With the closure of the Bahrain International eGovernment Forum 2012, being under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology (SCICT); IT enthusiasts, experts, specialists, speakers, and visitors praised the successful attempts, organization and management of the event – which took place at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel and Spa from 9th- 11th April 2012.
Last day of the forum consisted of 11 speakers presenting two sessions; eParticipation and eInnovations/ Open Data; to discuss Information and Communication Technology topics, issues and the latest trends.
The eParticipation session involved five speakers – Managing Director and Founder of User Vision in UK Chris Rourke presenting Creating eGovernment Success through Usable, Citizen – Center Service Design Across Channels; Executive Director of National Information Society Agency in Korea Dr. Jeongwoon Yoon presenting Strategic Approach Towards Smart Society; Director Consulting at Babiel GmbH Alex Felsenberg presenting Participating in the Political Process: listening, collecting, channeling, reacting; Public Affairs and Corporate Citizenship Lead of Microsoft Turkey as well as the Founder and CEO of digitalgovernment.com Erdem Erkul presenting eParticipation; along with Principal at Booz & Company as well as Senior member of the Business Technology Practice in the Middle East Fady Kassatly presenting eParticipation – Is it for everyone? The Importance of Digital Inclusion.
The eInnovations/ Open Data session involved six speakers – Co-founder and Managing Director of Civic Resource Group Dr. Gregory Curtin presenting Open Data for F.A.S.T Government; Founding Member and Chairman of Open Data in Germany Stefan Gehrke presenting Open Data Networks in Germany; Deputy Director of Office of Government Organization MOPAS Minsun Jeong presenting Korea’s eInnovation; Manager and Regional Relations of ICANN Middle East Baher Esmat presenting Innovation: A new Internet Extensions; CEO of KindredHQ Alex Butler presenting Innovation in Government: Why entrepreneurial thinking is so Important?; and Head of UN University IIST Center for Electronic Governance and Senior Research Dr. Tomasz Janowski presenting Electronic Governance for Sustainable Development.