Kenya Wins Bid to Host the 6th International Open Data Conference in 2020

Kenya has won the bid to hold the bi-annual International Open Data Conference (IODC), which is the first time for an African country.

This announcement was made during the closing ceremony of the 5th International Open Data Conference which was held in Buenos Aires in Argentina from September 27th to 28th of this year. The theme for this year’s conference was The Future is Open and was organized by the World Bank, Government of Argentina, International Development Research Centre, Open Data for Development, Google and among others.

Kenya won the bid to host the 6th iteration of this conference in Nairobi, which is scheduled in 2020. The theme for the Nairobi hosted conference will be Bridging Data Communities. The 2020 conference is expected to bring over 3000 participants to the capital city from over 1000 countries as well as 50 international tech companies are expected to participate in the event.

“The President and I are committed to the creation of an inclusive data ecosystem involving the government, the private sector, academia, civil society, local communities and development partners that tackles the information aspects of development decision making,” Kenya’s Deputy President, Hon William Ruto said.

“This will be an excellent opportunity to share lessons learnt on hosting such an auspicious gathering with Kenya, but most importantly, a practical opportunity to strengthen the South-South collaboration. We look forward to advising and working with the Government of Kenya in the successful hosting of IODC in 2020,” Mr Rudi Borrmann, Undersecretary for Public Innovation and Open Government, Argentina’s Ministry of Modernization noted.