During Geneva Digital Week from 06-10 July 2026, IEEE joined a gathering for global digital governance — bringing together governments, international organizations, industry, academia, civil society and the technical community to address the future of digital technologies and international cooperation. The week combined three major global events: the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum and the AI for Good Global Summit.
IEEE was engaged in numerous sessions throughout the week. Here are some of the highlights:
At the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance (06-07 July), IEEE SA provided an intervention during Thematic Discussion 1 on AI opportunities and implications – Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance. Observations to the Global Dialogue focused on human oversight, accountable design, and interoperability, which IEEE SA addresses in its portfolio of AI standards; open participation in standards development as a governance consideration, one which IEEE illustrated through its open, global, and inclusive processes; environmental sustainability, and age-appropriate design which has been translated into testable technical requirements, demonstrating that safeguards can be engineered in from the outset without constraining innovation grounded in IEEE SA’s work on Age-Appropriate Design.
At the WSIS Forum (06-10 July), IEEE SA President Dorothy Stanley provided a keynote address as part of the Leaders TalkX High-Level Session, “From Access to Impact: Leading ICT Infrastructure Development” where she noted that, “The IEEE open development model enables participation from experts across regions and sectors, strengthening legitimacy and reducing fragmentation. If we design connectivity and AI systems with inclusion, safety, and sustainability at their core, we can build systems that leverage technology for human well-being.”
The ITU Deputy Secretary General, Tomas Lamanauskas, provided opening remarks at the IEEE Knowledge Café on “Meaningful Connectivity by Design: Exploring Practical Pathways and Solutions Together”, where participants explored together how technical standards and other tools or frameworks can help realize deployable, interoperable solutions. Seated at tables, the discussions was guided by a series of questions to start the conversation, addressing what does meaningful connectivity mean in practice, what are current or emerging barriers or enablers to meaningful connectivity, and how should connectivity evolve in the context of AI-enabled services, energy and sustainability needs, new deployment methods and what standards-aligned practices should be included.
The IEEE Young Professionals hosted a session on Case Studies on Connectivity: Young Practitioners in the Forefront which explored how emerging leaders are advancing the intersection of digital connectivity and sustainable energy systems. Through real-world case studies, participants examined how digital infrastructure, responsible AI and data-driven tools are enabling more resilient, efficient and inclusive energy transitions.
Key recommendations included integrating advanced digital literacy and AI training into curricula, expanding eco-design and standards education into education early, and for governments to prioritise building a workforce capable of tackling modern sustainability challenges.
The IEEE Workshop on “Meaningful Connectivity by Design – The Role of Technical Standards in Connecting the Unconnected” explored how global technical standards can help enable and sustain meaningful connectivity by translating policy objectives into implementable technical requirements and interoperable solutions. It convened experts in an interactive roundtable dialogue to discuss practical approaches for deploying connectivity in underserved contexts, bringing into the discussion how standards can reduce fragmentation, improve cross-border compatibility and strengthen user trust–coalescing in practical insights and solution examples that help advance and accelerate SDG progression.
To effectively bridge the digital divide in underserved areas, key recommendations included community-led network deployment and the localization of technical blueprints to enable the systematic and affordable expansion of internet access to remote populations.
IEEE Young Professional’s Sajith Wijesuriya facilitated a Leaders TalkX session where he led a discussion among government officials from Andorra, Malaysia, Nigeria, Poland, Sweden, UAE and Uganda on how to build skills for the future by leading inclusive capacity-building.
During the AI for Good event, which ran from 07-10 July 2026, IEEE SA engaged in a discussion with global leaders, policymakers, and AI experts highlighting the progress made and remaining challenges in advancing women’s leadership and meaningful participation in AI and standards development.
Additionally, some of IEEE SA’s highlights at AI for Good included:
- Safe and ethical AI: Advances, standards, governance (07 July) which featured a full day of workshops around the themes of international governance and evolving standards,
- AI in education, research and skills development roundtable (07 July) discussing how AI is transforming education, learning and research, and the impact of AI on skills development
- Testing and verification of frontier AI systems (07 July) exploring cutting-edge research on how advanced AI models can be tested, verified, and validated before they are deployed at scale,
- Brain-computer interface: Technology for good and application cooperation (08 July) focusing on advancing brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies for social good, with particular emphasis on responsible innovation, industrial applications, and international collaboration on standards and interoperability.
The 2026 IEEE Delegation at the 2026 Geneva Digital Week was led by Dorothy Stanley, IEEE SA President, and included volunteer Sajith Wijesuriya, Chair, IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Young Professionals Advisory Council.
