CaribNOG 32 Coming to Curaçao in October

The Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG) will hold its 32nd regional gathering in Willemstad, Curaçao, October 7-9, 2026.

CaribNOG co-founder Bevil Wooding said the meeting represents an inflection point.

"CaribNOG is now just over fifteen years old," Wooding told the forum. "We've had a wonderful run as a volunteer organisation." But the next phase, he said, requires formal program management, structured special projects, and expanded research capacity. "This will be the last meeting in this format."

CaribNOG was founded as a volunteer community of Caribbean technical professionals who believed the region's internet infrastructure challenges required a Caribbean answer. Fifteen years and thirty-one forums later, that belief has been validated.

The community gathering in Willemstad will be multilingual, multicultural, and volunteer-driven, as it has always been. But the agenda, for the first time, will be structured for the era ahead.

The forum convenes at the height of Atlantic hurricane season in a region where climate, geopolitics, and cybersecurity have made resilient digital infrastructure not a luxury but a lifeline.

“CaribNOG 32 will bring together network operators, business leaders, and policy makers under one roof," said Stephen Lee, Program Director of CaribNOG. "We're designing three distinct tracks: technical, business, and special interest. The right conversations reaching the right people. One day of deep technical work, business engagement, and direct dialogue with government. This is what the next phase of CaribNOG looks like.”

The choice of Curaçao is deliberate. Giovanni King, CEO of Blue NAP Americas and Chairman of the Caribbean Datacenter Association, holds the vision of a cluster of interconnected Caribbean datacenters serving 14 million people across the region, changing what small island states can negotiate with hyperscalers and content delivery networks.

The island is also home to AMS-IX Caribbean, the regional operation of the Amsterdam Internet Exchange, one of the world’s largest, giving Curaçao an internet infrastructure footprint that punches well above its weight.

Nico Scheper, Business Development Manager at AMS-IX Caribbean, says the timing could not be better.

"Curaçao just recently joined the new CELIA cable system currently being deployed, and the Curaçao utility company is entering the telecom market as a new operator—developments that are adding to market dynamics. There is a lot happening and it's the right time to host CaribNOG in Curaçao."

For Scheper, CaribNOG is as much about relationships as infrastructure.

"CaribNOG is all about bringing people together — having conversations, exchanging ideas, and making plans." It is a lesson, he says, the industry keeps relearning.

"Better internet in our Caribbean region is not just about cables, internet exchanges, datacenters. It is about people working together."

Shernon Osepa, a respected telecoms and Internet strategist, and co-founder of the Caribbean Peering and Interconnection Forum (CarPIF), is proud to welcome CaribNOG back to his home country.

“Our country has built a solid ICT foundation but the moment has come to shift into a higher gear,” he said.

“CaribNOG’s return is more than a reunion. It’s an opportunity to accelerate the technical and policy capacity of Curaçao and to help propel the entire Caribbean region towards the next level of digital resilience and innovation.”

Together, the region has leverage. Alone, it does not.

CaribNOGgers know this only too well.