Of the 10 editions of Punta Tech, four -including last Sunday's- were rained out. That was no excuse for the hundreds of entrepreneurs, businessmen and executives from the local and regional technological world who gathered on 14 January in a tent set up at the Atchugarry Foundation.
Last year, the networking and conference event, organised by the production company Lucero, focused its talks on cybersecurity. This year's event did not have a central theme but was loaded with innovation, entrepreneurship and technology, as well as the ever-present networking that was the soundtrack to the whole event.
At the tenth anniversary of Punta Tech, there was room for debate and futurology on one of the main trends of today: bitcoins.
The president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Luis Moreno, surprisingly took the stage. Among other things, he said that Latin America "missed the train of the industrial revolution" and that this led to delays in development. "In the next 15 years, 50% of jobs will be automated. The question for all countries is what we do. There is no alternative but to get on board this technological revolution that works exponentially, and the speed of our change has to keep pace with it," he stressed.
For his part, the executive director of Uruguay XXI, Antonio Carámbula, spoke about the conditions of Uruguay as a country to develop big business. Among the reasons he mentioned: trust, technology, talent, benefits and quality of life.
The first of the lectures was given by Zachary Aron, head of Deloitte's Financial and Technology Services, who spoke about four trends in technology that impact all industries: inclusion, self-determination, collaboration and exploration. Aron encouraged innovation with the unknown and unpredictability in mind. "Technology with all its advances will have no control or influence over human creativity and experience," he said.
Among the three keynote speakers was also the US-based Uruguayan and CEO of Algorithmia, Diego Oppenheimer. His company, defined as "a marketplace for algorithms", received a US$ 10.5 million investment fund from Google in June. The Uruguayan highlighted the level of local technology companies: "It is very high and there is a lot of dedication to work". At the same time, he stressed that working with US companies is different from working with companies from any other country, and that Uruguayans have the advantage of understanding this modality more than other countries.
The closing panel was moderated by Technisys CEO Miguel Santos. Koibanx CFO Gabriel Kurman (Argentina) emphasised that you should never invest more in cryptocurrencies than you have invested in knowledge.
"The projects that interest me are those that aim to change the lives of the millions of people who are expected to have access to the internet for the first time in the next two years," he added.
According to Kurman, the financial intermediation margin will tend to disappear and the only segment that is likely to remain profitable for the financial system will be the unbanked, with whom no bank is clear on how to interact.
Source: The Observer
Connect