If we want support for digitization from politicians, we as digitization professionals must support politicians in being able to deal with the issues in an expert manner.
High profile visit to erminas
That’s why we had a visit from the Oldenburg SPD at the erminas headquarters: SPD member of parliament Dennis Rohde, Oldenburg SPD members of state parliament Hanna Naber, Ulf Prange and Axel Brammer, as well as SPD local association chairwoman Claudia Ellberg and SPD city council member and council chairman Bernhard Ellberg used the bridge day to get up to speed on digital topics with us. They were accompanied by Gerrit Edelmann and Malte Ringer, both SPD constituency office managers.
The politicians came with the intention of finding out more about digitization.
Knowledge and exchange around digitization
We talked about technical possibilities and opportunities and how digitization can create new business models and jobs. Another topic was how politics can support small and medium-sized companies in the local area in particular in order to remain competitive. For example, it is very important that the expansion of broadband internet is driven forward in order to ensure secure data flows everywhere.
Social changes
We not only talked about the economic aspects, but also about the social changes that can be expected as a result of advancing digitization and that are already undergoing radical change. Similar to industrialization, digitization is creating new opportunities for shaping life and work, and here, too, politicians are called upon to set the course and find forward-looking answers to future changes.
Women in IT
As in many technical fields, women are often still underrepresented in the software and digitization industry. We very much regret this, because we at erminas would like to have a balanced 50/50 team. Unfortunately, however, the IT sector does not seem attractive enough for young women. This is why we are involved in the Girls’ Day initiative, for example, to give schoolgirls an initial insight into the development and design opportunities in the digitalization industry.
Here, too, politicians can provide a great deal of support and promote the socialization of technology, especially in education. Our CTO Dr. Yvette Teiken and our female software developers explained to our guests their path in what was previously a male domain, as well as the irritations and difficulties they encountered along the way.
Many questions, great interest from Oldenburg SPD politicians
Hanna Naber in particular had many questions on this topic. And Ulf Prange discussed with our CEO Hilmar Bunjes the problems of broadband expansion due to the shortage of skilled workers.
In this interested round, it became clear how important the exchange on the topic of digitization is between politicians and IT experts. Because if such a complex and society-changing topic is not understood by our representatives, it can happen that development overtakes society.
Further links
Axel Brammer – Visit to erminas GmbH in Oldenburg
Ulf Prange – Company visit to erminas GmbH
Dennis Rohde – In the newsletter
We also look forward to future meetings and discussions. Are you also interested in an information event on the latest state of digitization? Talk to us! We come to your company for digitization workshops or organize meet-ups for interested representatives from business and politics. Send us an e-mail to socialmedia@erminas.de.
