The INFOTEL-2015 premier ICT exhibition, which concluded at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) in Colombo recently, was a resounding success, said Chinthaka Wijewickrama, Chairman, Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka (FITIS).
A landmark annual event in Sri Lanka’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry, INFOTEL–2015 witnessed a significant turnout of executive officers of local and international ICT-related companies, renowned professionals, policymakers, entrepreneurs, educationists, students of schools and universities, teachers and lecturers and members of the public.
“There was record attendance with more than 100,000 visitors immensely benefiting from this innovative exhibition held on a grand scale,” Wijewickrama said.
INFOTEL–2015 was the biggest and most prestigious ICT exhibition in Sri Lanka as well as in the whole of South Asia. The event was organised by FITIS with the active support of the Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Defence, Foreign Affairs Ministry and a host of private sector companies.
Expressing delight at the overall conduct of this pinnacle event in the ICT calendar in Sri Lanka, Derrick Ferdinandus, President of the INFOTEL-2015 organising committee, said that from the time the exhibition was inaugurated and until ‘INFOTEL Night’ on each day, everything worked to precision and the end results far exceeded expectations. “It was a grand success and I am thrilled that the final outcome of this historic ICT-related event was more successful than envisaged and it certainly went beyond my expectations,” he said.
An ICT career guidance programme especially designed for students and teachers was conducted at the event together with a National Forum for Corporate CEOs, An IT Forum on Empowering Women and the APICTA Students’ Forum. Other highlights were the signing of an MoU between the FITIS Regional Chapters and the Jaffna Chapter, presentation of awards to winners of the Young Computer Scientist competition, the ICTA SME Pavilion for Small and Medium scale Enterprises and the University Innovations Pavilion.
“These initiatives were enormously successful and the level of public participation in them were more than we anticipated,” Derrick Ferdinandus stressed.
There were 200 plus stalls at the INFOTEL-2015 Exhibition, with the ICTA e-Citizens Booth, SLT e-Sports Championship Gaming Zone, Dell Sri Lanka Zone, Shopping Festival with Best Offers, Cyber Security Pavilion, Education and Training Pavilion, Hardware Solutions Pavilion, e-Waste Educational Booth, Robotics Technology Booth, Online Shopping Booth, Military Innovations, Sri Lanka Police Cyber Crime, Colombo New Traffic Plan and INFOTEL Night being major attractions amongst visitors.
“We received an encouraging, positive feedback from visitors to all our booths at the exhibition,” Ferdinandus said.
Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure, Harin Fernando, the chief guest at the inauguration of INFOTEL-2015, said that this exhibition stands out as an icon which makes a singular contribution towards developing Sri Lanka’s ICT industry and transforming it into an economically viable sector.
Allen YeungTak Bun, Government Chief Information Officer, Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong, Chinthaka Wijewickrama, Chairman, FITIS, Derrick Ferdinandus, President, INFOTEL-2015 organising committee, Dilipa Wijesundara, Chief Executive, Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), Roshan Nugawala, Country Manager, Dell Sri Lanka and Muhunnath Kanage, Chief Executive Officer, Telecommunication Technology Representatives’ Association also spoke on the occasion.
At the ICT career guidance programme, which was conducted as part of INFOTEL-2015, 800 teachers and 10,000 students from 100 schools participated, while around 100 CEOs representing leading companies were active participants at the National Forum for Corporate CEOs.
Leading entrepreneurs, YeungTak Bun, Government Chief Information Officer, Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong, Shyam Gopalkrishna, Senior Consultant, VP Global Strategy, Acer, India, Vineet Mittal, Senior Consultant, ESI, India, Fayaz Hudah, Business Coach/Enterpreneur, former Program Head, ICT Agency of Sri Lanka and Dr. Harsha Subasinghe, Chief Executive Officer, Codegen Pvt. Ltd., Sri Lanka, addressed the ‘Business Forum’.
More than 100 women participated in the IT Forum on Empowering Women, where the chief guest was Rosy Senanayake, Deputy Chief of the Prime Minister’s Office. The keynote address on the topic “Women & IT – a Singaporean Perspective” was delivered by Ho Se, Executive Director, Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation. Chitranganie Mubarak, Chairperson, ICTA, spoke on “Perceptions of Women in ICT”. A round table discussion followed the speeches, where Vidumini Ranasinghe, director, projects, Millennium IT, Vishaka Nanayakkara, senior lecturer, Computer Science and Engineering Department, University of Moratuwa, Yashika Jayasinghe, Manager – Educational Programs, Microsoft Sri Lanka and Shamini Wickremasekera, Chief Risk Officer, LOLC, also participated.
