IGF2021

On Tuesday, in relation to the preparations for the event, a press conference "UN IGF - global discussion on the digital world in a month in Poland" was held at the Polish Press Agency. It was attended by Krzysztof Szubert, plenipotentiary of the Republic of Poland for the UN Internet Governance Forum - IGF 2021, Wojciech Pawlak - director of NASK and Roman Malinowski - director for the Internet Domain Registry at NASK.

The headline of this year's UN Internet Governance Forum is Internet United, which means an accessible, united, friendly Internet for all. 

- During the five days of this year's edition of the Forum there will be 300 different events, activities and initiatives such as lectures, debates and workshops devoted to the digital world - from legislation through currently available technologies to future technologies, such as quantum technologies - said Krzysztof Szubert. - The guests of the IGF will also discuss more general, horizontal issues, such as those related to access to the Internet, because at the moment half of the world still does not have such access. This topic is particularly important from the UN perspective - he added.

The first day of the conference (the so-called Day Zero) remains at the discretion of the host country. On that day alone, there will be more than a dozen events, proposed by Poles from various backgrounds. It will culminate in a gala ceremony and concert at the headquarters of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice.

On the last day, during the closing ceremony of the Forum, a document summarising the event - the Katowice Protocol - will be presented.

Part of the event will also be the IGF Youth Summit proposed by Poland, which aims to engage young people in a discussion on the future of digital transformation.

- The initiative has received a lot of interest from the UN - said Krzysztof Szubert.

Participation in the UN Internet Governance Forum is free of charge. All you need to do is register at https://www.gov.pl/web/igf2021-en.

- Interest in the IGF is very high. We already have over three thousand registrations, interestingly 90% of them come from outside Poland. Therefore, we encourage experts in the field of digitisation, people interested in digitisation, students as well as the media to register. It is worth doing it as soon as possible, because despite the great capacity of the International Congress Centre in Katowice, the number of places is limited - said Krzysztof Szubert.

- We are honoured to be co-organisers of this important event. We are facing a digital future. That is why young people participation in this global meeting is so invaluable - said Wojciech Pawlak, NASK Director. - The second important topic for us is of course cybersecurity, which is currently gaining particular importance. NASK, thanks to its history, has been able to unite the scientific, academic, NGO, information society and government circles, as well as business representatives. We want to transform our experience in building relations between these groups into fruitful meetings and debates during the UN Internet Governance Forum, he added.

We invite you to Katowice for the UN Internet Governance Forum - IGF 2021 (6-10 December 2021). More information at gov.pl/igf2021.