International Congress 'Bridging the Digital Gap'

3-5 June 2009, ESI, Bilbao, Spain

EARLY BIRD RATE: Before 8^th May 2009

ESI is pleased to announce the 1st edition
of the International Congress "Bridging the Digital Gap",
which will take place at ESI in Zamudio (Bizkaia)
from 3rd to 5th June 2009 in the framework of the Week@ESI.

Participants

The Congress is a place of congregation and networking for all agents involved in promoting the Information Society, that is to say for those who work to bring technology closer to society as well as those who work to bring citizens and companies closer to technology.

These agents include national, regional and local governments and government agencies as well as intermediary or implementing organisations such as chambers of commerce, associations, clusters, technology centres, technology parks etc…

Our aim is to repeat the international diversity of previous ESI congresses, where speakers and participants of all types, governments, donors, companies and intermediary organisations, came from all over the world, such as for example Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Egypt, France, Ireland, Peru, Spain and others.

Congress Structure

The Congress will take place over a period of three days and is divided into four sessions:

• Defining and implementing Information Society policies
• Panel of Spanish regional government officials
• International Information Society policies
• Initiatives & best practices to promote IT adoption by citizens and social networks
• Initiatives & best practices to promote IT adoption in SMEs from any sector
• Digitalisation of activity sectors: examples of sector-wide initiatives to increase a specific competitiveness through IT adoption: Tourism, Education, Agriculture sectors

The Congress will be held in English and Spanish, with simultaneous translation.

Topics

Some of the topics to be raised and discussed during the Congress include:

• In today’s world, what are the priorities for the Information Society?
• Information Society policies: what works and what doesn’t?
• How to make IT a real tool for inclusion
• Promoting IT in companies: what do SMEs really need?
• Where do I start if I think my region needs to promote the Information Society?