Sunday Times 2
“Shall we nationalise Innovation?”
The fifth annual Ray Wijewardene Memorial Lecture organised by the Ray Wijewardene Charitable Trust and the Institute of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) will be held on November 30 at the IESL Auditorium on Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 7. Renowned management consultant, author, trainer and speaker Deepal Sooriyaarachchi will present this year’s lecture titled: “Shall we nationalise Innovation?”
Dr. Ray Wijewardene
Mr. Sooriyaarachchi, who comes from a marketing background, was appointed to the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission in 2011 and completely revived the organisation during his term. He is responsible for Sri Lanka’s first ever symposium for inventors, national exhibition “Sahasak Nimevum”, establishing a round table with Industry and Innovators for sustainable partnerships with the private sector and has been widely published. He has addressed over ten national conferences on the topic of innovation amongst numerous other achievements.
His talk will focus on types of innovations at grassroot, intermediate and top-end levels, influential factors, as well as types of inventors and how to innovate people’s mindset to pursue a vision. “If a community and country is not innovative, it becomes outdated,” said Mr. Sooriyaarachchi.
Established in 2011, the Ray Wijewardene Trust continues the legacy of late Dr. Ray Wijewardene, the illustrious and multi-faceted Sri Lankan engineer, inventor and specialist in tropical farming and renewable energy technologies. The lecture begins at 5.15 p.m. and is open to the public free of charge.