INTAL to celebrate its 50th anniversary analyzing the impact of new technologies on regional trade and integration.

***The event will be live-streamed online at: www.iadb.org/intal/50/streaming/

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – The technological revolution is changing the way we produce and trade, and new forms of integrating our nations are emerging. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its creation, the Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL), a unit of the Inter-American Bank (IDB), has organized a conference on Oct. 7 to re-imagine the future of the region.

The potential for transformation offered by disruptive technologies is amazing: they create markets where before there was nothing. It has happened with the automobile, with the Internet and with mobile telephony, and it will continue to happen. The potential of biotechnology, digital manufacturing, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and Big Data, among other new technologies, continue to surprise us every day. At the same time, these technologies present new challenges on employment, social inclusion, and environmental protection.

Panelists will analyze a series of questions: How can public policies encourage innovation? How can we increase our exports and incorporate SMEs into global value chains? How can the rules of the multilateral trade system be updated to suit new technologies? How will new technologies impact the daily lives of people in Latin America and the Caribbean? How should we modernize education in order to prepare new generations for the labor market of the future?

The following speakers have confirmed their participation:

Raymond McCauley, from Singularity University. Founder of BioCurious, a Silicon Valley biotechnology lab focused on innovation.

Carl Frey, from Oxford University. Director of the Programme on Technology and Employment at the Oxford Martin School.

Jean Paul Fitoussi, from the Paris Institute of Political Studies, who jointly with Nobel Prize winners Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz, headed the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Development and Social Progress.

Santiago Bilinkis, founding partner of Quasar Ventures, and author of the best-seller Pasaje al Futuro.

Martin Migoya, CEO at Globant, a leading company in the Latin American innovation software market.

Gustavo Grobocopatel, chairman of Los Grobo Group, Argentina’s main soy exporter.

Facundo Manes, rector of the Favaloro University, neuroscientist, and author of the best-seller Usar el Cerebro.

Raúl Sendic, Vice-President of Uruguay and former president of ANCAP, the state oil company.

Enrique Iglesias, former IDB president and former Ibero-American Secretary General.

Lino Barañao, Minister of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation from Argentina.

During the event, the winner of the INTAL D-TEC competition will be announced: There are five finalists, regional startups with a potential for transformation that have been selected from 144 candidates proposed by 16 countries.

In addition, INTAL-LAB, a space for the co-creation of innovating ideas on integration and trade, will be presented at the event, among other activities of interest to academia, technologists, students, government officials and business executives.

WHAT: INTAL 50 YEARS. Reimagining Regional Integration in the Era of Disruptive Technologies

WHEN: October 7, 2015, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

WHERE: Buenos Aires Auditorium, Av. Pueyrredón 2501, 2 floor, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Admission is free and open to the public. Prior registration at www.iadb.org/intal/50 is required.