We are in the midst of an extraordinary transition from carbon-based economy and a society based on the assumption of limitless availability of natural resources and endless accumulation of material wealth, and on individualism, to a sustainable carbon-free society of the future based on renewable sources, respect for dissimilarity and excellence of mutual relations and our close mutual connections. 

This process is additionally accelerated by intensive digitalisation. Extremely quickly growing databases, connectivity of anybody, everything, everywhere and always, exponentially increasing capacity of data processing in real time supported by artificial intelligence and ability to predict are changing our world to such an extent that it is becoming almost unrecognisable.

The cards are being completely reshuffled at high intensity, offering us an opportunity to appropriately – and on time – understand and exploit this extraordinary period of new renaissance, which we often did not in the past in such situations. With the aim to not only not lag behind in the very beginning, nor to only be close followers, but to take the leading positions in the co-creation of this new world and thus position ourselves well in it.

This is exactly the mission of Summit 100, aiming at a fist transition of the region from one of the least to one of the most developed European regions and, within its framework, the Edison project, the Slovenian and regional platform as a laboratory of green mobile future, involving more than one-third of gross domestic product, and our close mutual linking in order to implement them. They do away with the borders between science, eduction, economy and the public sector and non-governmental organisations, and open up new, positive horizons for us and everybody around us through a socially-responsible innovative business model.

dr. Iztok Seljak, Director of Hidria and member of the Managers' Association