source Impulses: Making Internal Administrative Processes More Efficient through Open Source

Open source software offers public administration tangible benefits in terms of transparency and security. At the same time, the reorganisation of internal processes and the switch from proprietary software to open source can present a challenge for users. For many employees, the digital workplace is the most visible aspect of the digitalisation of public administration and, at the same time, one of the most demanding areas in the context of change. Initiatives such as openDesk demonstrate how open-source-based solutions for communication, collaboration and document management can be developed. In practice, the question arises as to how such approaches can be integrated into existing structures, operated and adopted by staff. During the panel discussion, Leonhard Kugler (Managing Director of ZenDiS), amongst others, will share experiences from current projects – ranging from typical challenges relating to implementation, operation, support, training and integration into existing systems, to the necessary prerequisites for establishing open-source-based workplaces sustainably and on a larger scale within the public sector.

Digital Masterclass Ruhr 2026

Whoever holds the data holds the power! Data sovereignty as a location factor for SMEs in the Ruhr Region

Control over their own business and customer data is vital for SMEs. At the same time, many companies and public sector organisations currently rely primarily on solutions provided by major US tech conglomerates. What does this mean for the protection of trade secrets, IT security, compliance with data protection laws, and so on? And what solutions are actually available to achieve greater digital self-determination and independence? The Digital Masterclass Ruhr, organised by G DATA and FUNKE Media Sales NRW, offers perspectives and approaches to these questions. As part of this, Lea Beiermann (Partnership Lead, ZenDiS) will present the ZenDiS Sovereignty Criteria as a potential solution. The catalogue of criteria was developed by ZenDiS in collaboration with stakeholders from government, business, academia and civil society as part of a public consultation. The proposed criteria demonstrate how dependencies can be systematically reduced and what technical and organisational conditions are necessary to ensure digital self-determination in the long term.

Public IT

Public IT is organised by c’t and heise, specifically targeting those responsible for IT and digital transformation in the public sector. The event focuses on sovereign cloud and on-premise solutions, as well as automation and artificial intelligence. In practical sessions, participants will learn how Digital Sovereignty and efficient end-to-end digitisation can be implemented from a technical perspective. Digital Sovereignty is a central goal of policy and administration, but the term is often used inconsistently. In this context, Pamela Krosta-Hartl (Managing Director, ZenDiS) will demonstrate, in her presentation ‘Making Digital Sovereignty Measurable: Criteria for a Sovereign Administration’, how critical dependencies within public administration can be assessed and how solutions can be identified to enhance its capacity to act.