Microsoft launches premier global IT event

Microsoft launched its premier global IT event, Tech-Ed 2006 last Wednesday at Waters Edge, the second consecutive year the event has been held in Sri Lanka. It is heralded as a revolution in the perception and usage of IT in Sri Lanka where delegates will be able to experience and discover a range of path-breaking products and technologies to be unveiled by Microsoft in the coming months.

Last year’s attendance of 500 delegates was surpassed this year with a total of 650 participants and 20 international speakers.

Microsoft's Country Manager, Sriyan de Silva Wijeyaratne said, "The tremendous response we received last year was an endorsement of Microsoft's faith in Sri Lanka's IT industry. The vibrant IT ecosystem in Sri Lanka and its potential to reach global recognition was in evidence during Tech-Ed 2005, which attracted not just IT professionals, but members of the business community, government and students who actively participated in the learning experience offered by the symposium."

The panel of distinguished international speakers invited to Tech-Ed 2006 includes Senior Security Strategist from Microsoft Corporations Technology Unit, Steve Riley, and Kavitha Rathika, Managing Director of ITvision Sdn Bhd, an IT consultancy company based in Malaysia. Industry experts at this year’s symposium are striving to sharpen the skills of IT professionals, enabling them to build, deploy and manage IT solutions in a highly competitive business world through technical training, raising awareness on current and future technologies as well as community resources.

Wijeyaratne, speaking at the inauguration said that between 2001 and 2004, the US ICT industry increased its contribution to the GDP three times faster than other industries. He heralded the social impact of Microsoft and the IT sector as having unlimited potential. The company currently has spent over Rs.150 million on initiatives such as the training of 20,000 teachers and has provided Rs.100 million in cash grants to rural areas for IT education. The end goal of all their initiatives is employability.

"It's all about helping the people in this country so they can start realizing their potential. If we can convince the government to put a million dollars in IT, in a manufacturing plant, the impact on the GDP will be seen.

Within the next 2 years, there is an $80 million opportunity in Sri Lanka for partners to build up in the country. This is why we want to work with partners, the government, education and everyone to help the people of this country. IT has to deliver on this promise to Sri Lanka for the poor, the rich and the country," he said.

Amongst the cutting edge technologies on show at this year's conference will be Office 2007, Windows Vista, Visual Studio and Microsoft Server System. In particular, Tech-Ed 2006 will have special relevance to IT Decision Makers, Software and Infrastructure Architects, Consultants, Network and Systems Administrators, IT Administrators, PC LAN Administrators, Server Administrators, Software Developers, Programmers and Database Administrators.

Dilip Mistry, General Manager, Microsoft Developer and Platform Evangelism team for Asia Pacific, delivered the keynote address on Microsoft's Technology Road Map. So what is Microsoft all about, he asked the audience. Mistry said, "We are all about vision and realizing people's potentials. We want to make sure that people realize their potential.”