As the first event paper in the digitising Europe’s series, this event paper captures the major key themes emerging from our events in Berlin in November 2015.

The Berlin workshop and public forum focused on the possibilities and pitfalls
of using Big Data analytics for economic growth and public good. Bringing together German academic institutions, think tanks, businesses and other thought-leaders, the expert workshop focused on the ongoing political discourse in Berlin surrounding the elements framing the GDPR and EU legislation on data protection. During the evening public forum, Alex “Sandy” Pent- land, MIT Professor and Co-Founder of the MIT Media Lab, and Andrew Keen, noted author and critic of the digital revolution, engaged in a debate on the motion: “Will the data revolution improve our lives?”

Participants in both the expert workshop and public forum highlighted the following key themes in the current discourse on the data revolution in both Germany and across Europe:

• Redefining the role of the consumer in the data revolution;
• Exploring existing solutions and safe- guards towards optimal data use; and
• Improving society’s understanding of the various risks and opportunities relating to Big Data and how to respond to them.