The Second WINIR Conference took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second largest city, at the Hotel Windsor Atlantica (click map to enlarge). This 5-star hotel is located on the famous Copacabana beach in one of the culturally richer neighbourhoods of Rio.
The venue is within walking distance (30 minutes) of the iconic Sugarloaf Mountain (Pão de Açúcar) that lies at the mouth of Guanabara Bay.
Founded by the Portugese in 1565 Rio de Janeiro became the capital of the State of Brazil, a state in the Portuguese Empire, in 1763. Between 1808 and 1821, during a rare event known as a "metropolitan reversal" (formal shift of the capital of a colonising country to a city in one of its colonies), Rio was the capital of the Kindgom of Portugal. Following the country's independence from Portugal in 1822, Rio became the capital of the Emprire of Brazil until the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889, and remained the capital until 1960 when the country's capital was officially moved to the purpose-built Brasilia in the center of the country.
In 2015 the city commemorated its 450th anniversary. Numerous events were planned around the city, already transformed to accommodate last year's FIFA World Cup and the XXXI Olympic Games in 2016.