IIT Alumni holds Gala Dinner Dance 2013

The IIT Alumni Association dedicated towards building a network of IIT alumnus in Sri Lanka, to foster and promote the IIT brand equity, have achieved success in a variety of professions, and have become entrepreneurs of repute. Kick starting their activities in the new financial year, the IIT Alumini organised a gala dinner dance recently, at the Oak Room Cinnamon Grand.

The Alumni Committee, headed by its able President Sushena Ranatunga consists of Vice President Prassanna Pathmanathan, Secretary Thulitha. D. P. Piyasena, Asst. Secretary Lahiri Soysa, Treasurer Kalana Kasun, Thilan Warnakulage, Ashan De Zoysa, Suren Nanayakkara, Saroj Rangasinghe and Supun Devaraja are committee members.

The Informatics Group Chairman and the Founder of IIT Dr. Gamini Wickramasinghe in his address advised the audience to ‘Not only to consider to be successful in life, but also to consider your family spend time with them and look after good health’. He also pointed out that at present, IIT had produced around 3,000 Alumni out of which 40% are working abroad and the other 60% are entrepreneurs, business people, CTO’ and, CEO’s in top organisations.

Adding his comments, Ranatunga stated: “It takes a true visionary to have the courage and the wisdom to pioneer such a ground-breaking venture as IIT and we are truly honoured to have that remarkable personality in our midst tonight who is none other than our Chairman Dr. Gamini Wickramasinghe. Since the first graduation in 1994, IIT have produced a staggering number of over 3,000 graduates to the national and international IT workforce. It is only fitting that an institute with such a stellar contribution to the higher educational landscape in Sri Lanka should have a formal annual reunion.”

The evening consisted of many interesting entertainment events organised such as a Latin American dance act by Kevin Nugara and their troupe and a fashion show by Rozanne Diaz and crew. The music was provided by the famous ‘Doctor’ band. Many valuable prizes and surprises also awaited the audience, that included and entrance raffle draw and the main prize which was an air-ticket with the option to choose either Bangkok or Maldives as the destination of choice. The lucky winner of this prize was Dananjaya Kulathunga.

The proceeds of the dance will be channelled towards a worthy project organised by the Rotaract Club of IIT namely ‘Heart to Art’. This project involves a community service project whose main objective is to assist orphanages around the country by engaging the children in these orphanages to get them involved in art, and to express their feelings and emotions through this medium.

The art material and canvases needed for this project is at all times provided by the Rotaract club of IIT.

The Gala Dinner Dance brought together the biggest gathering of IT and business professionals in Sri Lanka, who graduated from the UK universities of Manchester Metropolitan, University of Westminster and Keele which consisted the IIT Alumni. There were participants from all parts of the world as most of them are residing out of the country. This is just the beginning of a year planned with much fun filled and beneficial activities for its members who have today become those who have contributed tremendously towards the local economy by heading organisations that have brought much foreign revenue and recognition to our country in the sphere of IT and business.