Welcome Address

Welcome to Technology Senate 2006

Sandeep Ajgaonkar, Editor of Express Computer and Network Magazine welcomed the delegates with a brief address.

Delegates, their better halves, partners and friends, on behalf of the Indian Express Group, I would like to extend to you a very warm welcome to Technology Senate 2006—our fourth edition.

As always, our paramount objective is to create a happy haven, a retreat for the country’s leading technocrats and IT decision-makers, within whose comfort we as a community can discuss technology nuances. Our objective is to build a community of ardent believers who meet each year to share and learn from each other.

So what can you expect to find this year around? Well, based on your last three years of feedback, we have ferociously tweaked the elements of Technology Senate, and have distilled our focus to cover seven key areas.

One, we have three days of tracks on subjects that would be of interest to you.

Two, all of these will end by 4:30 p.m. each day.

Three, the highly recognised awards for and by the community...the Microsoft Security Strategist Awards, the SAS Intelligent Enterprise Awards, and the Emerson Uptime Champion Awards will be presented at this event.

Four, there are the P2P sessions where you will meet and hear CIOs from amongst you as they discuss with candour just what it takes to be a CIO today.

Five, a small yet highly focussed exhibition with concept stalls will help you sit back and discuss the technologies that you’d like to know a little more about.

Then there’s the venue itself...the Star Cruise, its facilities, and special programmes to help you both network and unwind at the end of each day.

Last, but by no means the least, this year we’ve introduced ‘Zero Hour,’ an open informal forum to let us and your fellow audience members know first hand your experience—the good, the bad and what you would most wish for… the next time around.

On a personal note, I’d like to say I am happy to see in this room an eclectic mix of many familiar and some new faces—a clear sign of the emerging innovators in the adoption of technology.