The Cebu Chamber of Commerce & Industry (CCCI) on its annual celebration of the Cebu Business Month (CBM) and in cooperation with the Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (CEDF-IT) is organizing the Cebu ICT 2009 Conference and Exhibition on June 25 to 27, 2009 at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).

The event this year carries the theme, “Cebu: e-merging Island of Innovation”. This event aims to celebrate with every ICT stakeholder in the country the momentous achievement of Cebu being recognized by Tholons Gobal Services — a leading full-service Strategic Advisory firm for Global Outsourcing and Investment — as #1 among fifty (50) top Emerging Outsourcing Cities of the World (Please check out this link: http://www.globalservicesmedia.com/Dgmag/oct2008/digimag.html). This same event also aims to gather the stakeholders of the Cebu ICT industry in order to advance the agenda of pursuing the next level goal of being acknowledged as an “emerged” rather than an “emerging” ICT investment destination, offshoring and outsourcing service provider.

The 3-day conference will feature a Plenary Session on 6/25 that would tackle issues such as, What is needed to accomplish Cebu’s vision of becoming an ICT hub; What is the roadmap to the infrastructure of the future, How can we build the business environment needed for ICT innovation; and How can we find new markets and new ways of providing ICT services. “We have invited internationally recognized speakers like Avinash Vashista (CEO & Founder, Tholons Global Services), Winston Damarillo (Chairman, Global Gateway Investment Group), Jon Kaplan (President, Teledevelopment) and Lope Doromal (Chief Technologist, IBM) who can share their experiences that are aimed at fast tracking the growth of the ICT industry in Cebu” said Jerry Rapes, Chairman of the Cebu ICT 2009.

Furthermore, there will also be breakout sessions on 6/26 that would highlight focused areas such as Technopreneurship, Human Resource Development and Technology Accelerators; as well as an Exhibition that would run from 6/25 to 6/27. “Entrance to the exhibition is free but, we will keep the first 1.5 days exclusive for the conference delegates then open it to the general public on Friday, 6/26 from 1pm to 5pm and on Saturday from 9am to 5pm” shares Arnold Banogon, Chairman of the Exhibition Committee for the Cebu ICT 2009.

There will also be other event highlights that are organized by conference sponsors and implementing partners. IBM will be conducting the V on Blades Roadshow on 6/25 and 6/26 and the Agility @ Scale on 6/26 at the CICC. In addition, the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) will be organizing a Developers’ Conference (DevCon – Visayas) within the Cebu ICT 2009 on 6/26, 2pm to 10pm. “We want to get the software developers in the Visayas area together during the Cebu ICT 2009 conference in order to share notes on new technologies and tools” said Diane Suico, Marketing Program Director, PSIA

Cebu ICT 2009 Chairman Jerry said,“At the end of this conference, we want to be able to make an assessment of where Cebu is and what we need to do to move forward. We will help build a plan of record, keep a scorecard on the progress we have made and share this with all the stakeholders. It is only through the proactive participation of all stakeholders that we can achieve the dream of Cebu becoming an ‘emerged’ ICT hub soon”.

For more information on Cebu ICT 2009 please visit: www.cebuict2009.com or contact Cebu ICT 2009 Organizing Committee through Denise Cristobal at mmcristobal@cebu-chamber.com