Trusted Economy Forum 2023: trust is key in sports and business

Szymon Marciniak, a Polish football referee who officiates the most important matches of club and international competitions, will be a special guest at this year's Trusted Economy Forum. He was voted the world's best referee in the previous year. During his speech, he will talk about what sports and business have in common, and explain why a referee must act on the edge and should not avoid making difficult decisions.

‍

A good referee, like a good manager, must possess a set of specific qualities. The ability to make right decisions is often not enough. In the case of a business representative, it is important to properly manage a team and an organization, while a referee must control players and coaching staff so that emotions do not take over and a match does not get out of hand. An overly conservative attitude is as inadvisable as a lenient one. This makes it necessary, in both sports and business, to constantly balance on the edge and find the golden mean between the adherence to generally accepted rules and the desire to get the better of the competition.

"The best football referees are those who are not afraid of taking risks and allow games to be played on the edge of a foul, but still in accordance with the rules in place. Grabbing a whistle too often makes a spectacle no longer attractive. Referees need to know when they should intervene and which situation is important for the course of a match, because it can affect a result or pose a threat to a player’s health. One will not learn it in any textbooks, instructions or guidelines. It is necessary to have a feel for it, which can be gained only through experience" - explains Szymon Marciniak, a football referee and a speaker at this year's Trusted Economy Forum, one of Europe's largest conferences on digital transformation, trust services and cybersecurity.

‍

Trust backed by technology

As Szymon Marciniak says, referees’ work has changed a lot over the years. New technologies have been gradually introduced that make their job easier and allow them to eliminate mistakes and make better decisions. We used to think that a camera set up on a goal line would unambiguously determine the fact of scoring a goal. Meanwhile, it has turned out that a goalkeeper can sometimes lie on a ball, making such a situation debatable. This was one of the reasons for the introduction of photosensors (the so called “electronic eye”) and balls with built-in sensors. Another example is a notification system installed in a line referee’s flag. It, too, has proved inadequate, so today a standard practice is that an entire referee team is equipped with a headset to communicate with each other.

"It used to be said that referee errors were part of the game, but for several years now football organizations have been striving to eliminate them. Of course, we are talking about unintentional mistakes here. It should be remembered that wrong decisions are often the result of limited visibility, when, for example, a player runs in front of a referee. Technology offers us important support here, as it allows us to properly interpret disputed situations. Solutions such as goal-line technology or VAR make referees' work much easier" - says Szymon Marciniak.

‍

In business, too, technology plays a key role in the trust-building process. An example is electronic identification, which makes it possible to unequivocally determine the identity of a person with whom a digital transaction is made. This process can be done onsite, where, for example, a representative of a bank or an insurance company performs identity verification. An online method, in turn, assumes that the process is carried out through electronic communication or banking and hybrid methods. Electronic identification should be integrated with an electronic document management platform and predefined business processes. Another important component of the trust services ecosystem is e-Delivery, which makes it possible to send registered letters in a digital form with the acknowledgment of a receipt. Importantly, all correspondence is available in one place along with the proof of posting, execution and delivery.

‍

Polish success story

Szymon Marciniak's career is an example of how success can be achieved through hard work. Despite the fact that the Polish football league is not one of the best, we can boast of a referee who is among the world's best and is appointed to referee the most important matches. Asseco sets a similar example in the business world. Being a Polish company with roots in Rzeszów, it successfully competes in international markets and has become one of the largest technology companies in Europe in 32 years.

The Trusted Economy Forum is one of Europe's largest conferences on digital transformation, trust services and cyber security. The event will begin with a debate featuring invited guests representing the most important areas of the digital economy and e-commerce: Adam Góral, President of the Management Board of Asseco Poland S.A.; Gertruda Uścińska, President of the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS); Aleksandra Sroka-Krzyżak, Head of Strategy and Chief of Staff at Allegro; Szymon Walach, Vice President of the Management Board for Digital Matters and Strategy, InPost; Błażej Szczecki, Vice President of the Management Board of Bank Pekao. The conference participants will be able to choose between two thematic tracks: technology and business as well as expert one. The TEF’s participants will learn how business can use technology to address current economic challenges, optimize processes and improve the customer experience; how technology facilitates regulatory compliance; and learn about the latest trends in cybersecurity.

‍

The content partner of the Trusted Economy Forum is Obserwatorium.biz.

The honorary patrons of the Trusted Economy Forum are: the Digital Poland Association, the European Signature Dialog, the Scientific and Academic Computer Network – the National Research Institute (NASK), the Polish Chamber of Information Technology and Telecommunications (PIIT), the Federation of Polish Entrepreneurs, the Lewiatan Employers Association.

The partners of the event are: ComCERT, ENTRUST, IDENTT, Xtension.

‍

For registration and more information on the event, which will take place on May 23, 2023 in Warsaw, please see: www.trustedeconomyforum.com.

‍

***

Asseco is the largest IT company in Poland and the Central and Eastern European region. For more than 30 years it has been developing technologically advanced software for companies in key sectors of the economy. The company is present in 60 countries around the world and employs nearly 33,000 people. It has been growing organically as well as through acquisitions. Asseco’s companies are listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), NASDAQ and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

‍