Colleagues briefly out of the Fontys environment
On behalf of Fontys ICT, Ferry Wonders, Koen Suilen, Pieter Dorst, Guido Segers and Sandra Verhoeven (together with a number of Pulsed colleagues) left for the United States. For some of the party, this was attempt 3; due to the pandemic, a number of just-not visits had been planned earlier. So the anticipation is high and, as befits a number of ICT professionals, the preparation is also in good order. Fontys is a large organisation, and stepping out of it is valuable to be able to reflect and gain insight into 'the bigger developments'. SXSW is the ideal place for that.
Spotting trends
So this week, the main objective is to get a picture of what the important developments and trends are in the (incredibly broad) ICT work field and to gain inspiration for work practice. What is striking here is that the various domains are increasingly merging. It is almost impossible to separate Metaverse and Extended Reality from their applications in practice. Applying technology in practice, that is precisely the cutting edge where Fontys ICT often operates in education and research. Thus, there is a lot to experience and see about what the future will bring us.
The South By Experience 2023
With wide eyes, everyone returned from the first sessions at the conference. Pieter Dorst, an avid radio and podcast maker in addition to his role as a lecturer, took advantage of those moments to capture experiences with his microphone. The results of a week full of wonder about SXSW and, of course, the United States itself, can be listened back in the podcast series 'The South By Experience 2023' on Spotify or transistor.fm. Listen to the episodes here (mostly in Dutch).
This podcast is an initiative of Pieter Dorst, with the cooperation of the Travel Companion. Guido Segers wrote out his findings on the big trends in a LinkedIn blog. The group stayed in Austin from 11 to 17 March for the SXSW Festival 2023.