Under the motto Converging Technologies: integration and Independence, will take place from February 7^th to 11^th, the 14^th

- The central theme of the 14th International Convention and Fair Informática 2011 is Converging Technologies: integration and Independence. What is the reason for that?
 
Starting from several years ago, the world is going through a period many people identify with the 3^rd convergence. This refers mainly to the synergy occurring in the interfaces among the science, engineering and other relevant fields, which previously used to be well apart from each other, thus creating new and revolutionary tools.

This technological revolution is developing, primarily, in the disciplines related to the "nano (developments at a nanometric scale) - bio (living organisms at a genetic level) - info (acquisition, management, intelligent processing of large volumes of information from anywhere at any time) - cogno (acquisition, representation and management of knowledge)".

Our event will be focused mainly on everything related to the info-sciences / technologies and their interrelations with other knowledge areas. Therefore, the convergence constitutes the central theme of this edition, from the technological point of view, promoting an analysis from the perspectives of the integration and the independence:  integration, because of the need to promote the scientific, technological and industrial collaboration, and complementariness; and independence from the perspective of the technological development contributing to safeguard each nation?s sovereignty.
 
- How is Informática 2011 structured?  What objectives it has?
 
The 14^th Informática?s edition will include, as it is already usual, a convention and a commercial fair. In the Convention?s case, it is the space promoting the scientific debate, the interchange of experiences and the knowledge transmission about the latest advances of the science and technologies in the telecommunication services, the information technologies, the electronics, the automation and its related scientific and application branches. To that aim it counts on 14 simultaneous scientific events and a group of high level central actions, where the principal invited lecturers will participate, according to the convened and central themes.

On the other side, the Fair promotes the sample of the main products and services from the attending enterprises and entities; likewise, it dedicates a space for commercial presentations and business meetings.

A special space also has the exhibit hall called "Panorama de las TICs en Cuba" (ICTs´Panorama in Cuba), devoted to show the main results of the applied research and the development of the national institutions participating in the selection contest, striving to be present in this main hall.
 
In parallel with the central activities of the Convention and the Fair, a varied socio-cultural program will develop, to which we invite to participate everyone attending Informática.
 
- What novel elements Informática 2011 offers?

The Convention is an event that may be considered as already consolidated because of the more than 20 years of experience elapsed since its first edition in 1988. Therefore, we are before a mature event, with an already existing international community of professionals attending and following up each one of its editions.

The Scientific and Program Committee has a select and well structured composition of national and foreign experts giving prestige to their organization, and work is already taking place about the procedures securing a strict evaluation of the papers to be presented. That is the reason behind this concert of grouped events in the Informática Convention being so attractive for the Cuban, Latin American, Caribbean and in general the World professional community working in research networks, as they count on here with the possibility to make public and defend their thesis and main results.

Shortly, we will announce who will be the principal invited lecturers, all of them of a very high level, which will constitute a special attraction for the participants, because of their novel contributions.  

- What are the main challenges the Organizing Committee has to confront in preparing the event?

In the most recent Informática edition, which took place in 2009, more than 20 000 people attended, including the professional visits to the fairground coming from more than 50 countries.

In the Convention more than 90 keynote speeches and high level panels were presented, 8 from which classified as of central category because of they being transversal themes of high impact.  We were honored to count on prestigious personalities from science, academy, politics and society in general. That shows the prestige and recognition reached by Informática all along these years.

That is why the Organizing Committee confronts a great challenge: achieving an even higher quality and organization level than in the past editions, to tally with the contribution and love the participants offer us through their presence.