TechIE Conference 2023: Insights On Cybersecurity, Digital Literacy, and Entrepreneurship
Students brought together industry professionals from more than 20 top-tier companies to celebrate the TechIE Conference, one of Europe’s biggest tech gatherings, featuring panels on cybersecurity, entrepreneurship and digital literacy. The two-day conference was organized by TechIE Think Tank, the first technology-focused think tank at IE university, with the aim of developing concrete proposals and actions to promote technological development and advancing towards a society of knowledge.
The first panel was opened by Israel Reyes, Pablo Vera, Nicolás Rodríguez Tolmo, and Julio Sanchez, and focused on cybersecurity. Despite coming from diverse professional backgrounds ranging from Microsoft to Amazon, all speakers agreed that companies are becoming increasingly conscious of cybersecurity. In the words of Tolmo, a senior IT executive, “cybersecurity culture is a must. It’s the only way that we can generate trust in companies.”
Two other panel discussions followed on entrepreneurship. While the first one focused on fintech, the second one dealt with tech entrepreneurship. In that regard, one of the panelists, Miguel Fierro, Principal Data Scientist Manager at Microsoft, warned “Don’t fall in love with technology. Instead, fall in love with the customer problem. One mistake I made is that I didn’t spend enough time asking myself what was the problem that needed to be solved.”
At the end of the first day of the conference, six IE clubs, including IE Robotics Club and IE Coding Club, presented their initiatives to attendees. Students could use Virtual Reality glasses and other technologies focused on the metaverse. As IE University is home to the Metaverse Center, the first global research and innovation center on the metaverse.
The following day, Alberto Levy, co-founder of Cashback, gave the keynote address on Web 3.0. The audience acquired valuable insights into the evolution of the web and the distinguishing features of each developmental stage. In the words of Levy, “web 1 and 2 offer the free flow of information. But Web 3 allows for the free flow of value. So, we move from information revolution to value revolution.”
The discussion that followed centered on digital literacy. The panel included Ikhlaq Sidhu, the dean of IE School of Technology, who said “the amount of build-up of inventions that has been made in recent years, is a lot. And actually, some of that build-up has been leveling off. But, we haven’t used all of what has been made. So, you are going to see all those years of development manifesting into our lives.” Other panelists focused on the importance of ensuring that all the tools that we have access are beneficial and transparent.
The final talk brought ideas that lived up to its title: “disruptive mindset.” The speaker, Seni Kamara, founder of Kamara Tech, understood that “data is the new oil” and got into digital. He shared insights, concerns and suggestions to deal and benefit from the digitalization of our world. In brief, “a disruptive mindset is what you need to embrace the change,”concluded Kamara.
At the end of the conference, an opportunity was provided for the attendees to network during the cocktail hour. Joana Camargo, a Data and Business Analytics student at IE, and part of TechIE Think Tank shared her opinion on the event:
“TechIE has been such an amazing experience inside and out from contacting speakers and starting to brainstorm ideas for the conference itself. This year more than ever we pushed boundaries further into the technological world. We were reminded that human literacy can be just as important as digital literacy, that cybersecurity is important at every level and type of company.”