The CSSL is best known in Sri Lanka for hosting the National IT Conference (NITC), which provides a platform for national and international speakers to present papers and keynote speeches. This year’s conference was held for the 33rd year and has therefore cemented itself as the conference to be at in order to share knowledge in the ICT sector.
This year’s event was held at Galadari Hotel, Colombo with the gracious participation of President Maithripala Sirisena as the chief guest and Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando as the guest of honour. Coincidently, this was the first public event and first official speech for the newly appointed minister and it was a great honour for the CSSL to be part of that.
The CSSL was established in 1976 in Sri Lanka by a group of dedicated professionals for the purpose of promoting information and communication technology (ICT) and professionalism among those engaged in this field and to maintain the highest professional standards among the ICT professionals. The CSSL has played this role for over 35 years and is considered the apex body for ICT professionals in Sri Lanka. It is a not-for-profit body.
The inauguration held recently was also attended by ICTA Chairperson Chithrangani Mubarak, ICTA Managing Director and CEO Muhunthan Canagey, SLT Chairman P.G. Kumarasinghe and other distinguished invitees representing the sponsors Microsoft, ESOFT Metro Campus, Esoft Technologies, Mobitel, Australian Migration Centre, print media partner Wijeya Publications, electronic media partner ITN, official airline SriLankan Airlines and hospitality partner Galadari, and others.
NITC was endorsed by South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation (SEARCC) and the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau and was supported by Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka (FITIS), International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM).
There were approximately 40 prominent international and Sri Lankan speakers presenting papers and keynote speeches which drew positive feedback from the attendees. This year’s NITC was the most successful out of all the years, when considering that close to 900 delegates attended, which was a record number.
Among the international speakers were Centre for Innovative Industry Economic Research Inc Executive Director Ian Dennis, Prof. Michael Gerard Hinchey, Director-Irish Software Engineering Research Centre and Vice President of IFIP, Brian Kealey, Country Manager (Sri Lanka and Maldives) – Microsoft, and Fiona Teakle, Director - Young IT Professionals Board.
Local speakers included Muhunthan Canagey, Managing Director/CEO of ICTA, Dr. Harsha Subasinghe CEO and Chief System Architect – Code Gen Group, Dr. Rohantha Athukorala, Chairman - Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau, Rohan Muttiah, Chief Information Officer - Commercial Bank of Ceylon, Chandika Mendis, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Engineering –Virtusa and a host of others.
Planning is already underway for NITC 2016, by taking the lessons learnt and experiences from NITC 2015, to make it a better and larger event, with more international speakers of repute.
The membership drive for 2015 is underway and professionals in ICT are welcome to visit the CSSL website at www.cssl.lk to learn about our activities and also to apply for membership and involve themselves in the national task of uplifting Sri Lanka to be a key player in the global ICT field.
