With Converge Bogota just around the bend, the excitement is building. We thought we’d mention the seven reasons it’s worth attending Converge this year.
1. Face time with the best and brightest minds
Besides the people that sit next to us in workshops and the plenary sessions, what motivates us to take the time to go to conferences are the great minds onstage. Each attendee brings their own mix of challenges and ideas, hoping for the speakers to address them or even tangentially spark the idea that leads to a solution. Whether you’re looking for testimonies from organizations on transforming digitally in their industry, or hoping to supplement your already-started transformation with new technologies, we will be answering your questions at Converge. Maybe you’ve heard that the future jobs of today’s schoolkids don’t exist yet, and you’re hoping to measure yourself against the skills and abilities necessary for the digital present and future. That’s important to us, too; important enough to allot a speaker on Acámica to make sure we’ve got it covered. And besides these speakers, we’ve got plenty more lined up.
- Milagro Medrano (Corporate Relations and Customer Service Manager at Banco Macro)
- Alex Torrenegra (CEO of Torre. Co-founder of Emma, Bunny Inc, and Voice123. Investor at Shark Tank Colombia)
- Andrew Stump (Business Manager at Rockwell Automation)
- Maritza Vasquez (Google LATAM Cloud Partner Engineer)
- Tomás Escobar (Co-founder and CEO of Acámica)
- Diego Figueyra (Partner Manager at Amazon Web Services)
- Haldo Sponton (AI Tech Director & Head of AI Internal Initiatives at Globant)
- Nicolas Correnti (Radical Digitalization leader at Citibanamex and Founder of Kaufy)
- Jason Oviedo (Co-founder and CTO at Kiwibot)
- Guibert Englebienne (Co-founder and CTO at Globant)
These thought leaders will help us stay relevant.
2. To get to know new technologies and the kind of culture that will empower your business
Are you familiar with augmented organizations? Are you working for one, do you own one? Do you wish you did? We spend a lot of time thinking about what it means to be an organization that applies Artificial Intelligence (AI) to all aspects of its business, and have done so for a while. At Converge we can expect across the board to hear about amazing new technologies and their potential for taking our businesses where they need to go—whether in workshops, experiences, or plenary sessions. And it’s not just a technology thing, because, as business leaders are increasingly aware, culture is key to unlocking frontiers of innovation as well as greater revenue (see our Sentinel Report for more info). Really, the technology and the culture have to work together to propel our organizations forward in the face of digitalization and augmentation of the world’s leading businesses. At Converge we will be diving into various aspects of this journey.
3. To “go off on a tangent” in the name of innovation
The same thing is true at conferences today as it was in coffee shops during the Enlightenment: innovation occurs when people come together. It’s the way of things. When people bring their disparate backgrounds and experiences together, setting their sights on the same goal, sparks fly. The benefit of events like Converge is that, while the sessions focus on the digital and cognitive reality we’re living, they touch on so many other experiences and concepts along the way. Sure, we’ll hear about the buzzwords— “transformation,” “Machine Learning,” “innovation,” and others—but tied to them we will hear anecdotes that set new thoughts in motion. Your educated guess is as good as mine what we’ll learn from talks like “Moving the Elephant” and “Technology Humanizing Organizations.” Same goes for “Love, Sex and Robots” and “Learning at the Speed of Technology.” But you can bet that, as we’re listening, we come away with unexpected insights because of the combination of the conversations as a whole. It’s about grasping the elements related to your field, but just outside, on the outskirts…and incorporating those to give the solution the twist it needed. Let’s have more of that, please.
4. Experiences with technology
Another thing that makes Converge worthwhile: the contact we’ll have with the technologies in question. This is our chance to interact with the technology itself, not just talk and dream about it. Artificial Intelligence? For sure—come check out Alexa, StarMeUp OS, and Minds. Gaming? Definitely, there are stations lined up with the latest from our Gaming Studio. Robotics? Yep, Kiwibot brings that. We have these experiences with amazing technology to look forward to.
5. The takeaways—especially from workshops
Of course, going to conferences isn’t just about all that takes place the day of. It’s also important to have in mind the takeaways you’ll gain from the experience. With various workshops—engaging material from IoT, Big Data, and DevOps to culture—Converge Bogota will keep us busy. Speakers from Globant and Amazon will delve into their work and experiences to give us insights we can work with in our own spheres. Whether you choose to hear about how Globant approaches DevOps, or to spend time in a hands-on lab implementing containers in a CI/CD pipeline, plan to attend with your thinking caps on.
6. To make connections: expected and unexpected
Let’s be honest. What we look forward to at conferences, in large part, is the people who will get together for the mind-meld. In the case of Converge next week, there are hundreds of us getting together because we’re jazzed about or intrigued by the implications of the digital and cognitive revolution. We’re convening because we have ideas to share, solutions to create, and questions to seek answers to. Whether it’s in the hallway among the different experiences, around the coffee break, in the line for workshops, or heading into the plenary session, Converge’s moments of networking stand the chance to make a difference in all of our digital journeys.
7. See what Colombian entrepreneurs are up to, at home and abroad
Not only will we have in attendance the who’s who of the techie vanguard. We will also have several of Colombia’s own most talented thinkers, ready to contribute insight and experience. For instance, Alex Torrenegra, the boy wonder entrepreneur who successfully took out his first bank loan at age 14 to start his computer-centred business, has a lot to share at Converge. He’s excited about Colombia’s potential to invest in technological innovation alongside its strong entrepreneurial spirit. According to Alex, this is how Colombia will really move forward in earning its global presence. Maritza Vasquez, another Colombian innovator and tech-lover, represents Colombian talent in terms of bringing cloud solutions to Latin America. She’ll represent Google for us in her talk. Jason Oviedo, also native to Colombia, shares the entrepreneurship and belief in technological innovation. This is due to his experience developing a fleet of home delivery robots, which currently scurry around various parts of California bringing food and other essentials to customers.
Take advantage of Converge Bogota
With all this in mind, make sure you save your seat for this conference. Come with your questions, looking for answers. Prepare your expectations and goals for this event before you arrive, in order to make the most of it. Preview our speakers, and read up on them so that you’re prepared. And lastly, come ready to think big and have fun.
