Hong Kong International Computer Conference Kick off Today
Worldwide IT Elites Examine on Hottest ICT Trends
Theme: Delivering Sustainable Value in a Knowledge Economy

The Hong Kong International Computer Conference 2011 (HKICC2011), organized by Hong Kong Computer Society (HKCS), was successfully held on 23 and 24 November 2011 at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. This year, the conference theme is "Delivering Sustainable Value in a Knowledge Economy - the Challenge for Hong Kong". HKCS is particularly pleased to have the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce as the strategic partner of HKICC2011. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) specialists and business and government representatives from all over the world met together and jointly examined how to realize wealth creation by ICT and moreover, delivered a sustainable value, to promote social progress.

HKICC2011 opening ceremony was officiated by Mr. Gregory So Kam-leung, JP, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, The Government of the HKSAR. Mr. Gregory So, together with Ir. Stephan Lau, JP, President, Hong Kong Computer Society, Mr. Sunny Lee, JP, Chairperson of HKICC2011 Organising Committee and Executive Director, Information Technology, The Hong Kong Jockey Club, and Mr. Nicholas Yang, Chairperson of HKICC2011 Programme Committee and Executive Vice President, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University were jointly hosted the ceremony. The conference this year addressed the most recent topics in ICT, including Cloud Computing, Knowledge Management, Mobile Lifestyle and Social Media, as well as industry-wide current issues, such as ICT Collaboration in Pearl River Delta (PRD) Region and ICT Talent Cultivation.

"HKICC has been the annual focus of ICT industry in Hong Kong since Year 1978, and aims at examining the latest ICT trends and giving solutions to the most addressed ICT issues, with the hope that more excellent schemes could be brought forward to stimulate ICT advancement, thus further support other industries’ development, which could sustainably inject power to the social economy." Said Ir. Stephan Lau, JP, President, Hong Kong Computer Society.

The conference this year addressed the most recent topics in ICT, including Cloud Computing, Knowledge Management, Mobile Lifestyle and Social Media, as well as industry-wide current issues, such as ICT Collaboration in Pearl River Delta (PRD) Region and ICT Talent Cultivation.

Ir. Lau pointed out: "HKCS has been strived to promote local ICT professional development, as well as ICT talent cultivation. Our strategy has been fully revealed in HKICC2011. Earlier this month HKCS led local ICT organizations to compete in Asia Pacific Information and Communications Awards 2011 (APICTA 2011) and Hong Kong team won 5 Grand Awards and 9 Merits. The inspiring results showed that the ICT in Hong Kong has reached the top level in Asia Pacific. HKCS encourage the industry to participate in ICT events like HKICC and APICTA, and hope the government continually supporting ICT development in Hong Kong, which could explore the most potential of local technology firms, promote Hong Kong's technology to world class standard and hence inaugurate a new development direction for ICT industry under current Knowledge Economy."

Mr. Lee addressed in his welcome remarks that today is an era when knowledge has been undergoing rapidly expansion and technology has been advancing at an increasing speed. The great advancement of ICT has completely changed human life and business operation model, creating immeasurable direct and indirect value to the society. Looking forward, the impact of ICT will be even more deeply and widely. Thus, one of the major challenges facing Hong Kong will be how to maximize the sustainable value delivered by ICT to keep abreast of World's development.

Mr. Nicholas Yang outlined the conference programme in opening ceremony and further explained, "The first topic of the conference will be Cloud computing. Some experts even say that the Cloud will be the next ICT big trend; Cloud computing, together with the newly developed applications and hardware, innovative mobile network and device technology, as well as social media, have made a profound transformation on human life style; And knowledge management become more and more important under information explosion. The HKICC2011 conference programme has been particularly designed according to those trends."

To deepen the understanding of ICT application in various industries, HKICC2011 specially arranged four sections to examine more in-depth about the applications of ICT in Banking and Finance, Hospitality and Tourism, Logistics and Transportation, and Health industry respectively. Meanwhile, ICT Collaboration in Pearl River Delta (PRD) Region and ICT Talent Cultivation are the current hot issues in ICT industry.

Mr. Sunny Lee furthered stated that the conference has invited top speakers from ICT related corporations, such as EMC, Cisco, IBM, HP, Microsoft, Novell, and Oracle, to share their unique views and points. Other speakers include relevant government officials, professors from famous local and overseas universities, ICT Chief Officers from local large organizations, authority figures from research and development centers, ICT enterprises founders and so on. Mr. Lee believed such big name speakers will definitely come up with more inspirations and new ideas, to promote Hong Kong's ICT development.

Major HKICC2011 speakers and discussion panelists include - Cloud Computing: Mr. Bowman Hall, Director, Cloud Computing Client Engagement, IBM Software Group; Dr. David Yen, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cisco Server Access and Virtualization Technology Group; Mr. Michael B. Henroid, Governance, Risk, and Compliance Alliances Lead, APJ, RSA, Security Division of EMC; Mr. Matthew Bertram, Chief Technologist, Hewlett-Packard Software, Asia Pacific and Japan; Mr. Matt Valentine, Principal Platform Architect, Microsoft Hong Kong Ltd.; Mr. Pat Chiu, Director, Identity and Security Solutions, Novell Hong Kong Ltd.; Mr. Anthony Lam, Principal Sales Consultant, Oracle Systems Hong Kong Ltd.

Knowledge Management: Mr. Stephen Forte, Chief Strategy Officer, Telerik; Ms. Eva Lo, Director of Knowledge Management, Langham Place; Dr. Ricky Tsui, East Asia Research & Development Leader, Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong Limited.

Mobile Lifestyle and Social Media: Dr. Chao Seng-chang, Vice President & Group Director, Enterprise and Consumer Electronics Group, Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Limited; Mr. Jason Chiu, Chief Executive Officer, The Cherrypicks Group; Mr. ATung Lee, Controller, On.cc, Flagship Portal of Oriental Press Group.

ICT Collaboration in Pearl River Delta Region: The Hon. Samson Tam Wai-ho, JP, Legislative Councilor (Information Technology Functional Constituency), The Government of the HKSAR; Mr. Xie Xue-ning, Director General, Science, Technology & Information Bureau, Guangzhou Municipal Government; Mr. Al Kwok, Chairman, GD-HK (Guangzhou Nansha) Science Park Investment Services Limited; Mr. Liang Xin-wen, Director, Nanhai Science and Technology Bureau; Mr. Qiu Shi, Director, Administration Committee, Zhuhai National Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone.

ICT Talent Cultivation: Mr. Stephen Mak Hung-sung, BBS, JP, Government Chief Information Officer, Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, The Government of the HKSAR; Mr. Sunny Lee Wai-kwong, JP, Executive Director, Information Technology, The Hong Kong Jockey Club; Dr. Edith Mok Kwan Ngan-hing, Distinguished Fellow, Hong Kong Computer Society; Prof. David Cheung Wai-lok, Head of Department of Computer Science, The University of Hong Kong; Mr. John Debrincat, Chairman, Australian Computer Society Foundation.

Stephen Lau stressed: "Talent cultivation is a priority task for HKCS this year as well because we understand incessant talent supply is fundamental and essential to the flourish of ICT industry. I hope more practical and effective ideas could be raised during the conference to bring in new blood to the industry."

For conference details, please refer to official website: http://www.hkcs.org.hk/hkicc/2011/.

About Hong Kong International Computer Conference (HKICC)

The HKICC has been organised by the HKCS annually since 1978, to bring together IT professionals and business and government leaders from all over the world to explore opportunities that information technology can offer, and to share successes and insight. More than 600 delegates are expected to attend this year's Conference, representing a variety of local and overseas public and private sector organisations.

About Hong Kong Computer Society (HKCS)

The Hong Kong Computer Society is a non-profit professional organisation established in 1970, which strives to improve and develop Hong Kong's Information Technology (IT) industry. Being the most well-established and the largest professional association in Hong Kong, the HKCS is dedicated to promote the highest professional standards for the industry. The HKCS members are from a broad spectrum of Hong Kong's IT industry, from corporate users to individual talents, all working together for the benefit of the industry.