Sep 19, 2005 Newsletter

1. Venue for 2006
The venue for the 2006 challenge will be the Grand Hyatt Convention Center in Dubai. Held over two days on April 22 and 23 in 2006, this challenge will showcase the best projects from the GCC countries, and include a special gala dinner event with a world class speaker. Awards will be presented by His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Education on the 23rd April 2006.

You can find out more about the Grand Hyatt at http://dubai.grand.hyatt.com/

2. Official Launch
The UAE Educational IT Challenge will be officially launched in the next few weeks. The 2006 challenge has been expanded to include a number of new categories. Entry is now open to include students and teachers from all GCC countries.

3. Title Sponsor and Major Sponsors
We are very pleased to announce that the title sponsor, including the major sponsors, will be announced at the launching press conference. The support given to the IT Challenge by these sponsors is trememdous, and we look forward to bringing details of these sponsors to you over the coming months.

Sponsors are making outstanding contributions to the challenge in all areas, including judging, catergories, format and future directions. We very much apreciate their input and assistance in making this event happen.

4. Projects Open
Projects can be registered online at http://www.uaechallenge.com/register1_2006.asp with the closing date for entries February 15th, 3pm, 2006. Once a project is entered, you can edit the details online anytime between now and the closing date. We invite projects from teachers and students in Secondary Schools, Colleges and Universities throughout the GCC.

5. Judges Appointed
A number of international judges have been appointed to the judging panel. We welcome the international judges appointed so far, and will announce others shortly.

6. Global Junior Challenge 2006 (ROME) calls for projects
The Global Junior Challenge 2006 invites submission new projects for the 2006 competition.

The Global Junior Challenge http://www.gjc.it is a global award promoted by the Digital Youth Consortium http://www.gioventudigitale.net , a non-profit organization founded by the Municipality of Rome and six major ICT companies. The intention of the award, dedicated to young people and to schools, is to identify and reward best practices on the use of new technologies in education and training of youngsters.

Deadline for submission of projects is 30 July 2006. More information and details about the Global Junior Challenge 2006 can be found online at http://www.gjc.it/