Tallinn - GÉANT, the pan European Research and Education Network has conducted its annual conference TN19 during 16-20 June 2019 in Tallinn, Estonia hosted by the Estonian National Research and Education Network (EEnet) of HITSA. This year’s conference title, Forging Digital Societies, was inspired by two main concepts: the idea that computer networks, by supporting human interactions, help to create and forge digital societies is combined with the innovative model of Estonia’s e-residency program.
TNC19’s extensive program came to a wonderful end on Wednesday 19 June, in another record year for TNC. The Closing Plenary featured talks from GÉANT CEO Erik Huizer; and founder and former CEO of the UbuntuNet Alliance Tusu Tusubira. Tusu’s message was a clear one: we need a community-based approach to ensure the success of R&E networks in an accelerating environment of change.
With so many highlights from the week, we can pick just a few here to highlight:
- 805 participants from 70 countries
- 157 speakers in 26 sessions
- 40 side meetings.
- 2491 unique viewers from 24 countries watched the event video streams
- Over 3000 tweets on social media
Yousef Torman represented ASREN in the conference and participated in several activities and meetings with focus on projects of interest to the region particularly AfricaConenct2 and NEAAR Projects. He also discussed with representatives from the European Commission, European NRENs and other regional and international organizations on possibilities and opportunities to support the research and education e-Infrastructures developments in the region together with WACREN and Ubuntunet Alliance. Yousef also witnessed the ceremony for signing the Memorandum of Cooperation between GÉANT and the Saudi Research and Innovation Network (Maeen).
At the end of the conference, Paul Feldman, CEO of Jisc, the NREN of UK, announced that the next year conference TNC20 is going to be in Brighton, UK, from 7-11 June 2020.
