Some of the brightest minds in Canada’s IT sector are heading for Calgary next week to debate the latest trends in high-tech business, privacy and information management — and to raise a glass to innovators of excellence at a sold-out gala dinner.
The Informatics/Convergence 2001 conference, to be held at the TELUS Convention Centre starting this Sunday, has attracted a top-drawer list of keynote speakers, including federal privacy commissioner George Radwanski, Hewlett-Packard Canada CEO Paul Tsaparis and IBM Canada president and CEO Ed Kilroy.
“Calgary has been selected to host it this year for a number of reasons, not the least which is it is a high-tech city,” says Debra Deane, co-chair of the conference being held in partnership with the annual Canadian Information Processing Society annual meeting.
CIPS, which is the largest national IT professional organization in Canada with more than 8,500 members, offers the conferences so information systems professionals (ISPs) can keep current with fast-changing trends in the world of high-tech. “We wanted to bring in speakers that were relevant, current, and had a good handle on the industry and where it was going and had good practical knowledge,” noted Deane.
Radwanski will speak on the topic of how technical solutions alone are not enough to address personal information protection.
“Privacy and security is such an issue in IT these days,” says Deane, who is the vice-president of ASP Solutions for Telus Enterprise Solutions. “It’s just critical for all IT practitioners to understand and to be paying attention. In every system we build, particularly with the influence of the Internet, security and privacy is one of the top areas.”
There are about 800 members of CIPS in Calgary, representing IT specialists in several industry sectors. An exhibition hall at the convention centre will host about 70 displays during the four-day conference, whose theme is “Technology Delivering Competitive Edge.”
Meanwhile, a gala dinner on Tuesday night will honour this year’s winners of the CIPS Awards of Achievement, which recognize the contribution to information technology by individuals and companies. More than 700 corporate executives and government officials from Calgary and Edmonton have registered to attend.
“The information and communication industry is so vital to the growth of Canadian companies, and the competitiveness not just of our individual companies but of governments and whole communities,” says Kevin Brown, chief information officer at EPCOR, who is chairing the awards.
Brown notes that Alberta was the first province to formally recognize IT professionals by enacting ISP legislation in 1997, a move later followed by Ontario, B.C. and other provinces.
The awards will be presented by Larry Conlee, COO for engineering and manufacturing product development for Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM).
Web Watch:
www.converge2001.com
