Beyond Participation: RealTyme’s Contribution to AI Forward Summit 2026

At AI Forward Summit 2026, RealTyme will go beyond participation.

From 7–10 September 2026 in Hammamet, Tunisia, our team will contribute directly to the conversations, capacity-building efforts, and high-level dialogues shaping the Arab region’s approach to AI governance, digital sovereignty, trusted infrastructure, cybersecurity, and regional digital cooperation.

Across four days, RealTyme will engage with policymakers and decision-makers through capacity-building training, high-level speaking engagements, and moderation of a senior leaders’ dialogue.

Our contribution reflects a principle at the heart of RealTyme’s work: as artificial intelligence becomes embedded in government operations and critical digital infrastructure, trust, sovereignty, security, and control must be designed into the foundations; not added later.

September 7–8: Executive Workshop on AI Governance, Trust and Digital Sovereignty

On 7–8 September, RealTyme will deliver a two-day capacity-building programme alongside the Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) and Université Laval, bringing together approximately 40 senior policymakers and decision-makers — Directors of ICT, Heads of AI Strategy, regulators, data protection authorities and senior government advisors.

It is designed as a working session rather than a lecture series. These are decision-makers, not engineers, so the programme teaches decisions rather than technology. No participant will be asked to understand a model architecture.

The two days follow six building blocks, structured as a single argument: the global context a government operates in, the policy it sets, the standards it holds systems to, the infrastructure it requires, the integration into services already running, and the capacity to sustain all of it.

The first three blocks establish what good looks like. The last three address something more difficult and less often discussed: what is achievable under real constraints. Most institutions in the room are limited by budget, staffing and commitments already made, and the useful question for them is not what to do eventually — it is what to do first.

That framing shapes how we approach our own sessions. On infrastructure, we will work through the full ladder, from dedicated national AI compute at one end to edge deployment at the other, because the assumption that sovereign AI requires a national compute centre costs governments more than almost any other misconception in this field. It does not. Sovereignty is control over data, placement and exit — and a great deal of it is achievable within a normal budget year.

Day 2 belongs largely to the participants. A structured country exchange, facilitated by Smart Africa, allows each country to set out what it has built, what blocked it, and what it would do differently — against a common framework, so contributions compare rather than sitting as separate accounts.

Every participant leaves with the same deliverable: three decisions on AI, written on one page, ready to put in front of their minister.

For RealTyme, capacity building is therefore more than knowledge transfer. It is an opportunity to work directly with the people responsible for turning national and regional AI ambitions into secure, operational and sustainable digital frameworks — and to be useful to them in the specific week they are making those choices.

September 9: Our CCO François Rodriguez Takes the Stage on Digital Sovereignty

On 9 September, our Chief Commercial Officer, François Rodriguez, will take the stage in the high-level session:

Foundations of Scale; “Shaping Sovereignty: Sovereign Cloud, Federated Data & Strategic Digital Foundations”

The session goes directly to one of the defining questions facing governments as they accelerate digital and AI transformation:

How can we overcome infrastructure, data, and sovereignty challenges to build trusted digital foundations that enable scalable and intelligent transformation?

It will also explore the regional dimension:

How can regional cooperation enable trusted digital infrastructure, shared data ecosystems, and sovereign capabilities that power the next generation of intelligent digital transformation?

These questions have implications far beyond cloud architecture.

AI systems depend on data. Data depends on the infrastructure. Infrastructure creates dependencies. And those dependencies ultimately determine how much control, resilience, autonomy, and sovereignty an organization or government can maintain.

As AI adoption accelerates, governments are therefore being asked to look beyond traditional questions such as where their data is hosted.

As a Swiss sovereign communications technology provider, RealTyme’s perspective is grounded in the belief that digital sovereignty does not mean digital isolation.

Instead, sovereignty should provide governments with the control necessary to cooperate with confidence.

Secure regional ecosystems require both interoperability and clearly defined boundaries of control. Federated approaches can allow institutions and countries to collaborate while maintaining authority over their own sensitive data, infrastructure, policies, and security requirements.

Our CCO François Rodriguez will bring this perspective to the discussion, contributing RealTyme’s experience in sovereign communications, secure collaboration, digital infrastructure, post-quantum readiness, and the protection of sensitive government information.

September 9: Helping Guide the High-Level Leaders’ Dialogue

RealTyme’s contribution on 9 September will extend beyond our CCO’s speaking engagement.

Our Regional Engagement Lead Maryna Veuthey will moderate the:

High-Level Leaders’ Dialogue: “From Declaration to Delivery: Moving Commitments to Coordinated Action”

This session captures one of the most important objectives of AI Forward Summit 2026: moving the regional AI conversation from ambition toward implementation.

Across the Arab region, AI strategies, digital transformation programmes, cybersecurity frameworks, and infrastructure initiatives are advancing rapidly.

By moderating this dialogue, RealTyme will help facilitate an exchange focused not simply on what the region intends to achieve, but on how stakeholders can move collectively toward implementation.

For us, this role is particularly meaningful.

Technology providers should not only introduce products into the digital transformation conversation. They should listen to policymakers, understand national priorities, contribute technical expertise, and help create the bridges between policy, technology, security, and implementation.

Three Levels of Contribution. One Objective.

Our participation at AI Forward Summit 2026 spans three complementary areas.

Capacity Building Workshop— September 7–8

Working alongside SADA/ANCA to engage approximately 40senior policymakers and decision-makers on Trusted AI, governance, cybersecurity, resilience, sovereign infrastructure, data governance, and regional cooperation.

Thought Leadership — September 9

RealTyme CCO François Rodriguez will be contributing to the high-level discussion on sovereign cloud, federated data, strategic digital foundations, and the infrastructure required to scale intelligent transformation.

Regional Dialogue — September 9

Our Regional Engagement Lead Maryna Veuthey will be moderating a high-level leaders’ discussion focused on moving regional commitments toward coordinated action and delivery.

Together, these engagements represent what RealTyme believes meaningful participation in the region’s digital future should look like: sharing expertise, strengthening capacity, listening to leaders, contributing practical perspectives, and helping turn strategic conversations into action.

Sovereignty Is Becoming an AI Imperative

As AI reshapes digital sovereignty, governments must look beyond where data is stored to who controls, processes, and accesses it, under which jurisdiction, and how securely. RealTyme believes secure communications, sovereign infrastructure, Trusted AI, cybersecurity, and post-quantum readiness must form an interconnected foundation for resilient AI transformation.

Supporting a More Sovereign, Secure and Resilient Digital Future

The Arab region has an important opportunity.

Countries across the region are investing significantly in AI, cloud infrastructure, digital government, cybersecurity, data ecosystems, and human capital. Regional cooperation can amplify these investments, accelerate innovation, and create new opportunities for shared digital capabilities.

But scale must be built on trust.

And trust requires control, security, transparency, resilience, and clear governance.

RealTyme is proud to contribute to this conversation at AI Forward Summit 2026 and to work alongside policymakers, technology leaders, regional organizations, and international partners committed to building the next generation of trusted digital infrastructure.

For us, Hammamet is not simply another technology conference.

It is an opportunity to contribute to the practical work of building a digital future in which governments can innovate without surrendering control, collaborate without compromising sovereignty, and embrace AI while protecting the information and infrastructure entrusted to them.

We look forward to the discussions in Tunisia.

AI Forward Summit 2026
7–10 September 2026
Medina Congress & Exhibition Center, Hammamet, Tunisia

To meet the RealTyme team during AI Forward Summit 2026 and discuss sovereign communications, digital infrastructure, Trusted AI, or post-quantum readiness, please get in touch with us.

Book a meeting with us.

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