Colombia’s Top National Priorities with a Commitment to Train Over 10,000 Colombians in Cyber Security Skills in First Year

Cisco and Colombian President Ivan Duque Marquez today announced joint efforts  to fund and develop secure digital solutions addressing key social and economic goals in Colombia through the Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program. These efforts will focus on supporting several priorities from Colombia’s National Development Plan that advance citizens’ quality of life, create jobs and workforce education, and enhance global economic competitiveness. 

“Working with government, industry, and academia in Colombia, Cisco’s CDA program aims to help redefine healthcare and education, create digital age jobs and enable Colombia to be a leader in Latin America in the new digital economy,” said Michael Timmeny, SVP & Chief Government Strategy Officer, Cisco.

CDA Colombia will drive projects with the goal to advance citizens’ quality of life, create jobs and workforce education, and enhance global economic competitiveness. Together with government leaders, entrepreneurs, academics, ecosystem partners and technology companies, Cisco will address the following areas:

• Innovation in Education, Health and Digital Government: CDA Colombia will focus on co-innovation with key institutions in these areas of national interest. 
• Cyber Security:Partnering with the National Government and the Organization of American States (OAS), Cisco intends to establish a Cybersecurity Innovation Council in Colombia and is already building cyber security skills through foundational, advanced networking, and IoT trainings. This initiative will be part of a broader partnership with the OAS that seeks to strengthen cybersecurity capacities in Colombia.
• Enhancing Entrepreneurship and Digital Skills:Cisco will expand its Networking Academy program to include partners such as Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA), focusing on fostering technology entrepreneurship, networking, and developer skills for all Colombians.  

About CDA

Cisco developed the concept of Country Digital Acceleration to stimulate global digitization. Cisco is collaborating with governments in selected countries to strengthen digital research and education, stimulate digital entrepreneurship, accelerate innovation, develop new economic clusters and improve national infrastructure. Each CDA programme has been developed to meet the needs of the respective country. So far, more than 300 projects have been launched on smarter transport, smart cities, eHealth, cybersecurity and connected education

Off to New Orleans for Cisco Marketing Velocity 2019

We are off to New Orleans this week for our 2019 Cisco Marketing Velocity event, and I could not be more excited to interact with our amazing Cisco Partners in such a hospitable, vibrant locale.  NOLA is a place that personifies the resilience and innovation it takes to make a city grow and thrive.

One great example of that kind of innovation in the Crescent City is around public safety.  Cisco is proud to have partnered with the City of New Orleans in the development of their Real Time Crime Center – a transformative technology solution that elevates the city’s ability to keep its citizens and its millions of visitors safer.  Check out the video to learn more about this project with the city.

The video, for me, also demonstrates a real-life example of a concept that we, at Cisco, have been stressing to our Partners quite a bit since our annual Partner Summit last fall. The concept of “Perform & Transform” has been a key theme, and it’s at the core of our Marketing Velocity event this year as well.

Our host city really does show us what this looks like in real-life with the creation of the Real Time Crime Center.  Here, a storied city so deep in history and rich in tradition is using cutting edge technology to transform itself into a ‘city of the future’ in some important respects – while retaining all the charm and style that has made it a place that people have wanted to visit for, literally, centuries.

For over a decade, Cisco has delivered Marketing Velocity as a program specifically dedicated to educating and inspiring Marketers in our Partner ecosystem to Perform & Transform within their discipline.  This year, we will underline that point with a lineup of great speakers, workshops and seminars all designed to deliver practical, applicable knowledge. At the same time, inspiring our guests to build on what already makes their companies great and be agents of positive transformation within them.

Our goal for Marketing Velocity 2019 is to collaborate with our Partners’ marketing leaders as we seek to perform and also transform our businesses.  This is incredibly challenging stuff, but my years working with Partners has taught me a clear lesson that we are so much stronger when we encounter these opportunities together.  I’m looking forward to doing just that this week at Velocity.