FITIS to host API Asia Conference 2019 in October

Colombo will host the API Asia Conference 2019 for the first time in October, in an effort to help transform the ICT industry, and also fast track efforts in ensuring a digitally savvy Sri Lanka. The conference will be held on 2 October at Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo and is organised by the apex body of the ICT industry, Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka (FITIS). 

The event will attract more than 700 professionals including industry and business leaders as well as developers and architects, who seek to gain insights on how their companies can benefit through the digital transformation and move forward amidst a competitive market space. 

The theme of the conference is ‘Connect, Collaborate & Transform’ and will feature a line-up of global speakers from Australia, United States as well as Asia Pacific who will share inspiring and insightful thoughts throughout the conference. The conference will focus on several key tracks covering Biz, Tech, Banking, Finance, Insurance, Telecom, Digital Gov., and Smart City. 

The ultimate aim of the conference is to help Sri Lankan and regional businesses understand the importance of moving away from conventional business methodologies, and digitally transform their companies, which will eventually enhance customer experience, optimise operations and improve the business model. 

FITIS Chairman Abbas Kamurdeen said that the youth of today are surpassing the experienced corporate executives in embracing technology. “The Chief Officers have a daunting task to manage technology, finances and growth in a manner so that the business is progressing while the investments for the future is made in an informed manner,” he said. According to him, technology plays a major role in this situation, as the enabler.

Abbas said that in helping fulfil this objective, FITIS has embarked on a very timely conference on Application Programming Interfaces (API)s for Business Leaders to help them understand and use such technologies in order to gain a competitive advantage of their business. 

The conference will incorporate a range of learning experiences, apart from the technical sessions and keynote speeches. A unique feature of the API Asia Conference is that it will include a range of workshops, demos, customer related stories and also hackathons which will provide the delegates a holistic learning experience. 

API Asia Conference 2019 Chairman Fairooz Habeeb said that APIs are touching every facet of society and enterprise services in particular relies heavily on APIs to enable their digital transformation efforts. He said that organisations have used APIs to transform the business and remain competitive in the global services domain. “Organisation should invest in technology partners who understand the benefits of all technology to support and understand how organisation transform the business through digital transformation,” he said. 

According to Fairooz Habeeb, FITIS has partnered with some of the world’s best API providers for local companies to connect at the conference. APIs are key for a successful digital transformation and sustained business growth. Not only have APIs become key for application developers to streamline operations across business and product suites, they have also become an integral part of product development, business strategy, and scalability. 

The conference is open to companies who are already in the API and platform game, as well as companies that are growing and starting to see the challenges of offering services to a large number of clients. 

The Platinum Sponsor of the API Asia Conference 2019 is WSO2 Lanka Ltd., while 

Ernst & Young is the Knowledge Partner and the ICTA Agency Sri Lanka and Ministry of Digital Infrastructure and Information Technology will be the National Partners.