There were only three days, but if we consider the amount of good lectures and presentations, as well as the quality of the programme, TICAL2015, the Conference of ICT directors of the Latin American universities could go on much longer.
The event, the only led to its audience in the region, was held in the Hotel, Casino & Event Center Enjoy, in the city of Viña del Mar, Chile, between July 6 and 8 of 2015, and brought together around 300 participants from Latin America, North America and Europe. In constant and fruitful discussion were the paths for the development of the Information and Communication Technologies in the higher education institutions of the region, from themes such as management, education, infrastructure, governance and security.
The conference programme included the presentation of 44 works, presentations of companies of the sector, discussion groups and five plenary sessions that gathered the participants in the main hall of Enjoy. The plenary sessions were conducted by the five international speakers invited to this fifth edition of TICAL.
From Mexico came the Msc. Manuel Moreno Castañeda, rector of the Virtual University System of the University of Guadalajara; from Colombia, Andrés Holguín Coral, Coordinator for Technological Research and Innovation and Information Security at the University of Los Andes; from Europe, the german Hans Pongratz, Senior Vice President of Systems and IT Services of the Technical University of Munich, and the Portuguese Eloy Rodrigues, director of Documentation Services of the University of Minho; finally, from the US came Susan Grajek, Vice President for Data, Research and Analysis of EDUCAUSE.
For Castañeda, in addition to the programme and the discussions on ICT, the Conference was special for another reason. "The people. I met people that are very motivated and enthusiastic to advance in the field of technologies and determined to make them help us to have a better life. For me it was a great pleasure to participate in TICAL2015", celebrated.
On the first day of the meeting, there was another important moment for the Conference: Microsoft merger announcement the framework of business RedCLARA members. The accession aims to contribute to transform and provide the youth of Latin America and the Caribbean a better education with technology and new opportunities for learning, and strengthen research in different sectors of the region.
According to Marcela Larenas, manager of the TICAL Conference, the agreement with Microsoft extends the possibilities of collaboration between the institutions. "Microsoft has always been partner of TICAL and establish a formal agreement with RedCLARA open opportunities for universities to build bridges between the companies and the university communities. We are pleased to announce it. "
About the Conference, Larenas said that are many things to celebrate. "The presentations had an excellent level; we launched the first book on ICT strategies and university policies; we had the presentation of interinstitutional collaborative projects and the Board of Rectors, who helped us to establish a bridge between the authorities of the universities and the directors of technology in our region. In 2015, the Conference reached its fifth edition and I know that there are areas to develop. However, I see that we are reaching maturity and this is very important in our journey to serve the ICT community in Latin America. "
The closing of the Conference took place on July 8, in the morning, with the Rectors Board. The latin american universities were represented by Daniel Ricardo Pizzi, from the National University of Cuyo (Argentina); Darcy Fuenzalida O'Shee, from the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (Chile); Patricio Sanhueza, from the Universidad of Playa Ancha (Chile) and the Msc. Manuel Moreno, rector of the Virtual University System of the University of Guadalajara.
The discussion board, as well as the major sessions of the Conference, was broadcasted live thanks to the support of the National University Network of Chile, REUNA.
All the presentations, videos and many other information about what was TICAL2015 will be available on the website of the Conference (http://tical2015.redclara.net)
The fifth version of the Conference of ICT Directors of the latin american universities, TICAL2015, was an accomplishment of RedCLARA, in partnership with REUNA and Edutic, and the sponsorship of Alcatel-Lucent, Adobe, Datco Group, OSI, Blackboard, Cognos Online, Lacnic's, Cisco, Interside, Crestron, Wolfram, Citavi, Brocade, Internet Society, Redhat, Hewlett Packard, AVNET, Ruckus, Paloalto Networks, Google, Fujitsu, Microsoft, El Mercurio of Valparaíso and Wacom.
