Manama: The 8th Bahrain International eGovernment Forum 2015; will be held from the 15th to the 19th of March in Isa Cultural Center and Bahrain International Circuit.
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, the event is being organized by the eGovernment Authority in partnership with the Bahrain Society of Engineers, Project Management Institute-(Bahrain Chapter) and YouthTech Society.
Over the years, the event has witnessed major development in terms of content and level of diversity, as well as growth. The event has recently been extended to a five day period in order to successfully focus on the exchange of knowledge and expertise in the field of eGovernment. This year the event is expected to host a number of officials both locally and internationally as well as international speakers, and for the first time this year the European Union and the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) Global will be participating as well.
The European Union will be represented by 50 delegates made up of experts and officials in the field of smart cities and eGovernment who will participate in a range of activities on the first day of the forum, where one of the officials will present the EU’s experience in smart cities. In addition, a group of speakers will participate in the eGovernment Success Stories workshop, as well as a scheduled closed meeting and workshop on the “Horizon 2020”.
During the official opening of the forum, winners of eGovernment Excellence Award 2015 will be awarded by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology.
The official opening ceremony is scheduled to be held in (March 15th) Isa Cultural Center, followed by plenary sessions addressing key topics including the Smart Cities and policies towards shifting Smart Cities. University of Fairland, US, Lecturer Dr. John Burton will present under the title of ‘Information Policies Expansion Associated with Smart Cities Implementations’, along with Professor Claude Rojetto who will transfer France’s experience in the field of Smart Cities.
The second session will focus on the best practices in the field of eGovernment, where Mr. Eric Smith, Executive Partner at Gartner, from the United Kingdom will highlight global best practices and digital government, and from the United States, Jim Jacoby, Software Engineering Expert at Moby and Strategic Expert in the field of Customer Experience Hala Semeasy will draw attention on ‘Mobile Applications and Customer Experience’.
While the second day (March 16th), a closed meeting of the European Union will be held, in which approximately 30 delegates from EU countries will participate in.
The following three days (March 17th to 19th) the rest of the activities will be concluded, consisting of specialized workshops which are organized through the existing cooperation between NGO’s, Institutes, International organizations and specialist speakers from various countries under the supervision of Bahrain’s eGovernment Authority, noting that the topics that will be address in the first day of the Forum are different than the topics that will be highlighted in workshops, along with the Bahrain IT Expo 2015 which is scheduled to take place in the Bahrain International Circuit from the 17th till the 19th of March.
The main topics that will be covered in the workshops are: Mastering Social Media Innovation Tools Workshop organized by the Social Media Club, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in ICT Environment organized by Ebtikar Society, Big Data and the Future organized by Bahrain Information Technology Society (BITS), Holistic Business Process Management: improvement of transformation organized by Future Smith, Building Defensible Critical Information Infrastructure organized by ISACA Bahrain Chapter, among other workshops in the field of project management, and finally eGovernment Success Stories organized by the eGovernment Authority.
Due to the success of the Bahrain IT Expo in the past few years, this year will include a distinguished group of exhibitors representing both the public and private sectors. In addition, it has been confirmed that this year for the first time, international companies from Hungary and India will be participating showcasing free-cutting edge products and outstanding technical demos.