Colombia. The seventh version of Colombia 4.0, the great summit of digital creative industries in the country, closed with record figures. Nearly 62,000 young people and adults participating, both face-to-face and virtually, learned about the new trends in the sector and learned from experts about the potential of creativity and technology.
There were nine tracks in which 302 speakers, including 78 from countries such as the United States, Peru, Spain, Uruguay, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Brazil, England, France, Russia and Mexico, talked about video games, animation, media, web and mobile development, music, entrepreneurship, cybersecurity, advertising and monetization.
The Minister of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), David Luna, pointed out that "spaces like these, in which the participation of international experts is so high, are a sign of trust towards the country and its constant search to make more and more Colombians connect to technology and make the most of it every day. But it also tells us that we are on the right track towards the digital economy."
More than 85,700 people visited the official website of Colombia 4.0. In this way, they followed in detail the programming and the main contents of the programmed tracks. Likewise, through social networks, with more than 15,305 trills with the label #Col40 on Twitter.
The children also had their space in the so-called Kids Zone. There, 300 children approached programming, the development of digital products and ICT solutions, through workshops and dynamics of ideation and co-creation.
On the side of the entrepreneurs, the business roundtable of Colombia 4.0- Softic closed exceeding the expected goal, as there were sales on site for US $ 158,520 thousand and business expectations for US $ 72.4 million dollars. This space brought together 80 international buyers from 24 countries and 160 exporting companies from the IT and Digital Content industry.
The objective of this commercial meeting, which takes place within the framework of the MinTIC agreement with ProColombia, is to support the internationalization of the information technology industry and the national digital creative industries, generate contacts and promote alliances between international buyers and Colombian entrepreneurs.
In entrepreneurship, leaders of 10 outstanding digital companies, accompanied in the Growth and Consolidation phase of Apps.co, presented their business models, achievements and investment proposals to representatives of the funds Axon Parthners, Capitalia, Rockstart Colombia, Ikon Venture Capital and Altered Ventures, at the Business Day. There was generated an investment expectation of more than $ 5,000 million pesos.
Likewise, hackers were also protagonists of Colombia 4.0. After the announcement of the production of the successful Spanish program Mundo Hacker TV in the country, 78 young people, including 12 women, presented themselves to compete. They will fulfill a series of tests after which the great Colombian hacker will be chosen. The program, which will be broadcast by Canal Tr3ce from November 19, seeks to raise awareness about the cyber risks to which we are exposed.
The closing of the summit was with the launch of 'Björk Digital', which was attended by about 300 people to learn about the virtual reality exhibition of the Icelandic artist, in which through an interactive multisensory exercise she takes her music, along with digital technology, to the limit. The 90-minute experience, which is completely free, will be open to the public until October 8.
