The Naked Chief Blog

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. 

Brisbane, Australia: May 22, 2009: Brisbane based IT research firm, Longhaus, has secured the commercialisation rights to selected Queensland Government technology information, the Minister for Public Works and Information and Communication Technology, Robert Schwarten announced today.  In a first for Australia, the Queensland Government will inform industry of its current and potential technology spending through a range of information products offered by Longhaus. 

At approximately $24 Billion per annum, the Queensland ICT market accounts for almost 25% of Australia's total annual ICT expenditure. Within this market the Queensland Government is the single largest ICT purchaser.
In support of this regional ICT powerhouse, Department of Public Works Director-General and Queensland Government Chief Information Officer Mal Grierson this week signed a 5 year agreement for the commercialisation of data relating to the government's ICT footprint with information regularly collected from across Queensland's budget-funded agencies. Known as the Longhaus Baseline, this new service will bring an endorsed and unprecedented level of insight into both the spending and composition of Queensland Government ICT. 

If you are reading this blog then you will probably have noticed that the website has just gone through a significant change. One of the key drivers for the change has obviously been growth: in customers, in content, and certainly in expectation. While the last 12-months have been a great period for us, this upgrade is a great platform for planned improvements yet to come.  What follows is a summary of key improvements with a view to maximising your time with us each time you visit.

Exposing more personalised content:
Exposing yourself on the web is never a good idea but good netiquette aside the biggest change we have made to our site has been to provide more direct visibility to the content that over 100,000 visitors come looking for each year. The interactive modules on the homepage that provide direct access to "Access All Areas" "Public Research" and "Naked Chief Blog" content are now fully customisable both in terms of quantity  of content (0-15 articles per module) and homepage positioning. Put them in wherever order you would like.

Imagine coming to work tomorrow in a world without technology? Back in November Sam asked that very question in a Longview article  entitled, What the ICT industry needs is a great campaign. The article was widely distributed and read within Queensland’s key ICT industry groups. And in an Australian first, today’s Courier Mail ran a single page advertisement drawing a line in the sand for Australia’s political parties to meet them head-on under the attention grabbing headline "We already employee 70,000 Queenslanders and with your help we could create another 30,000 new jobs".

In an election campaign that has safely ignored the technology vote to-date, key industry groups including Software Queensland, AIIA, ITCRA, ASIBA, ACS, WIT, IT Gold Coast, and under-signed by the ICT Industry Working Group Executive Officer Dr Paul Campbell, are now demanding the attention of the incumbent Premier and Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg. 

Along with three other Brisbane-based CEO’s I am very pleased to have been short-listed for the Mercedes Benz Young CEO of the Year Award for the 2008 Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Business Awards; moreso that my fellow cohorts are certainly proven business successes and previous award winners on many levels.

I would have to say that as pleasing as the short-listing, was the quick responses I received from client referees at Microsoft (Amelia Agrawal), IBM (Karen Davis), and Evolution Media (Vanessa Stoykov) when approached to take a call from the judges on my behalf. And to think there was only one comment on how did I ever qualify for the young criteria.

While hardly the industry’s best kept secret let’s just say I still have a few years to run to hit the 40 milestone. Turning grey as far back as my teens hasn’t hindered credibility so far.  However to say that I was in good company with my fellow nominees would only tell half the story.

Photograph Left to Right: Phillip Di Bella, Di Bella Coffee; Avraam Solomon, Solomon Food Group; and Peter Carr, Longhaus.