Welcome
Happy New Year everyone!
We have another exciting year ahead of us and I just wanted to reflect briefly on 2009, before talking about our plans for 2010. In this update I will cover:
- Outcomes of our AGM and notice of our first steering committee meeting on (8th February)
- Our plans for 2010, including networking meeting dates for 2010
- Details of a special event: Opportunities from the Defence Strategic Reform Program (1st-2nd March)
Annual General Meeting
We held our 2009 AGM on the 9th November and we were all very encouraged by the turn out and feedback received from members and other supporters. Along with the usual formalities an AGM entails, a number of important outcomes from the meeting are worth highlighting:
Board Elections
This year we welcome two new non-executive board members to ICTI:
- Tony de Liseo, Bond International Software
- Chris Savage, Oasis Asset Management
I would also like to thank outgoing Board Members, David Evans (CommScope - Andrew Corporation) and Ashley Maher (Didymo Designs and convener of the ACS South Coast Chapter) for their contributions to the cluster during 2009. It is worth mentioning that Andrew Corporation were named as the 2009 Integral Energy Illawarra Business of the Year and I'm sure their support of the cluster is reflective of the overall excellence in their business practices.
A list of all current and past Board Members can be found on our Website - see board.
Establishment of a Steering Committee - first meeting on 8th February
During 2009 we found that the overhead of being an incorporated association became a barrier to our ability to effectively plans our business networking events. We agreed at the AGM that we would create a Steering Committee, comprised of ICTI members (including board representatives) and our sponsors, the University of Wollongong and Investment & Industry NSW, to co-ordinate those events moving forward. In effect this means we can have fewer formal ICTI association meetings and instead allow the Steering Committee to get on with the task of scheduling themes and speakers. This will also allow the Board to focus on other cluster initiatives and issues.
The first Steering Committee meeting with take place at 8am on Monday 8th February.
If you are an ICTI member and would like to participate in the Steering Committee, please contact us or watch our announcements mailing list for further details.
Plans for 2010
Our focus to date has very much been on attempting to deliver tangible and direct benefits to the local ICTI community. In this respect, during 2009 we:
- Held a series of business networking meetings, attended on average by
- Established a jobs mailing list, which received 7 job and tender opportunities; and
- Successfully lobbied Sen. Kate Lundy to host a policy consultation event here in Wollongong ("Public Sphere").
However, with so much focus on those initiatives I have to admit that the cluster has been caught out on numerous occasions where we have either been asked or have seen the need to contribute opinions on various local and national ICT issues. Unfortunately we have yet to actually formulate any agreed policies or positions on issues such as:
- Regional development projects;
- National Broadband Network;
- The Internet Filter; and
- The NSW State Plan.
As a result, in 2010 I have 3 goals as cluster president in mind for ICTI:
- Continue our successful business networking program, but co-ordinated through our new Steering Committee;
- Encourage and participate with the board (and members) in proactively developing agreed policy positions on key issues and opportunities for the ICT sector; and
- Identify 1 or more projects or initiatives with tangible outcomes in the medium-to-long term that ICTI will develop or support.
If you have any comments on the last two objectives, please let me know.
In the interests of giving you as much advance notice as possible, at a board planning meeting last week we also locked in the following dates for our networking events for 2010:
- Wednesday 17th March
- Wednesday 19th May
- Wednesday 21st July
- Wednesday 15th September
- Wednesday 17th November
Special Event: Opportunities from the Defence Strategic Reform Program - 1st-2nd March
Pencil this date into your diary now!
We are currently in the process of finalising arrangement to host a visit from the Director General Defence Preparedness, Wing Commander Anker Brodersen, who is planning to be in Wollongong on the 1st and 2nd March. Wing Commander Broderse is responsible for a large portion of the nation's Defence budget and he is interested to see how ICT companies in the Illawarra can contribute to the Preparedness and Personnel & Operating Costs (PPOC) reform stream of the Defence Strategic Reform Program. This program has the objective of finding $20bn in savings over the next decade.
We will begin his visit with a briefing from Wing Commander Brodersen on this Defence reform program on Monday morning (1st March), however ICTI member companies will also be able to schedule one-on-one meetings to present their capabilities or solutions and talk about the opportunities that might exist through this Defence reform program.
Please contact us to express your interest in meeting with Wing Commander Brodersen.
(Thank you to our Vice President, Geoff Goeldner, for leading this initiative.)
I'm very much looking forward to working and collaborating with you all during to 2010. As always, if you have something to contribute you can:
- Contact me or any other Board member directly with your feedback;
- Start a conversation on our discussion mailing list; or
- Submit an idea to our feedback forum.
See our contact page for more information.
Best Regards,
James
—
James Dellow, President ICTI
