Ocutina
The Association of Ontario College and University Communications Technology Professionals
A message from the president
Ocutina Conference October 14th to 16th, 2009 OCUTINA provides a forum to facilitate the exchange of information between administrators, managers and decision makers of communication technologies and services. Member institutions benefit as individuals and collectively from the experiences and expertise of the membership, gaining valuable knowledge in the areas of technology, industry trends and government regulations.
Greetings from the OCUTINA Executive
The OCUTINA Executive is pleased to welcome all of you to this year's conference. Working with such a dedicated Executive team is always a pleasure and this year as President has been another exceptional and very rewarding experience. The team has brought forward a number of core agenda items identified by the membership as being necessary to their business and a number of items allowing us a glimpse at the future.
The role of technology in our respective institutions is continually expanding and this year's agenda represents a fine example of how the scope and breadth of our work has changed with time. Where in past conferences we would have wrestled with the business case to support deploying voice over IP (VOIP) technologies, this year is a clear indication we have moved beyond cost justification and are into the realm of value added applications and services. Incident response and emergency/911 notification systems are very relevant examples of leveraging the installed base of VOIP in our institutions.
This year also posed some definite financial challenges amongst our membership. The need to economize, consolidate, and reduce costs where possible in a declining economy is a large motivator to look at emerging alternative carrier solutions such as session initiation protocol (SIP) based trunking. A number of other cost saving initiatives will be covered in our sessions and of course in our open forums.
On a personal note, perhaps the most rewarding component of this year's conference is the dedicated focus on institutional projects. This is where, YOU the membership, have offered your time and stepped up to host a session for your colleagues and peers. Sharing your experiences researching, designing and implementing various technologies in response to your changing business requirements is a founding principle of the OCUTINA organization and one I.m so pleased to see up front and center on our agenda this year.
Of course a winning element of this year's conference is the opportunity to spend quality time with colleagues and peers from across our membership. The ability to share ideas, compare strategies and to learn from others experiences during the sessions, over a meal, or over a cup of coffee are great inducements. The relaxed setting afforded by the Kempenfelt Conference Centre lends itself well to collaboration and offers a dedicated slice of time in our extremely busy calendars to reflect on our institutional achievements and our plans for the future.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Jim Fletcher
Mission Statement