eAsia 2009 countdown narrows; Response far exceeds expectations

21-Oct-2009

eAsia 2009 is looked forward to with tremendous interest both locally and internationally. So said Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) Chief Operating Officer Reshan Dewapura during his address to the ICTA Private Sector Forum meeting held at Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo recently.

Reshan Dewapura, Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) Chief Operating Officer

Addressing the large gathering of participants representing the ICT business community who were welcomed by ICTA Chairman Prof. P. W. Epasinghe, ICTA COO expressed joyful wonderment at the surge of interest in the premier Asian ICT event. “Interest in eAsia 2009, which is exactly at a 50-day countdown today, has been gathering momentum from inception. For example, the response to the call for papers far exceeded expectations. By the deadline there were more than 350 papers from 24 countries”, Dewapura disclosed. Referring to the international spread of the candidates for paper presentations ICTA COO said: “The wide spectrum of these 24 countries, such as India, Sri Lanka , Sweden, Philippines, Japan, Israel, Nepal, Cambodia, China, Bangladesh, Uganda, USA, USA, Malaysia, Albania, Australia, Japan, Morocco, France, Switzerland, Argentina, Egypt, United Kingdom and Kenya gives an international hue to eAsia 2009”.

A further insight into the interest in the event is from the various types of support that has been forthcoming at the pre-event phase. Among the types of such support are those categorised as follows: ‘Pinnacle Partner’, ‘Technology Partner’, ‘Knowledge Partner’, ‘Strategic Partner’, ‘Country Partner’, ‘Special Events Partner’, ‘Track Sponsor’ (one per track), ‘Session Sponsor’, ‘ Special Session Sponsor’,’ Lunch / Cocktail / Dinner host’, ‘ID Strap Sponsor’ and ‘Conference Bag Sponsor’. “Other categories may also be proposed”, Dewapura reminded. Summing up the milestones in the run-up to the event Dewapura said: “The first media briefing on July 16, the stakeholder meeting on August 13, the international launch at eINDIA on August 25 and the second industry briefing on October 2 were some of the important highlights in the lead-up to eAsia 2009”.

Speaking of specialities of e-Asia 2009 Dewapura revealed: “One specialty of e-Asia 2009 is the addition of another thematic sector, namely Emerging Technologies and the highest number of papers are from this category, namely 102, while e-Government has 65, Digital Learning 96, e-Health 62 and Telecentre Forum 30”.

The ‘three-day event of conference and exhibition from December 2 to 4 (2009) at the BMICH Colombo will include 40 thematic seminal sessions covering e-Governance, Digital Learning, e-Health, Telecentres and Emerging e-Technologies.

Global visionaries, innovators, practitioners, policy makers and representatives from donor agencies will grace the event. About 45 countries particularly from Asia but including USA and Europe will be represented at top level. About 100 corporates, more than 1000 international delegates and 800 local visitors are expected to participate in the conference while about 30,000 are scheduled to visit the exhibition. True to its theme “Opportunities for digital Asia”, e-Asia 2009 will be a great opportunity for interacting particularly with the countries of the region. Indeed a great memorable experience of a life time is in store for the local and international participants at eAsia 2009 both at conference and exhibition, Dewapura concluded.