The DAISSy Research Group of Hellenic Open University (HOU) participated in the 18th ALL DIGITAL Summit 2025, which was held in Valletta, Malta, on September 10th-12th, 2025. The International event AD Summit is organized annually by ALL DIGITAL (AD), a pan-European Network based in Brussels currently representing more than 110 member organizations from all over Europe. Through its members, AD collaborates with more than 25,000 digital skills development centers with the aim of ensuring that every European citizen can benefit from the digital transformation.
DAISSy has been an active member of the AD since 2016, with its Founder and Director, Professor Achilles Kameas, having been elected as a member of the AD Board of Directors (BoD) for a number of years, as Deputy Chair for two terms and as Chair of the BoD for one term, and Ms. Eleni Georgakakou, Senior Project Manager and Lead Researcher at DAISSy, being an elected member and Deputy Chair in the current term.
This year’s AD Summit was co-hosted by the Local Councils’ Association of Malta and was in line with the “European Year of Digital Citizenship Education 2025“.
The theme of the 18th AD Summit 2025 was "Educated Digital Citizens: Empowering Connected Generations". The programme included keynote speeches, panels, workshops and informative sessions with digital leaders, educators, innovators, and changemakers from across the Europe and beyond, all gathered at the Mediterranean Conference Centre – a landmark overlooking Valletta’s historic harbour. The participants exchanged ideas, forged meaningful connections, and contributed to shaping the future of digital skills, inclusion, and citizenship.
At the heart of this year’s AD Summit was the Digital Village, an exhibition style space where organisations, projects, and initiatives showcased their work through booths, live demonstrations, and networking opportunities. The “neighborhoods” reflected the five (5) thematic streams of the Summit, each focusing on a distinct aspect of educated digital citizens: Access to Digital; Digital Upskilling; AI and Emerging Tech; Digital Well-being and Digital Skills Policy.
DAISSy-HOU “inhabited” the Digital Village with an impressive stand in the “neighborhood” of “Access to Digital”. Ms. Eleni Georgakakou, Mr. Kostas Mantzos and Dr. Magda Spella, members of DAISSy-HOU, presented the numerous relevant projects and their results, which the Research Group has implemented throughout the years.
Moreover, the team representing DAISSy-HOU participated in numerous AD Summit 2025 sessions and also delivered presentations in the Lightning Talks:
- Eleni Georgakakou gave a presentation on “Developing competences that promote Equality, Diversity and Inclusion”, and
- Kostas Mantzos, Senior Researcher, presented “A suite of educational instruments addressing the needs of Smart City employees“.
Furthermore, Ms Georgakakou, as the elected Deputy Chair of the BoD of AD, was selected to hand the Digital Accessibility Award to the dedicated AD Awards Ceremony, which aims to honor remarkable contributions to the digital field.
The AD Summit 2025 sessions were attended by more than two hundred (200) participants including, European Commission and Council of Europe representatives, policy makers, stakeholders in digital education, trainers, educators, representatives of civil society and market, who were actively involved and contributed experience, ideas, tools and policies. For more information on the 18th ALL DIGITAL Summit 2025: https://all-digital.org/summit-2025/.
