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My Recap of the Trinidad and Tobago Internet Governance Forum 2022

This morning, I got my 2 doubles with slight, so I had enough energy to watch the stream. Since 2018 (for 5 years) I have watched every TTIGF session. In previous years the event was in person and streamed. Last year and this year the event is solely online due to the ongoing pandemic. I will be tweeting my takeaways using the hashtags #ttigf and #ttigf2022. The theme for this year's event was, "The future of the internet ... what's next?" The event is well organised and offers relevant and thoughtful topics for discussions. This keeps me coming back every year. Not only that, but I am a local tech blogger and I need to keep up with these happenings.

I looked at this years (2022) topics and description that came up on the registration link. A few thoughts came to my mind as follows. We need to engender more tech learning and more use of tech to solve our problems. I think ISPs should be mandated to offer a budget 5 Mbps package as a digital inclusion strategy. I am all for a free and open internet. There is a role for tech bloggers in our digital transformation push.

I was glad to see that Minister Hassel Bacchus was a speaker. Our country is really depending on positive outcomes from the Ministry of Digital Transformation. He talked about the benefits of work from home, embracing game changing disruptions, digital transformation, developer's hub, collaboration and resilient infrastructure. The event had a list of learned panelists who gave useful insights and had me attentive and thoughtful.

The following are some of the points made that stood out to me and that I took away. Digital competency training lacking in the mainstream curriculum and at the early stages and curriculum reform is needed. A cultural shift is needed together with infrastructure development. Ideally we are looking for publicly available and current data. There is a need for real-time and continuous data collection. Laws need to keep up with the changing and new technologies. What is digital transformation and what are we trying to solve? Digital transformation is more than technology, it is systems, processes and people.

If you missed this year's event I invite you to watch the recorded stream on youtube. Also the igf.tt website usually has an event report and recap. Follow TTMAG and TTIGF online to know when the next event happens. Some time before the event there is a call for topics and panelists. Share my blog post with your contacts so that we can continue the discussions and make next year's event the most attended event.

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