Open the registration for the 5th International Open Data Conference

IODC Argentina
September 27 2018

The international open data community has an appointment in Buenos Aires on September 27-28, 2018, in the new edition of the International Open Data Conference (IODC). Under the title "The future is open", a participatory event has been launched to address open data challenges and opportunities. The ultimate goal is to promote collaboration among professionals to define a strategy to promote the use of open data both globally and locally.

People interested in attending only have to fill out this online form. Registration is free and the process will be open until the day of the event. Also, journalists wishing to cover the conference can contact contact@opendatacon.org.

An inclusive and innovative agenda

The collaborative atmosphere of the event was reflected on the agenda. Through a global call for proposals, citizens and researchers could include their vision of open data, emphasizing their interests and concerns. The result is an agenda aligned with the needs of the attendees, which includes presentations, discussion panels, discussion groups and dynamic workshops.

The event will begin on the 27th at 9:00 a.m. local time with an official welcome, followed by an opening plenary session, where speakers will share an overview of the current status of open data in the world. Then, there will be a series of parallel sessions where different topics will be addressed:

  • General sessions, focused for example on how to implement an open data policy, and other more specific sessions focused on the influence of open data in specific fields such as agriculture, journalism, Smart cities or the environment.
  • Some sessions will address how open data can help solve some of humanity's current challenges (such as migration and refugee crises, gender issues or climate change).
  • Regional sessions will also be held to provide information on the status of open data initiatives in specific territories such as LATAM, Asia, Western Europe or sub-Saharan Africa, among others.

All sessions that will take place in the main plenary room will be livestreamed. Also, there will be simultaneous translation services available, both for English and Spanish, in all rooms.

A week full of activities

In addition to these sessions, a series of pre-events will be held the prior days. These events are complementary to the program and allow more opportunities to engage and learn about different topics. Some example of these events are:

  • September 24th. Attendees can visit the Open cities Summit, whit the support of Open Data for Development (OD4D). The objective of this event is to create a road map that includes concrete actions to develop an open city to improve the lives of citizens. Through presentations, panels and working groups, solutions will be sought to overcome previously identified challenges.
  • September 26. A day before the IODC start, attendees could enjoy ABRELATAM, an event whose organizers describe as a "no-conference", since it moves away from the traditional format of speaker who introduce a topic to a reactive audience. In this case, there will be multiple simultaneous sessions moderated by a facilitator that will encourage dialogue among small groups of attendees, based on topics gathered from the common agenda (entrepreneurship, security and privacy, algorithms and technology, etc.).

All these events will serve as a prelude to the intense IODC days, full of activities. As in the previous edition, celebrated with great success in the city of Madrid, it is expected that the event will consolidate international relations and encourage concrete actions that will go a step further in the development of open data strategies around the world.