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Year Ahead’10 Roundtables were held on 3rd March’ 2010 at Sheraton, Karachi from 10:00am to 3:30 pm. The event was divided into two parts – the first main roundtable discussion where 33 business technology leaders gathered to discuss challenges and strategies for 2010. The discussion was moderated by Country Manager Cisco Dr. Aamir Matin and Chairperson for the Standing Committee on IT, Shahid Saleem. This was followed by 3 simultaneous roundtables where technology leaders engaged with delegates in focused discussions in the areas of Hardware/System Integration led by Country Manager Intel Pakistan, Ashar Zaidi, IT Security led by CEO Trillium Information Solutions Mahir Sheikh and Managed Services led by Head of Technology Services and Central Depository Company.
This event, an extension of The Year Ahead ’10 Summit held at Karachi Sheraton in December 2001 which discussed the Annual IT Report with members of the World Economic Forum via Video Conference. The report assesses the network readiness of countries and analyzed Pakistan’s position on a global scale and the roundtables helped to identify issues and challenges that hinder growth and technology adoption across Pakistani enterprises.
Upon listening to the findings of the discussion, Sindh IT Minister Raza Haroon commented, “This is very critical knowledge sharing. Once our businesses and technology leaders understand each other, only then can you experience exponential economic growth.” The objective of the CIO YearAhead Roundtables is to gather business-technology leaders and influencers along with vendors on one platform in order to discuss strategies to improve the State of Business in 2010. Furthermore, the discussion and interaction is geared to help them engage in active discourse on how to plan IT buying and selling for the year in focus. Humayun Bashir, Country Manager IBM Pakistan said, “This was a great opportunity for strategy building. The focus for every organization is on the bottom line and everyone has to do more with less. This discussion helps us to ensure and businesses are steered in the right direction.”
The theme of the event, which has been produced in conjunction with CDC and sponsored by Intel, encompasses all 4 roundtables and highlights four distinct challenges encountered in the face of a dynamic and volatile business environment. Shahida Saleem commented, “These discussions are critical to garner growth because they prove that IT is not operating in isolation. Once industries understand how to use IT to drive business, that’s when we will have positive growth.”
Some of the participants included Kumail Dehradunwala, CIO of UBL, Asher Faiser Khan, CEO of CommTel Systems, Mary James, CIO of NIB Bank, Syed Asif Shah, CIO of CDC, Kamran Meer, CISO of HBL and Hammad Siddiqui from CIPE.
The event was sponsored by Central Depository Company of Pakistan, Intel, Cisco, OvexTech, CommTel Systems and supported by PSEB and FPCCI.
