SD Day 2026: The purpose isn’t changing. Everything else is.

7 days ago

5 min read

Standards Digital Day 2026 brought customers, partners, industry leaders, and colleagues together in Oslo for two days of open discussion, practical collaboration, and new perspectives on the future of standardization.

This year’s theme, “The purpose isn’t changing. Everything else is,” reflected a shared reality across the standards community. Standards continue to provide trust, safety, interoperability, and a foundation for innovation. At the same time, technology, regulation, business models, customer expectations, and the ways in which standards are developed, delivered, and used are changing rapidly.

An industry at an inflection point

The first day began by examining the wider forces reshaping the industry. Guest speakers Trond Harald Hovland from Statens vegvesen, Nelson Al Assal from UNIDO, and Claudia MacMaster from IEC approached this transformation from three different but closely connected perspectives: interoperability, organizational maturity, and the evolving legal and commercial landscape.

Trond Harald Hovland demonstrated why machine-readable and interoperable information is becoming essential in the transport sector. Data relating to infrastructure, mapping, intelligent transport systems, and traffic regulations must remain consistent throughout a long and complex value chain, from public authorities and map providers to vehicle manufacturers and the vehicles themselves.

As transport becomes increasingly data-driven and vehicles more automated, inconsistencies between systems are no longer simply technical inconveniences. They can affect traffic flow, regulatory compliance, and road safety. His presentation highlighted the need for common data models, shared definitions, and closer alignment between building information models, geographical information systems, and intelligent transport systems.

Nelson Al Assal focused on digital maturity and the importance of viewing transformation as more than a technology project. Digital progress must be supported by governance, strategy, business models, processes, people, culture, and effective data management.

There is no single roadmap that will work for every standards organization. Different organizations begin their transformation from different levels of maturity and with different infrastructure, resources, and customer needs. Understanding those conditions before investing in technology can reduce risk and lead to more realistic and effective transformation programmes.

Nelson also challenged the industry to reconsider the core of the standards business. As standards evolve from documents into structured content and knowledge, standards organizations must develop a deeper understanding of their stakeholders and how people, systems, connected devices, and eventually autonomous technologies will interact with that content. In this future, relationships and stakeholder insight will be just as important as the content itself.

Claudia MacMaster explored how legal and economic developments are adding urgency to digital transformation. Her presentation focused on the tension between public access to standards and the need to sustain the infrastructure, expertise, and international collaboration required to create them.

Rather than treating access and sustainability as opposing objectives, Claudia highlighted the opportunity to develop new licensing models, digital delivery mechanisms, rights controls, products, and services. Technology can support more flexible access while safeguarding copyright, traceability, and the long-term sustainability of standardization.

Her contribution also reinforced a central message from the event: no single organization needs to solve every part of the transformation alone. Progress will depend on trusted partnerships that combine standards expertise, legal knowledge, market insight, and digital capabilities.

Moving faster through collaboration

The discussion continued with a peer panel featuring Jacob Mehus from Standards Norway, Lukas Keller from SNV, and Peter Maidens from BSI. The panel explored what is working in digital transformation, what remains difficult, and what standards organizations need to do differently.

One of the clearest conclusions was the need for greater speed and agility. Technologies such as AI and quantum computing are progressing faster than traditional standards-development processes. If standardization cannot respond quickly enough, customers and industries may develop alternative solutions through APIs, integrations, or other forms of digital collaboration.

The panel acknowledged that moving faster also requires a different attitude towards progress. Organizations may not have a complete solution from the beginning. However, delivering something useful, learning from customers, and improving it iteratively can be more valuable than waiting for perfection.

Collaboration was identified as essential. A single standards organization cannot compete with the pace and scale of global technology platforms alone. Shared infrastructure, resources, and capabilities can help standards organizations move faster while maintaining trust, authority, and quality.

This is also where Standards Digital’s role becomes particularly important. By supporting the entire standards value chain, from importing and improving existing content to authoring, publishing, distribution, and customer delivery, Standards Digital enables standards organizations to focus more closely on their markets, users, and core standardization responsibilities.

The value of this approach is not limited to technology. It reduces duplicated effort, limits the need for each organization to build the same capabilities independently, and creates a trusted partnership in which customer needs can be translated into scalable digital solutions.

Looking towards 2030

When asked what success could look like by 2030, the panel emphasized three priorities: speed, diversification, and scale.

The industry must become better at delivering the most important functionality quickly instead of waiting until every element is perfect. Revenue models will also need to become less dependent on individual documents and increasingly incorporate subscriptions, licensing, AI-enabled services, data access, APIs, and other digital models.

For Standards Digital, success would mean becoming an even stronger and more innovative partner to the standards community, helping organizations scale, respond to market change, and explore what is possible.

The panel’s advice to standards organizations was clear:

Find a trusted partner.
Accept that transformation will not deliver 100 percent from the beginning.
Learn from industries that have already undergone similar changes.
Speak directly with customers and understand what end users need.
Explain the reasons for change repeatedly and clearly.
Prepare for a future in which traditional document-based revenue models may no longer be sufficient.
Approach the transformation as a shared journey across the standards community.

The risk of standing still is significant. If standards organizations do not respond to changing expectations, customers may find other ways to meet their needs. The opportunity, however, is equally significant: to use trust, authority, content, expertise, and collaboration as the foundation for entirely new forms of value.

Turning conversation into action

The afternoon continued with discussions about Standards Digital’s strategic direction, product developments, and the opportunities created by AI and more connected digital services. Participants were also invited to share their priorities and help shape what Standards Digital develops next.

Following the day’s programme, conversations continued over dinner at the MUNCH restaurant in Oslo.

Day two moved from discussion to practical collaboration. Participants joined workshops addressing three important areas:

Standards development in a SMART world
Selling and distributing standards in a digital economy
The customer of tomorrow

The workshops were designed to generate tangible outcomes and identify how standards organizations can adapt their processes, capabilities, business models, and customer offerings. The programme concluded by bringing the different perspectives back together and considering the next steps for the industry.

And, in keeping with SD Day tradition, the event finished with pizza before participants began their journeys home.

SD Day 2026 confirmed that the standards community shares not only many of the same challenges, but also a strong willingness to solve them together. Technology will continue to change. Regulation, markets, and customer expectations will continue to evolve. But the purpose of standards remains: to create trust, enable interoperability, support safety, and provide a foundation for progress.

The purpose isn’t changing. Everything else is.