Namibia's premiere information and communication technologies event " Telecom Namibia Annual ICT Summit 2009, takes place on July 8-9, 2009 in Windhoek. This year's ICT Summit, being one of the most important events in ICT area in Namibia, will be held under the theme: "ICT: Visualising the Future " Confronting the Crisis."
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are the backbone of modern era. Innovation and investment in the telecommunications sector are key enablers of Namibia´s economic transformation to a stronger and more productive, knowledge-based economy. Strategic use of ICTs is helping create social and economic change in health, education, culture, and to increase civic engagement in many countries of the world. As more people gain access to ICTs, the challenge is turning this capacity into community capital in the form of better educated citizens, more prosperous businesses, higher quality of life and better access to services.
The main objective of ICT Summit is to join efforts of all ICT market participants, policy- and decision-makers, heads of stakeholder institutions and regional and international organisations corporate executives, high-level representatives from government, community organisations and for popularisation of ICT application as a development tool, and to attract attention of the broad public to the ICT achievements and discuss practical issues to fully exploit benefits from more effective use of ICTs. The ICT Summit is therefore not a trade show, but an important platform for key decision makers to engage in high level networking opportunities.
While visualising the future is always a chancy proposition, the theme itself is an act of imagination and affirmation of a future that is being shaped by ICTs.
Human beings will always persist in imagining the future because we are motivated by what could be as much as by what has been. We persist because we have a stake in the future. The assertion is that the future will be a better one — and we intend to live in it.
The theme also has an element of the current global economic crisis which has inadvertently also affected the ICTs sector globally and locally. However, the global crisis could provide entrepreneurial opportunities for budding ICT businesses, which in turn can power economic recovery. Given that innovation is the key to recovery, ICTs have contributed consistently as a high-growth sector in its own right, and can now power economic recovery across all sectors.
Alongside the valuable networking opportunities, an innovative and interactive conference programme runs throughout the course of the event. From year to year the Telecom Namibia ICT Summit draws the increasing attention of interested parties and has become one of the main events in the sphere of ICT in Namibia. Last year more than 600 delegates participated in the work of the Summit and this year is not an exception.
The number of VIP delegates is anticipated to be close to 800 which will include ICT experts, senior government officials, corporate executives from across Namibia, SADC and internationally. Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Honourable Joel Kaapanda, is billed to officially open this important upcoming event.
The forthcoming ICT Summit will be action-based and futuristic, with international and local guest speakers and plenary sessions to inspire and challenge us to realise the vision of what ICTs can do for Namibia. How Namibia can tap into the benefits of information technology to enhance all aspects of our lives business, leisure, culture and our environment.
