Jonas Onland is Chief Vision Officer at Serendipity Tech and a member of the G4I 2026 Expert Committee — a role he stepped into after speaking at last year’s Congress. A recognised voice in the GovTech ecosystem, Jonas works at the intersection of digital transformation, public-private collaboration, and innovation strategy. In this conversation, he shares what he sees as the biggest challenges facing government leaders today, what drew him deeper into the G4I community, and how he envisions the Congress, and the broader GovTech movement, evolving in the years ahead.

What do you think government leaders are struggling with the most when it comes to turning technology into real impact?

The challenges I see that cities and communities are facing the most in the field of technology and real impact is basically, on one hand, understand the digital maturity of the organisation itself and where, how to understand new technologies, how to apply that. And at the same time also understand the market mechanisms of tech companies. So finding that balance between being as agnostic, having an infrastructure which is adaptive, and at the same time also making sure that you facilitate new startups, scale ups, especially in the EU from a sovereignty perspective, EU based. So I think there’s a big gap in that maturity and in how to implement it in a way that you’re future proof.

You were a speaker at the Congress last year and this year you’re part of the Expert Committee. What inspired that transition?

Last year I was part of the event for the first time and I was invited to be part of the expert committee this year. And I accepted it. And that’s because I was very much impressed by the event last year — very high level, very good speakers. And especially the side events and the informal communication, and building the connections and relationships was so valuable to me.

Last year I had the honour to speak about digital identity and digital services for citizens. And it was really a story about what’s happening in Europe with digital identity and so on. But I saw the storyline was relevant also in the global South, in Africa and in the US as well. So, I saw the potential, but I also saw there are much more opportunities to make it bigger. And because GovTech for me is one of the key elements that will make the difference in working public, private and public-private collaboration.
This year, being part of the expert committee is very much fun. I really love the people that are in there, getting to know them, but also understanding what they do.

And one of the suggestions I made is to start with a Mayors Leadership Forum. So, this year we will be organising a side event where political leaders will come in a closed environment, together with the European Commission and important game changers in the ecosystem, to work on a manifesto and an action plan. Not as just a one-off event, but really a step towards a multi-year collaboration. And setting the scene for leadership in GovTech.

How do you see the event evolving — both this year and into the future?

The way I look at how the forum and the overall event could evolve is that the quality of the people and the network there is very strong. I truly believe that through this event and also other events during the year, bringing people together will make the difference.

But the big challenge is how to create a common ambition. There’s so much work done already understanding what the differences are, what the challenges are in the GovTech scene, in public-private collaboration. But how to make it actionable and how to bring it to impact — I think that’s something where you really need leadership and these type of events.

Like I said before, it shouldn’t be a one-off event. We need to look at it from the perspective of a multi-year approach where each year we make steps in creating that GovTech industry within the EU, but also within the world, based on shared values and shared ambition. The role of impact and how to make impact tangible — I think that’s one of the big challenges.

I see a lot of events where you have an expo and you see real life examples. Where I think this event makes a difference is that you have a very diverse group of people in different sectors — the financial institutions, the public institutions, the tech scene as well — which gives a very good combination of conversations. The challenge towards the upcoming years is how to make that actionable. To build instruments through this event where you really go to an implementation and deployment strategy.

And that will ask for commitment from all the different partners. There are a lot of instruments that are actually in place, but bringing that together and bringing the community together — that’s one of the key ambitions the event should have towards the future.

And with partners like the OECD — they are researching and doing investigations on the impact of the different solutions, the Commission as well, the Joint Research Centre — enabling that and showcasing it and building tangible communities and solutions is a very crucial part.

What makes G4I relevant for the different players in the GovTech ecosystem?

On one hand, you need financing institutions, you need governmental bodies that can do a lot on procurement and strategy and have the need of society, and tech companies that have a very good insight in how this market is evolving. I truly believe that for these type of players it is very interesting to join and to learn and dive into new insights that you don’t know — because most of the time, when you’re a startup or when you’re a governmental body, you understand your own system. But GovTech really needs to bring these worlds together. And that’s what the event is all about. In a formal way with inspiring stories and at the same time, informal connections that are long lasting.