On the 20th of March 2013, CLUJ IT CLUSTER launched its 1st broader public event: “Cluj IT Innovation Days”. During two days – 20 and 21 March 2013 – the event has brought together private and public entities from the IT sector and other industries to express the need of a common agenda and present the main projects of the association. By 2017, CLUJ IT aims to become one of the most credible suppliers from Eastern Europe for Innovative IT services and products as well as organizational support systems.
As a founder member of CLUJ IT, Codespring has attended the event along with delegates and representatives of other fellow member companies.
CLUJ IT is a cluster association of organizations active in the information technology field, including: 23 IT companies, 2 universities and their research departments, 7 public institutions and other catalyst organizations. CLUJ IT has a strong Strategic Council as well as the support of the Romanian Government and the local authorities, which acknowledged CLUJ IT as an initiative of national importance. CLUJ IT focuses on fostering innovation, creating a partnership culture, promoting Romanian IT and forging a strong public-private partnership.
On the occasion of the “CLUJ IT innovation days” a total of 30 speakers have held about 22 presentations and workshops. The opening ceremony started Thursday at 16:20 p.m. in the Ballroom Hall of City Plaza Hotel with the welcoming address held by Mr. Alexandru Tulai, President of the Directors’ Council, CLUJ IT Cluster. Just after his keynote speech, Mr. Horia Uioreanu has presented the salutations and the support of the Cluj County Council for this initiative. Cluj-Napoca City Council has also addressed its message on behalf of the local community, followed by a message of the Romanian Government. On behalf of the US Embassy in Romania, Mr. James Cunningham, Regional Senior Commercial Officer, South East Europe has addressed encouraging words and highlighted the need for better and smarter cooperation between the two countries and the more specific communities. In the end, Mr. Lucian Isar has presented the message of the Strategic Council of CLUJ IT Cluster, while Mr. Florin Pogonaru has carried the message of the Romanian Businessmen Association.
In the same first conference day, Mr. Jean-Michel Corrieu, Director of Business Solution Center, IBM Research Lab, La Gaude, France has introduced the audience to the IBM Research Lab. As a star-topic of the event, arch. Rares Dragan has revealed to the public the concept of Cluj Innovation City. Next, a series of messages on behalf on international delegates have been delivered. The opening ceremony was followed by a business dinner and cocktail oferred by Nextebank- sponsor and partner of the event.
On the 21st of March 2013, the event continued on two separate themes: “IT Community – Business” (hosted by City Plaza Conference facilities) and “IT Community- Technology” (hosted by UTCN – the technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Rooms P03 (Baritiu 26-28) and B2 (Baritiu 25).
On the IT Community – Business side, a keynote on the Technology Transfer in IT has been delivered by Mr. Lee Smith and Alin Farcas from NextPhase. The parallel workshops covered interesting topics: “Attracting Venture Capital to Support Innovative Software Projects: What Would Business Angels Ask?” – Prof. Dr. Ec. Dr. Eng. Stelian Brad, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca; “Propelling Romanian IT Industry through Innovation and Creativity“ – Dr. Sebastian Vaduva, MBA, Griffiths School of Management; “Future and Emerging Technologies” – Prof. Dr. Eng. Sergiu Nedevschi, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca; “Creativity Challenge: How to Unlock Your Potential” – Magnoliu Stan, Smart Training; “Dependable Systems” – Prof.Dr. Eng. Liviu Miclea, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca and “Psychology and Technology: Implications for Virtual Reality and Robot-Based Psychotherapy” – prof. dr. Daniel David, Babes-Bolyai University.
The IT Community – Technology workshops brought to the attention a set of comprehensive topics: IBM PureSystems – the new revolutionary integrated expert system generation – focus on PureData for Analytics (Sorin Serb, IBM Romania); Application ecosystems (Petru Jucovschi, Microsoft Romania); Agile thoughts through some real life case studies (Arpad Zsolt Bodo, SprintConsulting); Why you should believe in Cloud? (Radu Vunvulea, IQuest); Big Data & Cloud (Val Bercovici, NetApp, SunyVale/California/USA); Trends in Mobile Computing (G. T. Haber/Founder and Chairman , Cresta Tech/USA); Career and Survival Strategies for Software Developers (Romulus Crisan, Endava Romania ); Future of Communications (Dan Gavojdea, CISCO); Distributed scrum teams: what to tweak to make “long-distance” work? (Paul Chis, Small Footprint), Quality Assurance in IT – Attitude is Everything (Oana Oros, Fortech).
The event was a success and it is intended to be an annual regional event having as purpose the development of business relations with international partners and to strengthen the local IT community.
Codespring will continue to be actively involved in such initiatives and to cooperate for the growth of the Cluj-Napoca IT community.
