[20 April 2006]
SiTF and SMU introduce "Speak out on ICT" Oratory Contest, Announce iX 2006 Academic Forum for Students to Discuss InfocommTechnology Trends with Industry Experts

"Speak out on ICT" aims to promote good oratory skills among those planning for a career in ICT, while the inaugural iX 2006 Academic Forum facilitates the exchange of views between students and industry experts on collaboration and peer-to-peer technologies

Singapore . April 20, 2006 - The Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) and Singapore Management University (SMU) are proud to present the inaugural iX 2006 Academic Forum, to be held at SMU's city campus on June 21. The Academic Forum is a fringe event of the iX 2006 conference, the premier ICT conference held annually in Singapore with aims to facilitate business opportunities and exchange of ideas on infocomm technology issues faced by businesses in both Singapore and the region. Admission to the Academic Forum is free for all pre-university and tertiary students from Singapore. For registration, please visit http://www.sis.smu.edu.sg/Seminar/ix2006_AcadForum.htm .

Also to be held in conjunction with the iX 2006 conference, the "Speak out on ICT" contest is a public-speaking competition intended to foster interest in an infocomm technology (ICT) career, and to encourage leaders with good oratory skills among the cohort of students pursuing or planning to pursue ICT courses in Singapore. The entry form is now available for download at http://www.sis.smu.edu.sg/ix2006_Speakout_Contest.htm .

iX 2006 Academic Forum

Based on the theme "ICT at Work - Collaboration and Peer-to-Peer Technologies, this year's iX conference will explore how peer-to-peer consumer technologies such as instant messaging, Internet telephony, Wikis and other popular freeware, are transforming the enterprise. Selected conference speakers will be present at the Academic Forum to lead the discussions on the strategic implications of such technologies to the business community, and the possible security issues and productivity loss resulted from the implementation of these applications at the workplace.

Distinguished speakers of the iX 2006 Academic Forum include:

. Marissa Mayer, Vice President for Search Products and User Experience, Google
. Euan Semple, former Head of Knowledge Management, BBC
. Angela Beesley, Board Member of Wikimedia Foundation (publisher of Wikipedia)
. David Scult, General Manager, Groove Networks, subsidiary of Microsoft Corp
. Chuck Trent, CIO Asia Pacific and Japan , Cisco Systems
. Scott Werndorfer, Co-founder, Cerulean Studios

"Speak out on ICT" Contest

The "Speak out on ICT" contest is categorised into two classes of competition, namely:

Junior Competition - open to students currently enrolled in secondary or junior college education in Singapore. The contestant need not be pursuing any IT-related subjects.

Contestants must prepare a written entry in accordance with the rules, and submit to the organisers on or before May 15, 2006. Based on the quality of the written submissions in their entry, judges will select eight competitors in the Senior Competition and 10 competitors in the Junior Competition. These contestants will be notified and invited to attend the Finals on May 27, where they will participate in the oratory competition hosted at SMU. There, contestants will be given 10-15 minutes to present their speech in front of the judges. Just like speakers at the iX Conference, contestants may use slides or other audio-visual media to accompany their presentation. The presentation of awards, $500 cash for a winner in each class, will be held at Raffles City Convention Centre on June 22.

"With the pervasive use of instant messaging among students, we expect to receive some rather remarkable insights from their speeches on collaboration. We believe that in order to cultivate industry leadership, there is a need to start encouraging students to speak out on ICT today. And with the winners presenting their papers before a large audience of 800 to 1,000, the winning contestants stand to benefit enormously from the experience gained," said William Claxton, Chairman of the iX Conference Organising Committee at SiTF.

"ICT has become pervasive across all functions of businesses. It is important that young minds realise ICT is even more vital to businesses today than in the past. SMU's School of Information Systems is excited to co-organise the Academic Forum and oratory competition. It represents SMU's efforts in working with industry players to get the younger generation to appreciate the significant progress ICT has made since the burst of the dot com bubble and the exciting developments the future has in store for them. The panel of speakers is a rare collection in any event, especially in Singapore . We believe students and lecturers will benefit greatly from these events. Our very own young talent could be inspired to create another Google or Skype after listening to the speakers," said Professor Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, Associate Dean, School of Information Systems, Singapore Management University.

iX 2006 is organised by the SiTF, and is part of the infocomm Media Business Exchange (imbX). For more information about the conference, please visit the official Web site at www.ixconference.com .