Social Communication tops SATNAC 2011 Agenda
Hosted by Telkom, the three day conference will see captains of industry deliver a number of keynote presentations around the conference theme: Social Communications: challenging the limits of technology and innovation.
The topical theme was chosen in line with recent predictions by international ICT researcher, Gartner, that by 2016 social technologies will be integrated with most business applications. Gartner advises that companies should bring together their social Customer Relationship Management, internal communications and collaboration, and public social site initiatives into a co-ordinated strategy.
“Social communication is fast going beyond the consumer and lifestyle realms to becoming a corporate necessity. The challenge, from a technology perspective, is to enable ongoing social communication which will require much innovation and collaboration,” explained Conference Chairman Marius Mostert.
To kick off this exciting conference, Anton Musgrave of FutureWorld SA will deliver the opening keynote address entitled: “Naked Leadership”. He will discuss the world of openness, transparency, open innovation and new accountability focusing heavily on the technology themes driving these core issues.
Other high level speakers include Nombulelo Moholi, Group CEO of Telkom; Nokia Siemens Networks Global CTO, Hossein Moiin and Director General of the Department of Communications, Rosey Sekese.
The conference provides a platform for industry, academia and operators within the Information Communications and Technology (ICT) sector to share views on key challenges facing the industry, and to discuss the progress achieved in applied research.
The programme also provides industry with an opportunity to engage with students working on various projects at the Telkom Centres of Excellence. Several post-graduate students from the 16 Telkom Centres of Excellence will present their research projects at the conference.
“It is often said that there is too little interaction between academic institutions and industry. SATNAC provides that opportunity for industry to influence tertiary institutions to become more outcome-focused and prepare engineers for their roles when they enter the workplace,” said Mostert.
SATNAC 2011 will be held in East London from 4 to 7 September at the East London International Convention Centre. All registrations have to be completed online (www.satnac.org.za).
The conference starts with a Welcome Function on Sunday evening. The traditional icebreaker golf day will begin at 09:30 on Sunday at the East London Golf Club.
Summit TV, the official broadcast partner for the conference, will broadcast the plenary sessions live and will also broadcast a highlights package in the week after the conference. Summit TV is available on DSTV Channel 412
