Aarhus University Seal

Conference: How does digitalisation affect our society?

Political scientist Francis Fukuyama, Microsoft CEO Marianne Dahl and Minister of Finance Nicolai Wammen will be among the participants at this year's MatchPoints conference on digitalisation and democracy from 27-29 May at Aarhus University. Register now.

Is social media destroying democracy? Can digital technology curb climate change? Will artificial intelligence make humans redundant? These are some of the questions that will be discussed at the MatchPoints conference at Aarhus University from 27 to 29 May titled "Democracy and Culture in the Digital Age". The conference will focus on how digitalisation affects society, culture and everyday life – for better or worse.

The MatchPoints conference is open to researchers, IT developers, journalists, politicians, government officials, doctors, teachers, students and anyone else who wants to understand how the internet has transformed our society.

"When we started planning the conference at the end of 2019, we couldn’t have predicted the drama surrounding the American election, nor the impact that Covid-19 would have on digitalisation," says Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, the academic director of MatchPoints 2021:

"In addition to prestigious keynote speakers and presenters, the conference offers a number of meetings between researchers and professionals. The conference has various packages that will appeal to different groups. For example, there is inspiration for education and life as a student, health IT, the use of artificial intelligence and business development," he says.

Speakers at the conference include world-famous political scientist Francis Fukuyama, award-winning journalist Anne Applebaum, Microsoft chief executive Marianne Dahl, the Danish Minister for Finance Nicolai Wammen and Alexandra Evans, Head of Child Safety Public Policy at TikTok.

More than twenty thematic panel debates will focus on the importance of social media, the climate crisis, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, education and much more.


Hybrid conference

If the Covid-19 situation permits, MatchPoints will be held as a hybrid conference. This means that participants will be able either to participate physically in one of four different academic tracks at the Lakeside Lecture Theatres at Aarhus University, or they can participate virtually in ”Democracy in the Digital Age on politics, media and the new economy, which will be streamed digitally from the Lakeside Lecture Theatres. The conference will be completely digital if necessary.

The ticket price is discounted for employees at Aarhus University. A day ticket costs DKK 450 (normal price DKK 600)

Read more about the conference and sign up


About MatchPoints

Since 2007, MatchPoints has been held annually at Aarhus University. MatchPoints is an academic conference with an outward-oriented profile that brings together researchers, politicians, journalists and people from the business community. MatchPoints aims at creating a dialogue between the university and the rest of society on the important topics of the day.