HISTELCON 2010, the second Region 8 Conference on the History of Electrotechnology was held in Madrid, Spain on 3-5 November 2010, with the theme of “A Century of Broadcasting”.
The Conference, organized by the IEEE Spain Section in cooperation with the Spanish Society on History of Science and Technology had a strong support of “Telefonica”, the Spanish Communications Company and collaboration of many technical and Media partners.
Out of 85 technical papers received, 60 papers were presented during 12 Sessions to an attendance of 120 participants, preceded by greetings by Region 8 Director Josef Modelski and by a keynote lecture on “The Origins of Radio Broadcasting” by Dr. Tapan K. Sarkar and finalized by the launching 0f HISTELCON 2012. All were held at the prestigious Auditorium Room provided by Telefonica.
The presentations covered Broadcasting activities in Italy, Cuba, Turkey, Israel, Brazil, Africa, Cyprus, US, UK, Thailand , Russia, Croatia, Portugal. Siberia, Japan, as well as developments inside Spain. Special sessions dealt with Pioneers of Electro-Technology and with Stellar Moments in the History of Broadcasting.
The Conference attendees were received and greeted by the Deputy Mayor of the City of Madrid, Ms Ana Botella Serrano and visited the Spanish Institute of Radio and Television, to learn about the Digitalization Process of Audio and Video Archives.
Conference Chair, Olga Pérez Sanjuán, of AEIT, Spain and Technical Program Chair, Antonio Pérez Yuste, of UPM, Spain, set up an excellent program, including the Welcome Cocktail Reception at Madrid’s Old City Hall, the Gala Dinner at the Real Gran Pena Restaurant and terminated by a Guided tour through the charming streets and plazas of Madrid Old Town.
All participants felt the excellent athmosphere that reigned during the three days of the Conference and many friendships and professional cooperations resulted from this event.
HISTELCON 2010 set a very high standard towards HISTELCON 2012, to be held in Pavia, Italy in September 2012.
By Jacob Baal-Schem
Region 8 LM & History activities coordinator