Welcome Address to the Global Digital Collaboration Conference 2026 by Michael Schöll
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen
Welcome to Geneva. Welcome to Palexpo. And welcome to the Global Digital Collaboration 2026. It is an honor to stand before this community – a community engaged in building the technical and institutional foundations of digital trust.
When we gathered for the inaugural GDC, just over a year ago, the Swiss e-ID was approaching a referendum. The outcome was uncertain. Yet Switzerland was already hosting a global conversation about the very standards and infrastructure on which our own digital identity would depend. Today, the picture has evolved. The Swiss people have spoken. Switzerland is moving ahead with the implementation of its e-ID and the swiyu Wallet—built on open standards and open-source infrastructure. Many of those standards have been shaped by people in this room. You continue to develop and improve them. In a very real sense, Switzerland is building on your work.
And that is precisely why Switzerland hosts the GDC. We do not want to be a country that merely consumes the digital commons—the open standards, open-source code and shared protocols that others have built. We want to contribute to them. We want to give back.
Switzerland is a small country. But one thing we seem to be rea-sonably good at is bringing people together: providing neutral ground, creating space for dialogue and helping those who do not usually sit at the same table to find common ground. That is one of Switzerland’s contributions to the digital commons.
And it is also the purpose of GDC. This is not a conference with a single owner or agenda-setter. No government, company, intergovernmental organization, standards body or open-source organization owns this space. GDC is a neutral platform between institutions – a place where public and private actors can bring together the communities already doing the work, and where challenges that exceed the capacity of one institution can be addressed collectively.
In the words of Federal Councillor Beat Jans when he closed the 2025 conference: «This is a global effort. We want to share responsibility and deepen partnerships because no country can do this alone.» We took those words seriously. The first step was the creation of the GDC Council. To its members: thank you. Your commitment has been indispensable.
Our co-organizers invited their communities to join us at GDC26. More than 2,500 people responded by registering. From those registrations, our co-organizers approved more than 1,500 partic-ipants to attend. They come from across the world: from governments and international organizations, standards bodies and open-source communities, industry and academia, and civil society.
That scale is more than a measure of interest. It is evidence of genuine need.
The challenges before us – interoperability, privacy, inclusion and governance – are real, difficult and deeply interconnected. No community represented here can solve them alone. But every community represented here has something essential to contribute. So let us make the most of these three days. Challenge one another. Listen across institutional boundaries. Build on one another’s work. And leave Geneva with something concrete to take home – besides the chocolate awaiting you at tonight’s Networking Dinner.
(The spoken word shall prevail)
Special Announcements
As mentioned in my welcoming, we took the words of Federal Council Beat Jans seriously and created the GDC Council. The last Panel provided us with quite some insight into what the Council has already achieved. Again, a big thank you to all its members. Today, I would like to share with you how we will further broad-en and solidify GDC. We will do so in three ways:
First, the GDC Council will be broadened – bringing more voices and more regions into its deliberations and further strengthening its legitimacy. The current number of 10 seats for UN-member states will be increased to 15 seats. These 15 seats will be attributed to those countries who contribute most to digital commons.
Second, the funding base of GDC will be broadened. Because long-term sustainability requires more than good intentions. It requires reliable and sustained support. So far, the GDC has been predominantly funded by the Open-Wallet Foundation. I would like to thank Daniel Goldscheider, Executive Director of the OpenWallet Foundation, for the sup-port. And I am happy to announce that he will step down by the end of this year to focus fully on being Secretary of GDC. Mirroring the 15 UN-member states, the number of corporate members of the GDC Council will be increased also from 10 to 15 seats. 10 seats will be reserved for companies willing to sub-stantially fund the GDC. 5 seats will be reserved for companies with less resources, ideally representing the 5 ICANN regions. I am happy to report to you that we have received the intent to join this effort already by a number of corporate members. In addition to the support from the corporate sector, I feel privileged to announce to you that the Gates Foundation will increase its contribution to the travel funding considerably.
Last but not least: Considering GDC’s importance and complexity, a durable and independent institutional home will be provided. For that, a Swiss foundation will be established. It is planned to launch this foundation during the World Economic Forum in Davos.
(The spoken word shall prevail)