Two outstanding keynote speeches will be delivered at the start of the Congress of the World Federation of Building Service Contractors (WFBSC, 18-20 Sept.) in Berlin. On 18 September EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger and the IT specialist Daniel Domscheit-Berg will be addressing the world’s leading conference for the building services sector on the subject of “Cleaning in a digital world – Processes, people, technology“. This year for the first time the WFBSC Congress is being held concurrently with the international cleaning trade fair CMS Berlin 2017 – Cleaning. Management.Services. (19-22 Sept.) in Hall 7 on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds, Berlin ExpoCenter City. 

EU Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources since January 2017, Günther Oettinger was previously responsible for the sector “Digital Economy and Society“ for the EU and, as a leading EU politician, he is closely involved in the subject of digitalisation. Referring to the course to be adopted in the ongoing process of digitisation, Günther Oettinger has called for opportunities to be used and risks to be avoided. The EU Commissioner regards digitisation as being equivalent in importance to Gutenberg’s invention of printing, and the introduction of the steam engine, electricity and automation.

Daniel Domscheit-Berg is focussing on “Opportunities and risks of digital interconnectedness” in his paper. For many years he has taken a close interest in the freedom of information and the transparency of the internet. A graduate in information technology with the emphasis on IT security, from 2007 to 2010 he worked on the whistle-blowing platform WikiLeaks and was its spokesman, using the pseudonym Daniel Schmitt. He is currently engaged in a number of projects concerned with the protection of private data on the internet and with the decentralisation of internet infrastructure. In 2011 the prominent American magazine “Foreign Policy” named him one of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers”. He is one of the supporters of the Charter of Digital Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which was published at the end of November 2016.