International ICT conference to draw $3-5 billion investment in Canadian economy: Organizers

Organizers for the next World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT), to be held in Montreal in 2012, are expecting the event to draw investments of $3-5 billion in the Canadian economy. Montreal won the hosting privileges for conference, known as the “Olympics of information and communication technology,” in 2008. The international event is held every two years, and brings together politicians, industry leaders, officials and academics to forge business deals and policy agreements and discuss the impact of information communication technologies (ICTs) on society. WCIT 2012, to be held May 21-24, 2012, is expected to draw more than 3,000 delegates and 50,000 visitors, exhibitors and media representatives from over 90 countries. The event will feature 100 speakers and accommodate 1,000 business-to-business meetings. “It’s high level. are inviting the CEOs from the top 50 to 75 companies in the world: IBM, Microsoft, Intel …” Claude Lemay, WCIT 2012 CEO and vice-president of the Quebec region for the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), told The Wire Report. “We’re expecting maybe 50 to 70 ministers to be present as well.” With a budget of $15-20 million for the conference, Lemay said he expects the event to bring in $3-5 billion for Canadian industry through contracts, agreements and other investment. Past conferences have attracted influential speakers such as Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and Bill Clinton. Montreal’s WCIT is scheduled to open with an address from Prime Minister Stephen Harper. On the WCIT 2012 website, Harper appears in a video inviting delegates to the conference. Industry Minister Tony Clement travelled to this year’s WCIT in May in Amsterdam. Clement led a 75-person Canadian delegation, made up of provincial and federal government officials, private IT enterprises, small and medium-sized ICT companies, and members of ITAC. Lemay said that, along with attracting big ICT players, the conference draws large users of technology, such as GE, Hitachi, Toyota and Procter & Gamble. The conference also helps draw attention to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which Lemay said will be in focus. “The other part is trying to help SMEs … What I’m trying to do with this is attract the big guys, but also promote the small and medium size industry,” he said. Lemay said he is touring 60 countries to promote the event and the Canadian ICT sector. “When I go to Korea, Japan or the U.S., I am trying to match ITAC, which represents 500,000 of the 600,000 ICT workers in Canada, with these local associations all around the world,” he said. “ICT is needed to accelerate productivity in all sectors, and so is good for Canada. It’s good for Montreal.” Last year, Lemay visited 24 of the 60 countries on his list, and is planning to leave for the United States next week. He said he will be visiting Europe in September, followed by Africa in October and Asia in November and December. Bernard Courtois, ITAC president, said he expects the event to bring significant business to Canada. “There will be partnerships made. This can be firms that find people to distribute their product, or vice-versa, as well as people having discussions with economic people here in Canada to bring investment,” he said. Vahe Kassardjian, president of Integration New Media, a Montreal-based digital content and custom application firm, said he expects the conference to strike a balance between policy making and business networking for small and large enterprises. He said his company will be attending the conference with the hope of making new contacts. “It’s more about opening doors than sealing deals,” he said. “It’s a unique venue. How can you, as a Canadian entrepreneur, find ways to establish contacts worldwide, other than going to ?” Wayne Karpoff, president of Willowglen Systems Inc., a supervisory control and data acquisition products and services provider based in Edmonton, said the key to being successful at the WCIT is to target industry associations from other countries—and through them their members—rather than trying to approach small businesses individually. “This is a different type of a show, and it presents a fairly unique but different type of opportunity,” he said. “If you’re just looking for pure end-customers to maybe buy an iPhone application or something like that, that may not be the right conference for them.” The theme for WCIT 2012 is “the new ICT-driven society.” It will call on delegates to discuss how to better integrate ICTs to propel economies, improve government efficiency, enhance communications on an international level, and respond to demographic issues. Lemay said one of the key topics will be attracting much-needed talent to Canada. “We’re still looking to hire another 100,000 people in the next two-to-three years, so we have to tell young people that there are a lot of jobs, and it’s very interesting.” Kassardjian, who attended the WCIT 2010 in May, said he was disappointed by the event because it dealt too much with policy, not focusing enough on business connections. “It wasn’t the right venue for , because as a conference it was mostly about policy as opposed to directly helping entrepreneurs,” he said. Karpoff, who also attended this year’s conference, said WCIT is different from other conferences in that it takes on more of a global, policy-driven approach. “What WCIT is about is looking at the grand challenge of how do we change the planet-type problems. It attracts people who are supposed to about that,” he said. “IT, in most of the world, and in most of Canada, is an attack of the killer ants kind of thing … smaller companies solving really large problems, and how do we do that.” Coutois said that, for Canada, WCIT 2010 was more about making connections than signing deals. The deals will be reserved for Montreal’s conference. “ was to make arrangements with information technology associations from other countries that know their members have an interest in partnering with Canadian firms,” he said. “When you do these meetings, the work is trying to connect to the right firms, and made a lot of progress.” kfournier@thewirereport.ca -- CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story referred to the WCIT as the World Conference on Information Technology. The correct title is the World Congress on Information Technology.

International ICT conference to draw $3-5 billion investment in Canadian economy: Organizers

Broadcast | July 9, 2010

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