GICS-Building Trust Together
At the Global Innovation Coop Summit, this innovation lab invited participants to explore how cooperatives can strengthen trust and resilience in the digital age. As our economies and communities become increasingly data-driven, cooperatives must navigate both the promise of digital transformation and the risks of centralization, dependency, and exclusion.  Participants co-created strategies to preserve digital autonomy, enhance technological sovereignty, and ensure that technology serves cooperative values — not the other way around.
The session emphasized that digital transformation is not just about adopting new tools, but about shaping the digital world cooperatively.  The question for all of us now is: how can we use digital innovation to build trust, inclusion, and collective strength?

How can cooperatives harness digital tools and technologies to strengthen trust, inclusion, and member participation while maintaining autonomy and cooperative identity?

Some things to consider in the discussion:
Challenge:  What risks or dependencies (platform centralization, data vulnerability, digital inequality) threaten cooperative independence in the digital era?
Opportunities:  What cooperative approaches to technology — such as platform co-ops or data governance models — could help maintain digital sovereignty and member trust
Intercooperation and Innovation:  How can cooperatives collaborate globally to share ethical technologies, co-develop digital infrastructure, and ensure everyone benefits from the digital transition?