NEWS: Asia Pacific Internet-builders to gather at KL summit

KUALA LUMPUR: A technical summit on the Internet and operational technologies will take place here next month.

This 10-day forum targets Internet builders, including backbone and regional network operators and engineers. It will feature training activities, workshops, conferences, social events, plenaries and more.

The Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (Apricot) 2010 is hosted by the Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (Pikom).

It is scheduled to run from Feb 23 to March 5 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, and is expected to draw about 600 participants from 40 countries.

Among the many topics to be discussed are security issues, network management, and Voice-Over-Internet Protocol which is technology that enables phone calls via the Web.

Pikom president C.J. Ang said Apricot’s objective is to provide a forum for Internet service providers, telcos and other key players in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry to learn from their peers in the Internet building community.

“With the proliferation of broadband services and close to 50% Internet penetration in this country, Apricot’s agenda will help enhance the knowledge of our ICT professionals,” he said.

Ang said the conference would also benefit professionals in the Asia Pacific, where Internet services, regional networks, web-hosting facilities, firewalls and corporate intranets are being created and deployed at a staggering pace.

“ICT engineers are under tremendous pressure to master the skills needed to build and operate these increasingly complex systems,” he said.

Apricot is organised by the Asia & Pacific Internet Association (APIA), which is a non-profit trade association whose aim is to promote the common business interests of the Internet-related service industry in the Asia Pacific region. APIA was established in 1997.

The event here is is supported by the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry, Information, Communications and Culture Ministry, and the Multimedia Development Corporation, guardian of the MSC Malaysia initiative.

For more information on this year’s summit, surf to www.apricot2010.net.