Sovereignty with Cloud and AI

The public sector is navigating two simultaneous shifts: the rapid adoption of cloud services and the fast proliferation of AI. Both promise better services and more efficient government. But both also raise fundamental questions about control, sovereignty, and legal room to manoeuvre.

We invite you to an afternoon of knowledge-sharing and professional debate , where the people actually making these decisions today share what they’ve learned.

We are also joined by the renowned philosopher Henrik Syse and his daughter Jenny Syse to broaden our perspective:

How do we navigate a world that demands collaboration, but rewards competition?

The event is by invitation only.

Program

12:00 - Welcome. Brief introduction by Variant.

12:10 - Secure cloud use in the public sector. AWS Norway’s solutions architect for the public sector offers a technical deep-dive into what sovereign cloud means in practice — technically, legally, and operationally.

12:45 - Break

13:00 - Experiences from public sector organisations. Presentations where representatives from the public sector share experiences from their organisations: What works? What is difficult? And what choices have they made, and why? Participants include KS Digital, SIKT, the Norwegian Environment Agency, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, the Norwegian Tax Administration, and other public sector actors.

14:00 - DNB shares. Experiences from going “all in” on a single cloud platform.

14:30 - Panel debate: Exit strategy, sovereignty, and the road ahead. Open debate moderated by Mikael Brevik and Nikolai Norman Andersen (Variant). With the speakers and the audience.

15:30 - Food, drinks, and continued conversation. Light refreshments and mingling. Word has it that a surprise talk may appear along the way — more details closer to the event.

c. 15:45 - Henrik Syse. How do we navigate a world that demands collaboration, but rewards competition? The public sector faces a paradox today: we know that the great challenges — whether climate transition, digital sovereignty, or well-functioning shared infrastructure — are best solved through collaboration.

This talk helps us ask the important questions: What happens when the infrastructure we build society on is owned by others? And what can the space race teach us about the relationship between national autonomy and international cooperation — and about what actually drives innovation?

With AI as a driving force and exit strategies from American cloud providers as the case study, we explore what choices the public sector must make now to preserve room for manoeuvre — and what values should underpin them.

18:00 End / after-event for those who want to stay and keep talking

Practical information

• Date: Tuesday 5 May
• Time: 12:00-18:00
• Venue: Variant, Tollbugata 24
• Organiser: Variant

By invitation only