Colombia. On October 5, 6 and 7, Barranquilla became the venue for the eleventh edition of Colombia 4.0, an event that concluded successfully thanks to the participation of 28,611 people virtually and 2,146 face-to-face attendees.
This massive attendance was achieved thanks to the participation of 211 speakers, from 19 countries. Of these, 81 attended in person, while the other 130 were part of the event with virtual talks. In total, 81 women and 130 men were counted in the 128 sessions that were seen in this edition of Colombia 4.0.
With a total of 33,477 registered, this space was also the home of the CIO Summit, which brought together the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the different national and territorial entities of La Guajira, Atlántico, Bolívar, Magdalena, San Andrés and Guaviare. Colombia 4.0 also opened the doors to Radiofest, the most important event for community radios in the country, and to fedesoft's Softic business roundtable.
"It fills us with pride and satisfaction to have made the first hybrid edition of Colombia 4.0 in Barranquilla, with the best guests in fields such as animation, video games, industries 4.0, entrepreneurship, fintech, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, music and advertising and media. This year we were #MásDigitalesQueNunca," said the deputy director of IT Industry of the Ministry of ICT, María Fernanda Correa.
Moments of the day in Barranquilla
The first day began with the manager of public policies of WhatsApp for the region, Paloma Szerman, who announced how governments have used this tool to give continuity to some of their contacts with people in the midst of the pandemic, and to provide clear and concise information in times of uncertainty.
Later, Rafael Ojeda, general manager of Riot Games in Latin America, was on the video game track to tell how the Game League of Legends, which connects up to 8 million people daily, gave rise to an animated series on Netflix.
Likewise, in the first space of the animation track of Colombia 4.0, the face-to-face and virtual attendees learned about the production and exhibition process of the Boyaca animation film, 'Tundama'. The production was made in Muisca, in order to rescue one of the first languages that was spoken in the Territory of Cundiboyacense.
On the second day, that is, October 6, in the panel "Women in Animation", the guests, who were directors, creatives, illustrators and designers spoke about the opportunities that are opening up for women in the industry, thanks to the fact that the public is demanding that films have a more inclusive look.
In turn, Bogota businessman and investor Alex Torrenegra said that it is time for enterprises to figure out how to rebuild parts of society. In this sense, he delved into remote work, which was all the rage in times when human physical contact had to be reduced.
During the third day of the event, a conversation was held between Ximena Duque, president of Fedesoft, and Iván Castaño, director of Ruta N, who evaluated the panorama of industries 4.0 in the country. Among the opportunities that these industries have, both agreed that the market understood that it is time to transform their businesses towards digital. Castano urged industries 4.0 to take advantage of this moment, since, he said, today many businesses can be done without territoriality being a limit.
On this day there was also a panel in which some of the most influential content creators in the country gave their best advice for those people who are starting out in social networks and want to succeed in the digital world.
A new invitation
For this year, the investment that was made in Colombia 4.0 was 3,677 million pesos. The appointment with the creators of digital content and creative industries IT continues this November 10 in Ocaña, in a face-to-face event in which the north of Santander, and in general all interested people, can continue enjoying the best of Colombia 4.0.
"This will be the appropriate space to continue knowing the global advances in this industry and to make known to the world the great creative potential of Colombians, based on the infinite possibilities offered by digital platforms," Correa concluded.
