33rd Annual National IT Conference 2015 concludes with success

The CSSL is best known in Sri Lanka for hosting the National IT Conference (NITC) which provides a platform for national and international speakers to present papers and keynote speeches. This year’s conference was held for the 33rd year and has therefore cemented itself as ‘the’ conference to be at in order to share knowledge in the ICT sector. 

This year’s event was held at the Galadari Hotel, Colombo with the gracious participation of President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena as the Chief Guest, and Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Harin Fernando as the Guest of Honour. Coincidently, this was the first public event and first official speech for the newly appointed Minister, and it was a great honour for the CSSL to be part of that.

The CSSL was established in 1976 in Sri Lanka by a group of dedicated professionals for the purpose of promoting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and professionalism among those engaged in this field, and to maintain the highest professional standards among the ICT professionals. CSSL has played this role for over 35 years and is considered the apex body for ICT professionals in Sri Lanka. It is a not-for-profit body.

The inauguration was held on 7 September and was also attended by ICTA Chairperson Chithrangani Mubarak, ICTA Managing Director and CEO Muhunthan Canagey, SLT Chairman P.G. Kumarasinghe and other distinguished invitees representing the sponsors: Microsoft, ESOFT Metro Campus, ESOFT Technologies, Mobitel, Australian Migration Centre, Print Media Partner Wijeya Publications, Electronic Media Partner ITN, Official Airline Sri Lankan Airlines, and Hospitality partner Galadari and others.

NITC was endorsed by SEARCC (South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation) and the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, and was supported by FITIS (Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka), IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing), and SLASSCOM (Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies).

There were approximately 40 prominent international and Sri Lankan speakers presenting papers and keynote speeches which drew positive feedback from the attendees. This year’s NITC was the most successful out of all the years, when considering that close to 900 delegates attended, which was a record number. Among the international speakers were, Centre for Innovative Industry Economic Research Inc. Executive Director Ian Dennis, Irish Software Engineering Research Centre Director and IFIP Vice President Prof. Michael Gerard Hinchey, Microsoft Country Manager (Sri Lanka and Maldives) Brian Kealey and Young IT Professionals Board Director Fiona Teakle.  

Local speakers included ICTA Managing Director/CEO Muhunthan Canagey, Code Gen Group CEO and Chief System Architect Dr. Harsha Subasinghe, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau Chairman Dr. Rohantha Athukorala, Commercial Bank of Ceylon Chief Information Officer Rohan Muttiah, Virtusa Senior Vice President and Global Head of Engineering Chandika Mendis and a host of others.

Planning is already underway for NITC 2016, by taking the lessons learnt and experiences from NITC 2015, to make it a better and larger event, with more international speakers of repute.

The membership drive for 2015 is underway and professionals in ICT are welcome to visit the CSSL website at www.cssl.lk to learn about our activities and also to apply for membership and involve themselves in the national task of uplifting Sri Lanka to be a key player in the global ICT field.