In February 2020, I participated in a panel discussion on innovation in public procurement at the German “Day of the public contracting authority” at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
I was invited based on the whitepaper on strategic IT procurement I had written in 2019 and argued specifically for the introduction of “strategic procurement” officers in public contracting authorities that take a long-term view on issues like IT supplies, easier-to-handle procurement guidelines, and free and open source software for the public sector.
Here’s a conference report including a few sentences on our panel (in German):
Tag der öffentliche Auftraggeber 2020: „Irgendwo müssen wir anfangen“
Der 19. Tag der öffentlichen Auftraggeber ist am 13. Februar 2020 in Berlin zu Ende gegangen. Dabei wurde viel darüber diskutiert, wie die öffentliche Beschaffung in einer digitalen veränderten Welt aussehen könnte. In einem Aspekt waren sich alle einig: es gibt viele Herausforderungen.
Photo: " The former Kaiser-Wilhelm-Academy nowadays is the Berlin seat of the German federal ministry for economic affairs and energy " by Ansgar Koreng / CC BY 4.0