Nat’l ICT leaders in Naga summit
By Jason B. Neola
NAGA CITY --- Some 900 players from the country’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry and leaders from government, the academe, and ICT-related organizations will troop to this city today for the annual National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP) Summit which is on its 10th year now.
LGU Naga, which was conferred the 2018 Best in eGov Government Inter-Operability (G2G) Award for its governance program called Alisto Serbisyo App (ASAP), is playing host to the event along with ICT-Bicol Council, NICP, and the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT).
The 3-day national event, which will serve as the industry’s facility to champion and adopt game-changing mechanisms, will reel off until November 24, this year, at the Avenue Plaza Hotel as it carries the theme, “A Decade of Inclusive Countryside Development: Managing Digital Transformation Driven by Disruptive Technologies.”
The high-level conference will conduct 4 plenary sessions to be spearheaded by competent resource speakers from both the public and private sectors who will provide insights on the industry that has become more vibrant and robust as one of the country’s top economic drivers.
Also seen to draw interest from the participants is the workshop on cybersecurity, a 2-day activity that offers intensive foundational training with hands-on sessions for beginners and intermediate level cybersecurity professionals.
Mayor John Bongat, under whose term Naga was recognized as a trailblazer in the use of ICT to improve governance, said the event will also provide an opportunity for every participant to acquire exposure, networking, and fellowship with industry players, as well as representatives from the academe and the government sector.
The event will also run a 2-day job fair and exhibits on November 23 to 24. Both activities are open to summit delegates and the general public. The exhibits will showcase opportunities and solutions in new and emerging technologies from leading ICT product and service providers.
Summit and ICT Bicol Council chairman E. Daniel A. De Leon said the assembly of ICT advocates will allow the industry to come up with inclusive growth and sustainable development in the countryside as the summit serves as an effective venue for collaboration and sharing of best practices for NICP member organizations.
“NICP worked as unified voice for the country’s ICT sector. We work indefatigably to promote ICT across the nation and support every undertaking of each member-council to help strengthen their ICTs so that we can produce more working Filipinos,” says De Leon.
De Leon also said that by attending the summit, one shall be in the “vortex of change in the new millennium of the 4th industrial revolution in a disruptive environment.”
Wikipedia explained: the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is the fourth major industrial era since the initial industrial revolution of the 18th century. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres collectively referred to as cyber-physical systems.
It is marked by emerging technology breakthroughs in a number of field, including robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, the Internet of Things, the Industrial Internet of Things, fifth-generation wireless technologies, additive manufacturing/3D printing and fully autonomous vehicles.