Eastern Student Jeffery Durrigan of Sterling Attends Information Technology Conference on Long Island

2011 Dec 6

Jeffery Durrigan '14 of Sterling, CT, joined other members of Eastern Connecticut State University's student chapter of the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) at the AITP-Long Island Chapter 2011 Technology Showcase and Economic Forecast on Nov. 15. Durrigan is majoring in Business Information Systems.

At the Long Island AITP event, the students learned about different sectors of the information technology industry and growth areas in information technology/information systems (IT/IS) careers.

Industry professionals Pearl Kamer, Dennis Dissick and Christopher Pendergast provided forecasts for the information technology sector and discussed upcoming economic growth prospects, areas of expected rapid change, and regional IT/IS development and collaboration efforts. "Our students really appreciated the hospitality of the Long Island AITP Chapter and cannot wait until next year's events," said faculty advisor Alex Citurs.

At 3 p.m. on Nov, 15, the Eastern contingent traveled into New York City to meet Vincent Luciani, chief information officer for InterActiveCorp (IAC), who showed the Eastern students how IAC's two video walls functioned. The larger wall is 120' long and 18' tall, making it the largest in the world. Luciani then took Eastern's AITP members to the ninth floor of his company's building to discuss IAC's array of Internet businesses, valued at $1.9 billion. He also discussed IS careers.

After leaving IAC's Global Headquarters, the Eastern students traveled to Manhattan's Upper West Side to attend a fundraiser hosted by Arts for Peace (AFP), a United Nations-affiliated non-governmental organization that sponsors art events to promote peace and understanding between people around the world. The Eastern AITP chapter is building a database-driven website for Arts for Peace to help them manage artistic events and digital collections from around the globe.