- July 05, 2021
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- July 16, 2025
The digital transformation is causing some of the most profound societal challenges of the 21st century. Hardly any area of life exists that is not impacted by its far-reaching consequences. The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the move toward digitalization, drawing out aspects of inequality even as it enables new forms of economic and social resilience.
Against this backdrop of opportunities and challenges, Aspen Germany hosted the next meeting of its series “Virtual Road to the Laboratories of Democracy Initiative” to discuss digitalization and digital policies at the state level. It addressed how states can effectively bring forward and shape the digital transformation. As a multifaceted cross-cutting issue, digitalization permeates all policy areas and is thus not easily integrated into the conventional structures of political governance. What is being done at the state level to facilitate and shape the digital transformation? How do digitalization strategies help to set long-term goals, priorities, administrative responsibilities, and concrete measures? What are some political best practices at the state level? What priorities should be set and why?
The participants were joined by Stefan Krebs, Baden-Württemberg State Commissioner for Information Technology, Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Digital Officer (CDO). Mr. Krebs provided an overview of Baden-Württemberg’s digitalization strategy. Building on his input, the participants then started to identify common challenges and potential policy solutions on the sub-national level.
This webinar series is part of the “Laboratories of Democracy Initiative” which brings together German and American state legislators to facilitate a values-based discussion and an exchange of ideas about how to tackle current international policy challenges on a subnational level. In 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, Aspen Germany holds a series of webinars as part of a “Virtual Road to the Laboratories of Democracy Initiative” providing a virtual platform for exchange for the 2020/21 cohort. The webinar series explores subnational governance in the United States and Germany amid COVID-19, leadership in times of crisis, the role of tech in the COVID-19 response, and prospects for German-American cooperation. The project is supported by the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany, funded by the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi).
