Connecting the State was a great success this year

Connecting the state is the annual conference of Digital Iceland, where the digital future of government is the topic.

This year's conference title is Digital Society, divided into the subcategories Digital Leadership, Digital Iceland, and Digital Security. This year's conference was held in collaboration with a meeting of the Nordic Council of Ministers, where Iceland is chair.

Digital leadership

The Nordic and Baltic ministers met to discuss digital cooperation and leadership in the region. The key speaker was Clare Martorana, who leads the IT department of the President of the United States.

Bjarni Benediktsson, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs opened the conference, and among those who spoke were Karen Ellemann, Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers, Andri Heiðar Kristinsson, CEO of Digital Iceland, and Clare Martorana, Federal CIO of the United States. Anne Marie Engtoft Larsen, the tech ambassador of Denmark, then led panel discussions with Ministers of the Nordic Council.

Policy experts from the Nordic and Baltic countries also took the stage and shared their country's experiences.

Digital Iceland

The core services of Digital Iceland and their development were the main themes in Kaldalón. It included information on the implementation, practicalities, and services available to agencies.

Digital security

Cyber security was the topic in closed discussions held by the Ministry of University, Industry, and Innovation in collaboration with Digital Iceland.

Digital steps

For the second time, Digital Iceland recognized partner agencies for the digital steps they have taken.

The agencies that received the Digital Steps award at this time were the District Commissioners which have taken 9 Digital steps, the Health Insurance Administration which has taken 8 Digital steps, the Icelandic Transportation Authority which has taken 6 Digital steps and the Financial Management Authority, which has also taken 6 Digital steps.

Three agencies have been working closely with Digital Iceland for the past years and all have taken 5 Digital steps which are The Directorate of Fisheries, the Housing Authority, and the Administration of Occupational Safety and Health.

The Digital Step is an incentive award for agencies. It is intended to encourage the utilization of investment and the objectives of the Ministry by recognizing the public entities that make use of open and shared tools developed by Digital Iceland.

The incentive award, Digital Steps, was awarded for the first time in 2022, with nine steps to be awarded.