About the TechForum

These talks are an experiment in Social engineering. The intent is to seed a bit of the Silicon Valley culture in Hermosillo, to see if it takes. Of course, in the beginning the seed will need care and nurturing for a while, but in the end, if it doesn't take roots of its own, it will just wither away.

These types of events are a daily happening in Silicon Valley, where engineers share their knowledge with other engineers, freely. It is not uncommon to have a presenter from, say, Yahoo! give a talk to an audience that includes engineers from Google and Microsoft. This is not the case of individuals giving away a company's intellectual property. Instead, this culture of sharing makes the whole community move forward faster, competing and cooperating when it makes sense.

We take our inspiration from SDForum and FoutainBlue and similar organizations in the Valley. These organizations help set the stage for the unbiased dissemination of information. They are organized as SIGs (Special Interest Groups). Each SIG is chaired by one or more individuals who are responsible for the SIG's agenda, lining up speakers, etc.

There are many other organizations in the Valley like SDForum and FountainBlue, although focused in other areas such as a Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship, etc.

The Form

Every month we'll co-sponsor a one-hour talk on a technical subject. Every other month or so we will bring somebody from the Valley to speak about their subject of expertise; the other months, somebody local will be the featured speaker.

Speakers

Speakers could be from academia or from the business side. The only "requirement" is that the speaker be engaging and has something interesting to contribute to the local state of the art.

For now they will be selected in a very non-scientific, non-democratic manner: we will choose the speakers. We hope that in the future, as more people get involved, we'll have 1) more choice of speakers and topics, and 2) more people to help pick which to select to speak.

When?

The talks will take place on the second Monday of every month from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.

Where?

The talks will take place at different locations every month, including the Tec de Monterrey in Hermosillo. and Universidad de Sonora, co-sponsors of the TechForum.

Eventually, we may hold talks in Obregon as well. It all depends on where the community takes this (remember, it is your experiment).

Sponsors

So far, Nearsoft is the founding sponsor of the TechForum; the Tec de Monterrey and University of Sonora are co-sponsors. We are hoping to recruit other sponsors for future events, including other local Universities as well as organizations like TI Sonora, SONOCAP and technology companies in the area.

We hope that in the future these talks will take a life of their own and Nearsoft will fade into the background as "just" a sponsor.

2008 Calendar at a Glance

Suggestions?

If you have suggestions for future topics or would like to volunteer to help with TechForum, please, send an email to techforum@nearsoft.com.