To celebrate its 60th Anniversary, IFIP is collaborating with its Member Societies, Technical Committees, Working Groups and Partner organisations to stage a series of events around the world.
The events, which range from one-hour workshops to multi-day conferences, will be held under the banner of “Unimagined Futures”, which is also the title of IFIP’s 60th Anniversary publication. At this stage, more than 20 events virtual and in person/blended have been proposed, with most due to occur between June and November this year.
IFIP President Mike Hinchey said the 60thAnniversary is the perfect opportunity for IFIP to step up and be noticed.
“Over the past 60 years, IFIP has been actively working to advance developments in technology, encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing across the sector, and to raise professional standards.
“These 60th Anniversary events will allow IFIP to be more visible and start telling the world more about what we’ve been doing They will showcase the work of IFIP and its various member groups and promote their ongoing relevance, roles and contributions to international bodies like UNESCO, ITU, the UN, governments and society,” he said.
The event calendar will also include the IFIP 60th Anniversary Future of Information Processing Series of 10 online panel discussions held on a bi-weekly basis starting in Q3 and featuring IFIP experts from around the globe. Each will showcase the diversity and topicality of IFIP’s work, discussing current questions and challenges with input from key stakeholders representing industry, academia, policy and other international organisations.
IFIP is inviting formal Expressions of Interest for these sessions, which will need to be submitted by the 24th of May 2021. Since this series will be supported by the German Informatics Society (GI), please contact Elisabeth Schauermann (elisabeth.schauermann@gi.de) with any questions or suggestions.
The first event on the schedule has already occurred – a panel discussion on Building Cyber Resilience with a Professional Workforce, staged by IFIP IP3 as part of the WSIS Forum Cybersecurity track (see separate article).
All the events will be widely promoted in IFIP publications and platforms as well as on social media.
A special committee, led by IFIP Vice President Anthony Wong, has been established to manage and coordinate this important initiative. The committee also comprises Erich Neuhold, (MSA Chair), Jacques Sakarovitch, (French representative), Michael Grant and Alastair Irons (standing in for BCS President John Higgins), Leon Strous (IFIP Past President), Philippe Palanque, (TA Chair), Vicki Hanson, (ACM CEO, ACM Past President) and IFIP General Secretary, Eduard Dundler.
Stay tuned for more information as additional details become available.
