Good evening, Europe. This is Berlin calling.
This week I have swapped my desk in Whitehall for a roving work setup in the beautiful city of Berlin.
I was there for a conference
I’ve been visiting for the European Identity and Cloud Conference, hosted by KupperingerCole.
My venture to the conference was about a year delayed, with my original appearance having been cancelled due to the 2024 General Election.
No matter, I made it eventually and, this year, delivered a keynote titled “Enabling trust through standards, governance and legislation”.
For the next few weeks, for those that were at the conference, my speech can be watched online at the KuppingerCole website.
The short version of the message?
The UK wants to create a digital identity ecosystem that is inclusive, secure and privacy-protecting.
That trusted ecosystem of services, across the public and private sectors, will be standards-based, independently-assured and underpinned by legislation.
They let me out of the office
It’s not very often I get to do things like this; I rarely attend conferences, let alone speak at them.
It was a brilliant opportunity to speak to an international audience about the work our team is doing.
I also got to meet some people face-to-face that I’d never spoken to other than via email or the medium of a webcam. It was fun to see how tall people are in real life (often I found continental Europeans are very, very tall)!
It was also a good developmental opportunity for me personally. I learnt a lot!
For one, I learnt that I am out of practice at public speaking. For someone who spent lots of their college and university life speaking (fairly well, I think!) without a script at NUS events and conferences, and their youth on stage performing in front of thousands, I found the act of standing on stage more daunting than I thought I would.
I also learnt that I look good in a Britney mic.
Maybe I should take up a role as a TV presenter. Eurovision 2026, anyone?
More seriously, I’ve picked up loads of formal and informal information about what’s going on in industry and in other European countries in particular.
I didn’t get much time to see the conference sessions because everyone wanted to speak to me about the UK’s approach. Having delivered my keynote right at the start of the event meant people knew who I was even if I didn’t know them; they introduced themselves to me proactively. That is very helpful when your personality is that of a clam when in a room of people you don’t know!
Accidental diplomat
I also ended up doing what I can only describe as impromptu international diplomacy, as I bumped into people working for some of Europe’s other governments.
I am not what most people would consider to be “naturally diplomatic”. Quite the opposite. I don’t do well dancing around issues, I’d rather confront them.
Luckily the team back in the UK had given me some excellent pre-briefing on things I should be thinking about if I happened to bump into officials from different countries; so I was prepared!
I also, of course, took the opportunity to pop into the British Embassy and meet with Foreign Office officials working from Berlin to tell them about our work.
The touristy bits
The conference was pretty intensive – a packed agenda throughout the week – but I did get the chance for some light tourist activity too in the margins.
My hotel was close to this iconic Berlin landmark…
I, of course, visited the Brandenburg Gate…
And I did my obligatory “bus man’s holiday” snap, as I made sure to visit the Bundestag…
(If I visit a capital city, I always visit the local Parliament)
Truth be told, I was bloody knackered by Friday evening when I got back; hence the slightly delayed weeknote.
Overall, though, a great week! I hope to do more of this kind of thing again soon.