The World Computer Congress (WCC), in one year's time, will provide a boost in the arm for the Australian and near-shore ICT market. Last week I was asked to fill the position of Deputy Chairman, International Program Committee, which yesterday I accepted.

The role includes responsibility for coordinating the right commercial content into the right streams of the conference to marry the objectives of the academic content provided through the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).  In short, oversight into making the congress content relevant for the marketplace. 

Yesterday on Twitter (@thenakedchief) I jokingly mentioned that I might attempt to use the position to ban the term 2.0 from all conference content. But all jokes aside it is a real privelge to be involved in the core organising team headed in Australia by Mark Lloyd.  

The  WCC in September 2010  will be held in Brisbane and attract several thousand people to Australia. The congress is officially hosted by IFIP which turns 50 next year and essentially includes multiple conferences under the single umbrella of the WCC.

The WCC's power is the alignment of academic content and research to the commercialised application of such thought. Basically, academics will stand alongside the brightest public and private sector speakers and cover topics across eight broad streams aptly named: Govern IT, Deliver IT, Trust IT, Vitalise IT, Play IT, Value IT, Sustain IT, and Learn IT.

Delegates can snake their way through a matrix of content over four main days which are book ended by technical certification sessions (a common feature at mega international conferences but not so much here), and technical tours. Play IT is even planning its own computer gaming event to run in conjunction with the main program.

Submissions for content are obviously coming from all over the world and it will present an especially great opportunity for local organisations to contribute content that will stand-up on a world stage. While academic submissions will close 31^st January 2010, commercial submissions will remain open until about April next year.

The co-ordination of that content will flow locally through the 8 stream chairs (including Prof Michael Rosemann, Prof. Bill Caelli, Dr Peter Beven, Retired Assoc. Prof. Chris Avram, Laura Daniels, Phil Nyssen, Nick Tate, and Wayne Knack) with whom I will work to beat the under-brush in order to identify substantive contributions.

The Chairman of the Local Organising Committee is Mark Lloyd, VP and National Board Member of the Australian Computer Society. Mark's task is no small under-taking and support at a national level, from a united industry is sure to highlight some amazing opportunities for Australia as the world wakes from its economic slumber.

If your firm has any interest in WCC2010 involvement then please drop either Mark ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or myself a line. Also stay tuned for a WCC2010 twitter handle in the near future.

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