Who would have imagined in 1961, when they attended the first FITCE (Federation of European Telecommunications Engineers) Congress, that delegates would be celebrating the 50th of these annual events in Palermo Sicily in September 2011! As ever, the Congress was held in a spectacular location - the University of Palermo (Steri Palace), resplendent in its Romanesque architecture of open cloistered courtyards. The technical programme contained a mix of strategic papers addressing the economics of widespread deployment of super-high speed optical fibre networks, on the one hand, and deep theoretical treatments of various technical issues on the other. However, true to the tradition of FITCE, there were many valuable keynote presentations given by senior representatives of the host nation's government and leading network operators. All this was nicely enveloped by a stimulating partners' programme of visits and the highly enjoyable social programme for delegates, partners and conference guests - including some spectacular dancing to traditional Sicilian music at the 50th anniversary celebration at the Palazzo dei Normanni.
There were three UK contributors to the Congress. Anthony Oodan (Quality consultant) and Ed Smith (of BT) both gave technical presentations on different aspects of network quality and its assessment, which were well received. There was also a lively Round Table discussion on Europe's approach to the 'Digital Divide' among the panel of seven senior industry players, including our very own industry guru, Millie Banerjee. The discussion considered the need for and the extent of intervention to ensure that all sections of society across Europe had a fair opportunity to enjoy the benefits of high speed broadband access.
It is a pity that more people from our FITCE UK group do not take advantage of these annual congresses - each of which offers a high quality technical programme at a low price with an enjoyable social programme and is invariably set in wonderful locations all over Europe.
Next year the Congress is being held in Poznan, Poland from 5th -8th September 2012. ITP is the UK member of FITCE and any ITP member can attend the Congress at member discounted rates. Joining the FITCE group of the ITP only costs a small premium over the ITP membership fee.
One of the prime objectives of FITCE is to encourage young ICT professionals to write and present learned papers (and an increasing number of papers presented at recent congresses have come from non-engineers). So look out for further news about next year's Congress on the ITP website.
(For more information about FITCE see www.fitce.org)
Andy Valdar
a.valdar@ee.ucl.ac.uk
