The success of Cuti Business Forum invites to hold a second edition

From the beginning of the day one element caught everyone's eye, the turnout marked by almost a block of people at the opening of the event.

In order to accommodate this audience, the CBF was held in the entire extension of the new LATU events center. Thus having three stages, Stage Cuti 30 years, Stage Antel and the main stage Stage CodigoDelSur. Four side areas where 30 workshops were held, a booth area and a central booth area to get closer to local IT companies. All this in a single day of 10 hours.

The opening of the event was in the hands of Ryan Williams (Executive Coach of Sales Collider), who was one of the five keynotes that participated in the CBF along with Federico Rosenhain (SAP), Noah Mamet (former US Ambassador to Argentina), Juan Pablo Mongini (CISCO) and Mike Hennessey (co-founder of PuenteLabs). After the opening, Christian Font, facilitator of the main stage, called Federico Garcia (Cuti Global Markets) who presented Ryan with a Micro:Bit plaque belonging to the project promoted by the Ceibal Plan. This act, which was repeated with all the international speakers, shows the search of our country to bring young people closer to programming and computational thinking.

Those who attended the CBF had the opportunity to connect with Antel, Bantotal, Bakertilly, CodigoDelSur, US Embassy, HSBC, Idatha, Invenzis, Light-it, LoopStudio, Mordezki & Asociados, MVD Consulting, Onetree, Overactive, Perceptiva, Pyxis, Quanam, Rootstrap, SAP and Segalerba & Asociados who were partners of the event. They could also enjoy coffee tastings by Starbucks, fruit variety by GoodLife and pop by Life Cinema.

Mike Hennessey was in charge of closing the CBF, which continued with a happy hour sponsored by Hard Rock Café.

Gabriel Rozman first Cuti Honorary Member

The CBF was the perfect setting for the recognition as Honorary Member to Mr. Gabriel Rozman, Co-Founder and Director of Tokai Ventures and entrepreneur of great trajectory in the country. "The Board of the Chamber considers very valuable his contribution to the industry and his great work as an ambassador of the country, so that good things happen in Uruguay," said Leonardo Loureiro, president of Cuti.

"This first edition of the CBF undoubtedly marked a milestone in our industry and we will redouble our efforts to continue strengthening the way to position the Uruguayan IT industry globally and potential customers and global business partners to visit us and learn first-hand what Uruguay has to offer in terms of software and related services. Andrea Mendaro, General Manager of Cuti.

Much more than a lecture

Within the framework of the Cuti Business Forum, parallel activities took place on November 4th and 6th, thus celebrating the first edition of the "CBF Summit". Ten technology startups had the opportunity to make a 3-minute pitch (presentation) in the "CBF StartUp Tuneup" to a panel composed of Ryan Williams (Sales Collider), Rafael Pinto (Latam Startups) and Mike Hennessey (Puente Labs), who, from their experience and knowledge, gave each participant feedback and advice to enhance their venture. The day after the conference, Cuti's partner companies participated in individual meetings with André Leal (Select USA), Mariana Falkenburger (Enterprise Florida) and Tony Duckett (xiBOSS). These meetings allowed local entrepreneurs to exchange ideas with foreign experts on ways to further develop the link of our industry with the U.S. market, the main objective of Cuti Business Forum.

Learning from the experts

But not only the businessmen and IT entrepreneurs had the opportunity to learn from the referents who participated in the CBF but, as a bet to the integral development of the industry, more than 100 students of the b_IT Program (technology training program promoted by Cuti and INEFOP) and 200 students of the IT Technology and IT Degree of UTEC were present, enhancing their training through the link with the companies and exchanging and learning with the most experts of the industry.

Reflections from the experts:

After the CBF expert Ryan Williams concluded: "IT infrastructure is no longer just about technology, it's also about people. This includes those who maintain the systems and those who connect at a macro level with the larger IT community. Cuti Business Forum is an exceptional way for people in the Uruguayan IT community to connect and support each other, as the entire community benefits from continued development on the shoulders of an already outstanding IT workforce in Uruguay."

Undoubtedly the CBF contributed a lot of value that is difficult to quantify; contacts, knowledge, information, links, advice, vision... this forum is only a part of all the work that Cuti has been doing together with other institutions to strengthen the industry and position it globally.