Kandy IT/BPM Week to reach out to Sri Lankan undergraduates

Understanding the importance of creating lasting ties between the flourishing IT/BPM industry and Lankan undergraduates, the Kandy BPM Conference and Kandy IT Conference will take place on the second and third days of the Kandy IT Week respectively, with the aim of bringing together top industry professionals and students.

The two conferences will feature a line-up of some of Sri Lanka’s leading thought leaders and entrepreneurs in the IT/BPM sector, representing top local and international companies, who will address undergraduates from the University of Peradeniya and other universities in the country.

The agendas at these events will be geared towards exposing the undergraduates to the core of Sri Lanka’s IT/BPM industry, providing them with the opportunity to identify the required skill sets and expertise to be employable in the IT sector. It will also provide industry professionals with a chance to connect with the talent pool in Sri Lanka’s state education system.

Both events will take place at the E.O.E. Pereira Theatre, located at University of Peradeniya’s Faculty of Engineering and is being organised by SLASSCOM, supported by the Faculties of Engineering and Arts of the University of Peradeniya. The BPM Conference is a new addition to the IT Week initiative, in order to give equal prominence to this rapidly growing sector in Sri Lanka. 

The BPM conference, targeting engineering management, management and arts graduates/undergraduates, will take place on 11 June. The speaker line-up will include SAKS global CEO Hariharan Padmanaban, Infomate CEO Jehan Perinpanayagam, Accenture Senior Vice President Virendra Perera, WNS Global Managing Director DushanSosa, Copal Amba Country Head Chanakya Dissanayake, HSBC GSC Vice President – HR Lasantha Dassanayake, CA Sri Lanka President and Ernst & Young Partner Arjuna Herath and SLASSCOM Executive Director Dharshan Cooray.

Open to students following IT and Computer Science related degree programs, the IT Conference will take place on the final day of the Kandy IT Week, on 12 June. It too boasts an impressive list of speakers, including MillenniumIT CEO Mack Gill, Microsoft Sri Lanka Country Manager/Managing Director Brian Kealey, IBM Sri Lanka Chief Executive Officer/Country General Manager Chrishan Fernando, WSO2 Founder, Chairman and CEO Sanjiva Weerawarana, Zone24x7 CEO and Founder Llavan Fernando, CodeGenCEO and Chief System Architect Harsha Subasinghe, WSO2 Vice President – Research Srinath Perera, ICTA CEO Muhunthan Canagey and IFS Sri Lanka President and CEO Jayantha De Silva. 

The Kandy IT/BPM Week is an initiative to create much-needed IT/BPM capacity in Sri Lanka spearheaded by SLASSCOM and supported by the Export Development Board (EDB), Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), Ministry of Education (MOE) and University of Peradeniya. A follow-up to the highly successful Jaffna IT Week held earlier, this is a series of events that advocates the creation of regional cities to bring about inclusive growth in the country. It will be held from 10-12 June in various locations in and around Kandy. 

The Kandy IT Conference is co-sponsored by MillenniumIT and IFS, with Intel, CodeGen and 99X Technology coming on board as event sponsors. Event sponsor for the Kandy BPM Conference is Orion City. Official radio partners and TV station for the events are TV 1, YES FM, Y FM, Sirasa FM, supported by Dialog as Official Telecommunication Partner.

For more information about the IT and BPM conferences, please visit kandyitbpmweek.com or contact Ranuka Kariyawasam via [email protected] or 0114 062223-7. For regular updates on the Kandy IT Week, check out the Facebook page www.facebook.com/kandyitbpm.