The “LegisTech Forum 2022” is a conference of global scope promoted by Bússola Tech, which brought together representatives of National and Subnational Parliaments from 47 countries. It was held between 12th and 16th September 2022.
>The event featured approximately 60 hours of programs related to the digital transformation of legislatures, including debates and case presentations.c Sessions were simultaneously translated into English, Spanish and Portuguese, with interpretation for some other languages as well during the event. There were two special co-located activities, from EnGITEC (Interlegis/Brazil) and ParlAmericas.
The conference was dedicated to the legislative community: composed of parliamentarians, parliamentary staff, and public servants – such as secretaries-general, legislative attorneys, legislative consultants, and directors of technology (IT/ICTs). It aimed to promote an environment of trust for sharing the challenges in each institutional modernisation and digital transformation strategy. Among the 76 activities on the agenda are themes that reflect on the future of the modernization of the legislative power in the World, as well as specialised topics.
During the event, Xcential President Mark Stodder had the opportunity to exchange experiences and talk broadly about the advances in the technology field with legislative houses and interparliamentary organisations including the U.S. House of Representatives, Pan-African Parliament, Senado Federal of Brazil, Oireachtas of Ireland, De Nationale Assemblée of Suriname, East Timor National Assembly, Parliamentary Network Africa, Directorio Legislativo, Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat of Indonesia, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, National Assembly of Pakistan and the Porto Alegre City Council (Brazil) and had insightful conversations with its secretary-general, IT directors and technology representatives, through debates and specialist interview dynamics with the Houses.
“These panels and presentations gave parliamentary technology professionals an extraordinary opportunity to share best practices, talk about challenges, and work together on the tools that can strengthen our democratic institutions,” Stodder said.
According to Ari, “These Bussola Tech sessions do so much to create a community focused on using technology to make our legislatures work more effectively and transparently for citizens around the world.”
Xcential was also represented by Senior Legal Analyst Sabrina Vigneux and Chief of Innovation Ari Hershowitz in debates and panels with the European Parliament, the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat of Indonesia, the Országgyűlés of Hungary, the Pan-African Parliament, the Chilean Senate, the Knesset of Israel, Hellenic Parliament, the Congress of Spain, the House of Representatives of countries as Brazil, Spain and Argentina, the City Council of Porto Alegre (Brazil) and the Legislative Assemblies of São Paulo and the Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil) and Ontario (Canada).
Alongside the event, Xcential’s representatives took part in high-level debates such as the discussion about the meaning of a digital-ready legislature for societies, artificial intelligence applied to legislative activities, information architecture and the standardisation of legislative data, the challenges and priorities for the modernisation of legislative drafting, and about the role of the private sector and civil society organisations in the promotion of legislative modernisation.
“Bussola assembled an outstanding event bringing together a diverse, multidisciplinary group of speakers and panellists from around the world and across the legislative technology ecosystem. The breadth and depth of discussions, experiences and ideas that were shared made for a truly thought-provoking conference highlighting the accomplishments, ambitions, and road ahead for bringing about positive change in our legislatures and democratic institutions.”, Sabrina said.
According to Luís Kimaid, from Bússola Tech, “the LegisTech Forum serves the purpose of highlighting the outstanding accomplishments of legislatures in their modernisation and digital transformation efforts, and to create collaboration channels between the legislative institutions and the specialised private sector, with battle-tested solutions that are able to support the technical staff in the legislatures, and Xcential is a very successful example of it”.
The approximately 60 hours of activity brought together participants from 63 countries in more than 70 activities over 5 days.
