:

XXII Round Table Conference KOS "Poland on the way to the information society" under this year's leading slogan:

"Accelerating the digital transformation in challenging times"

Warsaw, May 17, 2021.

 

Organizer:

Association of Polish Electrical Engineers (SEP)

 

Date and venue of the Conference

 

 

The conference will be held on Monday, May 17, 2021, starting at 10:00 am in the remote formula, as in 2020. It is planned to use the Zoom teleconference platform - a seminar version with an option to join the meeting for up to 500 participants.

It is expected that the Conference will be recorded and made available also off-line on the SEP platform and on the platforms of cooperating units.

 

SUMMARY

 

World Information and Information Society Day is celebrated annually on May 17. This date falls on the anniversary of the founding of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on May 17, 1865, when the first International Telegraphic Convention was signed in Paris. In 1973, this event was officially launched at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Malaga-Torremolinos, Spain. This year is therefore the 52nd anniversary of the World Telecommunications Day, which has been uninterruptedly organized since 1969, extended several years ago and is now celebrated as World Telecommunications and Information Society Day (WTISD).

 

Each year, a current theme (slogan) for the celebration is selected, and the accompanying events are held all over the world. In Poland, the WTISD celebration has been organized by the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers (SEP) for over a quarter of a century. Within their framework, since 2000, the Round Table Conference (KOS) has been organized annually - under the general title "Poland on the way to the Information Society". This title is supplemented every year with a detailed entry, often referring to the WTISD entry, established for a given year by the ITU. Traditionally, for many years this event was held in the Column Hall of the House of Parliament of the Republic of Poland. In 2018, due to the long-lasting protest of disabled people and their guardians taking place in the Parliament, KOS was necessarily - at the last minute, transferred to the Warsaw House of Technology NOT. In 2019, after another refusal by the administration of the Parliament, the 20th Jubilee KOS conference was organized on May 17, 2019 by the SEP and the University of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński (UKSW). The assembly hall “Robert Schuman” at the UKSW was chosen for conference venue. The honorary patronage over the conference was taken by the Ministry of Digital Affairs. In turn, in 2020, two months after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference took place entirely in virtual space on the Zoom online platform. In this way, SEP was among the few organizations that quickly responded to the challenge of the present day, and was able to find a formula in difficult conditions that would allow for the effective continuation of its activities.

 

Objectives of the XXII Round Table Conference KOS

 

The main objectives of the Round Table Conference are following:

 

• Increasing the interest of decision-making and opinion-forming circles in important issues in the area of information society, of great importance for the development of Poland in the present and coming years, and initiating discussions in this regard;
• Discussing the problems of key importance for Poland related to the development of the information society in terms of the personal perspective;
• Broad sharing of KOS conference materials and results using available media, so that they can serve many communities interested in this subject;
• Initiation of thematic programs of SEP Internet TV or, jointly with other units in this fields, undertaking a media initiative in the field of specialized Internet TV.