High-profile FAYA: 80 conference to address challenges in IT sector

TechnoparkToday.com>> World-renowned innovators, influential technologists and leading entrepreneurs will converge on the city next week for a day-long summit to evaluate emerging trends in a dynamic IT landscape and explore new ideas for developers and organisations to navigate, adapt and grow in the face of unpredictability.

Besides highlighting the impact of seismic shifts across various technology domains, the event, ‘Disrupt Kerala 2017’, on Wednesday (July 5) will also moot programmes and possibilities for Kerala’s IT sector to keep abreast of the change in the coming years.

Organised by FAYA:80 (read as FAYA Port 80) in association with Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), NASSCOM and ICFOSS, the high-profile event will feature seminars, workshops and a panel discussion by a number of prominent personalities, including IT Secretary Shri M. Sivasankar. Among the topics to be discussed are future trends in Data Management, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, User Experience, Blockchain technology, Mixed Reality and Internet of Things (IoT).

The event marks the 50th edition of FAYA:80– a gathering of technology enthusiasts at Technopark held on the first Wednesday of the month. The series of meet-ups, which began in 2013, is dedicated to free knowledge sharing and aims to provide an open platform for entrepreneurs, developers and technology professionals to keep at par with the latest tools and technologies.

“The technology disruption happening in the IT industry across the world has a positive impact on startups as new technologies are becoming increasingly affordable to the masses. This will eventually lead to disruption in large organisational spaces as the future relays to agile small entrepreneurs who adopt and adapt the technology quite effectively. The FAYA:80 conference will discuss these emerging trends in depth,” KSUM CEO Dr Saji Gopinath said.

The sessions, which will also examine a host of current and coming opportunities and challenges with regard to employment and entrepreneurship prospects across tech specialties, will run concurrently starting with a 9 am inauguration at four venues in Technopark.

A line-up of tech luminaries will address attendees at the event, including a keynote speech on ‘Tech Disruption – Opportunities & Threats’ by Michael Gord, Bitcoin Canada founder and CEO of MLG Blockchain Consulting. Gord will also take part in a panel discussion on ‘Staying Relevant in the Age of Disruption’ that will see participation from Shri Sivasankar, SunTec Business Solutions founder K. Nanadakumar and Rahul Alex Panicker, whose Embrace Innovations firm was recognised by the UN, among other leading lights.

Running in parallel to the discussions and lectures will be live demonstrations of virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality. As well, there will be a workshop and demonstration of the incredible potential of bionics – a discipline that marries biological concepts and mechanisms to the study and design of engineering systems.

“Given the state of turbulence in the IT sector, it is indeed timely to discuss current and emerging trends. The perspectives put forth at conferences like FAYA:80 are incredibly relevant to this discussion. The event will play a crucial role in exploring ways to bring Kerala IT on a par with global industry standards,” ICFOSS Director Dr Jayasankar Prasad said.