The third annual African Computing & Telecommunications Summit, to be held in Pretoria from 30 July to 2 August, will yet again provide a unique education and marketing platform for IT and telecommunications managers, executives, service providers, policy-makers, resellers and innovators from throughout Africa.
The four-day event consists of a series of specialised briefings, workshops and forums which together provide broad coverage of latest developments in computing and telecommunications, as well as in-depth specialised knowledge on key topics. Lead sponsor of the event is Nortel Networks, with co-sponsors including UUNET, the South African Department of Communications and ITWeb.
The main conference programme includes Strategy and Management Briefings as well as a stream on New Technical Frontiers, to appeal to both technical and management attendees.
Management and Strategy topics include:
. Moving Africa into the collaborative commerce era
. Starting small with e-commerce and avoiding a dot=bomb
. Extending online procurement to SMME players in an emerging market
. How to develop an e-business plan
. Transform the finance department from bean-counters to deal-makers
. The cyber war is now!
. How to play globalisation in Africa and win
New Technology Frontier topics include:
. IP - The foundation of new market innovations
. The embedded information technology revolution
. VSAT solutions for Internet connections
. Go global in 20 minutes
. A return to network-centric computing
. Cost-effective Linux solutions for Africa
. SMS applications to extend Internet connections in Africa
. The opportunities of Internet telephony
Keynote presentations in the plenary sessions include:
. IT in banking - The challenges and opportunities facing African banks O Wireless Africa - Hype or reality?
. Policy models that work and Africa ignores at its peril O Nurturing Africa`s entry into the Information Age
Alec Erwin, South Africa`s Minister of Trade and Industry, will be the opening keynote speaker.
One of the special events at ACT is the African e-Governance Forum. The keynote address for this will be given by Professor Thomas Riley, Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance. Other presentations in the forum will be by Dr John Onunga, Co-ordinator of the East African Electronic Consultative Group in Kenya, Rogers Okot-Uma from the Commonwealth Secretariat and Neville Nicholas, project director of South Africa`s SAITIS Project
There is also an Educations and Training Forum, which will focus on Africa`s IT skills shortage, as well as the application of information technology in the continent`s educational development.
A major highlight of this year`s ACT will be the African ISP Forum which is intended to bring together representatives from ISPs throughout Africa to provide them with an intensive information programme on the technical and organisational ways in which they can work together at national and regional levels to increase the efficiency and reduce the costs of their Internet links. The forum is being co-ordinated by SA`s ISP Association, with support from the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation. The UK`s Department for International Development and the French government are providing scholarships for representatives of African ISPs to attend the forum. The keynote address for the forum will be given by Dave Meintjes, Commercial Director of UUNET: "How competition and co-operation are both necessary to bring Africa into the Information Age."
With network security being a major concern for all organisations, ACT 2001 has a major eSecurity Briefing, sponsored by SA`s eSecure magazine. Speakers include Darren Smith, MD of the magazine, Alan Draper of Sophos Anti-Virus in the UK, and Maeson Maherry of the South African Certification Agency. Kevin Isaac of Symantec will speak on "Security in a connected world: What every CEO, CIO and IT executive should know about security".
The eSecurity Briefing will be followed by a workshop on developing a security model to suit your needs, including a live network hack demonstration by UUNET and Nanoteq.
The Global VSAT Forum is hosting two VSAT workshops at ACT:
. African satellite regulation - National reforms in the regional context
. African networks redefined - Money, margins and markets
The Association for Progressive Communications and SangoNet are hosting two training workshops:
. Using a results-oriented approach in planning for medium and small ICT enterprises, public sector, civil society and development institutions.
. Database-driven Web publishing and portal management
The Linux Professional`s Association of South Africa is hosting a workshop on Open Source software solutions at ACT in response to the increasing interest around Africa in the lower costs and higher levels of stability offered by Linux-based systems.
ACT 2001 will also include a range of social events, providing the high level of hospitality for which AITEC is renowned throughout the continent, giving delegates, exhibitors and speakers the opportunity to mix socially and make valuable business and professional contacts. The hospitality programme will culminate with the annual ACT Gala Dinner, sponsored this year by UUNET. This year`s dinner will include presentation of the Nancy Hafkin Award for achievement in development-oriented ICT projects.
ACT 2001 will include a major exhibition including most of Africa`s major IT and telecommunications suppliers, including Alcatel, Nortel, UUNET, Symantec, IP Planet, Siemens, Transtel and Sybase. Arivia.kom, SA`s huge state-owned IT and telecommunications company, formed recently through the merger of three state corporations, has booked a large stand of 670 sq metres.
The full ACT 2001 programme and delegate registration form can be found on the AITEC Web site: www.aitecafrica.com
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