I’m blogging straight from the Microsoft CIO summit in Fort Ilocandia, Laoag City. This was my first time to attend the summit and I’m glad that Microsoft is stepping up in the development of the IT professionals in the Philippines.
The first day of the summit was a great networking session and started off with an Amazing quest (ala amazing race). In the span of 4 hours, the delegates went from Batac to Laoag City, to Pasiquin, and back to Fort Ilocandia. It was a fun race. We learned how to cook the famous empanada of Ilocos Norte and ride a provincial bus throughout the race! At night, the IT guys know how to party. There were team presentations that are very innovative which includes guys doing a hawaiian pamulinawen dance, to dwarfs dancing to the tune of an Ilokano song, and government officials in traditional filipino costumes dancing a pop dancing song.
The second day opened with a talk of Mckinsey consulting on the changing role of the IT manager. The traditional view of business on the role of the CIOs is that it is usually the senior IT leader in the organization. These days, the chief information officer of the organization are faced with four possible roles in the new information age. They could be one of the following roles: Head of Scale, Process Czar, a Chief Innovator or a Strategic Tech adviser. It was an eye opening challenge. Let me know if you are interested to know more about these new roles.
Lastly, another interesting thing that the microsoft guys are able to demonstrate was calling via WIFI. Yes, no need for a sim card! It uses a mobile phone that can communicate with voice over IP via a wifi connection. Imagine, if you can go to a free wifi connection, all your voice calls would be free. If I were a telco, I would be scared. Microsoft has a program called one follow me and tuloy/konek project in partnership with OWWA which leverages this technology.
That’s it for now. Let me know if you are interested to know more about the ongoing conference.
Anton
4 comments
Hmmm…telco watch out for this one. this will become your “greatest enemy”
Technology Management – Our Definition (beta) >> IT Talent, drained and on drought
…How I wish I can weed this perennial issue off my mind and emotions, but wherever I go, this topic never fails to haunt me. And it never occurred to me how badly depleted our country’s supply of caliber IT professionals is until this was tackled in the recently concluded Microsoft event held at Fort Ilocandia in Laoag dubbed as “5th Quest: The Microsoft CIO Summit Year 5.” Bai, di ko CIO, oy! I just managed to send my boss off for a 3-day errand so I could be his proxy for the event…