News & Views
Delegates have their say
 GovTech
Times roving team took some time off to speak to delegates about
their experience of the conference. The views around the
conference were consistent, and largely focused on the
significance of networking and shaping business opportunities.
Birgit Smythe from Airtech Consulting said that her focus when
attending GovTech is to network. “The opportunities the
conference provides are invaluable for companies as small as
mine,” she said.
Batho Makhakhe from Equiton Solutions, also shares this view on
GovTech’s usefulness. “The sessions were quite informative and
helpful in terms of us shaping our business direction,” he said.
The team also caught up with Sheldon Fynn, a small business
person from Inathi IT Solutions who said that he has opened a
new company, GovTech provides a platform for him to maneuver and
network.
“SITA should however consider giving more prominence in the
exhibition to SMME’s and this could be in line with SITA’s
objective to support SMMEs and leverage on the economies of
scale,” he adds.
He was also impressed with the quality of speakers. “Eghshaan
Khan, SITA’s CIO blew my mind with his discussion around open
source. He has demonstrated that Open Source can work,” Fynn
concluded.
A young Department of Health employee who preferred to be
anonymous, said that the conference met her expectations. “This
is a world class event. The conference is not the same
traditional kind where delegates feel the agenda was copied and
pasted from previous conferences,” she said.
She too was impressed by Eghshaan Khan’s presentation.
“Eghshaan’s presentation clearly demonstrated that there has
been progress from what was said in GovTech 2007,” she
concluded.
Lastly, the team spoke to Colin Benjamin from the Department of
Agriculture. He said that it is good to experience the
diversity. “It shows that there is improvement in the way of
equity in the ICT industry,” he says.
One consistent complaint was around the registration process and
suggested that this be reviewed for future conferences.
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