By : Nilu Rajapakse
NBQSA 2009 Awards Night and Gala Dinner was held at grand scale on 16th October 2009, at the Waters Edge, Battaramulla. Starting with only a few participants back in 1998, today NBQSA features forty innovative ICT products competing in fourteen categories and seventy tertiary student projects, all competing to win the overall Gold trophy.
The organizing committee observed that more and more better quality innovative ICT products compete every year. Ever increasing participation has demanded extra effort each successive year from the volunteering ICT professionals representing the BCS Sri Lanka Section Executive Committee in organizing this mammoth project. NBQSA is the only national event which enables ICT professionals and companies to showcase their products in the National arena and obtain the NBQSA seal of excellence. There is a very high enthusiasm shown among the ICT companies and user organizations in this event every year. After nearly twelve months of preparation, the programme culminates at the NBQSA awards ceremony & gala dinner every year. Some of the winning entries will go through to compete in this year’s Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) to be held in Melbourne, Australia in December.
The NBQSA programme is an initiative by the BCS Sri Lanka Section to achieve a number of broad objectives as the prime local ICT professional body in promoting professional standards, best practices and benchmarking, to recognize and honour the best ICT products created in Sri Lanka to facilitate Sri Lanka to produce world class lCT products & benchmark them against the best in the region & the world, to encourage innovation by providing a platform for competition, to create opportunities for ICT companies and professionals, locally and internationally, to create a platform to share resources, knowledge and build a network of ICT companies and individuals with international scope, to boost ICT sector capacity building, to make the high-tech industry and ICT sector the number one contributor to the National economy.
In his message marking the 11th anniversary of NBQSA, Alan Pollard, President, BCS The Chartered Institute for IT highlighted the contribution IT professionals make to society and put locally developed IT products into the international spotlight. He also said pointed out that IT is a global profession and as The Chartered Institute for IT, our aim over the coming months and years is to ensure that we continue to reach out to IT professionals across the globe. “We already have members in over 100 countries including a very active and high profile section in Sri Lanka where I’m delighted to say that we have over 4,000 members.” he added.
Dr. Gihan Wikramanayake, Chairman BCS Sri Lanka Section said that BCS Sri Lanka Section has dedicated this year’s NBQSA for the year of English & Information Technology. Dr. Wikramanayake said that 42 commercial products and 58 tertiary student projects competed in 14 categories in this year’s event. “Our students have already received due international recognition having won the Gold award on several occasions at the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) and last year Sri Lanka was honoured with five APICTA awards in both industry and student categories.” Dr. Wikramanayake further stated.
Vajeendra Kandegamage, Chairman - NBQSA 2009 said that NBQSA is already acknowledged as the only national ICT event in Sri Lanka with international recognition. It also engulfs global trends with more specific information relevant to the fast growing ICT industry.
M.G. Tillekeratne, Chairman, NBQSA 2009 Panel of Judges said “Over the past years, this event has enabled the local ICT product developers to gain both local and international recognition for their ICT products. By winning the first ever Gold Award in the Commercial Category at Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) held in Jakarta, Indonesia last year by one of the Sri Lankan ICT company, it is evident that the initiatives set out by this competition have immensely helped the Sri Lankan ICT industry to progress and improve the standards of product quality.”
