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By Frances Bulathsinghala
Disruption was the intention on 28 July as Sri Lanka’s biggest pioneering tech start up event took place in Sri Lanka. A dismantling and destroying of old mentalities and status quo that young people should be the mere docile recipient of jobs. Disrupt Asia as the event was aptly called, sought and achieved the giving of a new dimension to the concept of ‘Disruption’, as we know it. It aimed to disrupt standard images in our minds of youth and employment as well as the interlink between technology and everyday life, in keeping with the objectives of Sri Lanka’s the single apex body involved in directing information computer technology policy for the nation, the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA).
The biggest tech event to date in Sri Lanka Disrupt Asia brought together and showcased a network of diverse youth origin technology start up ideas providing for them investor options alongside a technology conference with prestigious international guest speakers, investor workshops, networking sessions and several related events.
As Information Communication and Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Muhunthan Canagey stated in his address at the event, Disrupt Asia is part of the ICTA’s all encompassing technological renovation for Sri Lanka that will re-invent how everyday life happens, for the better, integrating of all of Sri Lanka with IT technology irrespective of whether it is urban or rural.
He explained in his speech that ICTA envisages a future where using information technology will be a everyday reality for all daily tasks in the rural most areas, with the facilitation of all island internet connectivity through Google loon, the research and development project being developed with the mission of providing Internet access to rural and remote areas.
“It will be normal for a farmer in a remote area to be integrated with technology so that he uses it for his everyday tasks such as checking for daily prices for his commodities,” he said, explaining the vision ICTA has for taking Sri Lanka to a level where the usage of information technology will not be limited to a certain class or set of people in the urban locations.
As ICTA Program Manager Sachindra Samararatne pointed out in his address the very name Disrupt Asia was chosen for the event to signify the changing of the status quo that information technology is showing in all our everyday tasks from banking to leisure and business. The future as envisaged for Sri Lanka is one where the younger generation becomes the flag-bearers of IT development providing not only IT solutions within the country but globally so as to claim a world niche in this sector. In this regard the role of IT technology in the sector of small and medium enterprise is a significant factor that Sri Lanka is focusing on and with ICTA has helped over 42 companies to give enable them to start their business.
“It was seen in the beginning as a controversial step as the government was giving seed money to the private sector but we did that keeping in mind that it will be the younger generation who will create employment rather than be the passive recipients of employment,” Samararatne said.
Speaking with Financial Times Sachindra Samararatne said that the success of the event among the young people who wanted to showcase their products was that they actually bought the nominally priced tickets to do so.
“They were paying for the chance to show case their innovations, the chance to meet up with the local and global investors as well as to take part in all the events that were happening concurrently,” he explained.
The social media had been the sole form of advertising about the event and the form of communication used to get across to young people. Thereby IT and non IT related Facebook groups, entrepreneurship social media sites and the related social media posts by the hosts of the event had been sufficient to draw in the required crowds.
A highlight of the main conference hosted at Disrupt Asia was the presence of members of the global technological companies of the techno hub of the techno start up ampitheatre that is Silicon Valley in the United States where the Computer History Museum and NASA’s Ames Research Centre and similar institutions are located. Among the sponsoring partners for the event were the majority of youth run IT entrepreneur companies such as Edulink as the e ticketing partner, Startup Sri Lanka as the digital media partner, Takas.lk as the online media partner, Seven Media as the communications partner, ReadMe and Shoutout as the interactive media partners and with support from Arimac, Angelabs and the American Embassy.
The keynote addresses were made by two young global high tech startup wizards, J. F. Gauthir, the Chief Operating Officer of Startup Compass, and by Brian Wong, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kiip, the global mobile advertising network company.
Leading benchmarking solutions for e-commerce and tech businesses, J.F. Gauthrier is the lead author of the Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking, Waterloo and Hong Kong with a history of innovation and leading startup companies, having started his career in banking with an MBA from Harvard Business School.
The keynote speaker for the closing of the event was Brian Wong, the 25 year old Canadian internet entrepreneur who co-founded at 18 years of age while waiting to recover from a leg fracture a mobile reward company called Kiip that helped companies boost their image by rewarding for achievements such as gaming, running, walking and everyday acts that are directly or indirectly linked with markets.
Tracing his childhood growing up as a migrant in Canada, he spoke of how his innate curiosity in how people used technology and gaming in the plane during long flights led to his creating his company, along with a bout of being bedridden and jobless.
“In the year 2010, I walked in to my house at 3 a.m. and told my mother on Mother’s Day that I lost my job and she told me later that it was the worst birthday present that I could give her. Then I had a knee fracture while playing ice hockey and was laid up in bed for three months and I did the best thing I could do in that situation; I formed a company,” he quipped.
Tracing the stream of ideas that made him start the company he did he explained: “I used to wonder about the potential that lay in connecting people with everyday products they use by in turn connecting them with the everyday acts they do like walking, running or … even haircuts. I used to take great pleasure in making these random statements about something I believed could be a great start up and then get people all excited about it.”
A brilliant and witty speaker as he is a technological innovator he looks more like a high school student than a multi-million dollar worth tech start up wizard who started his company at 18 years. The choice by ICTA of Brian Wong as a speaker should be congratulated for the sheer out of box energy he brought to the audience, as a young person sharing his wisdom drawn from his real life ideas brought into reality.
Back to the exhibition and the technological innovations that were showcased at Disrupt Asia; there was a range of products such as virtual reality gaming products, innovations that centred around IT banking, software and equipment to read and monitor internet traffic in offices etc., as well as a host of other events.
The events in the form of workshops and discussions held at Disrupt Asia included a discussion on ‘Building the startup ecosystem in Sri Lanka,’ moderated by Anushka Wijesinghe and focusing on integrating the start up entrepreneurs to Sri Lanka’s economic growth and employment generation potential as well as questioning how Sri Lanka matches against the foreign start up milieu and learning from the journey of the IT start up industries of other countries.
Also featured were challenging discussions such as ‘Bootstrap vs Funding,’ moderated by Calcey co-founder and CEO Mangala Karunaratne to debate the perennial whether it is better to bootstrap and plod along until you make your profit or spend business time and energy looking for funding.
The session ‘Fintech for tomorrow’, moderated by Kanishka Weeramunda examined the marriage between the financial sector and technology, looking at many dimensions of potential for innovation. The session pointed out that the global investment in financial technology more than tripled to $ 4 billion in 2013 from $ 930 million in 2008. The topics that were discussed in this session included the overcoming of regulatory challenges, influencing banks to innovate via technology and introducing IT products that ‘disrupt’ banks altogether.
The session on ‘Growth Hacking’, moderated by Loops Solutions Head of Digital Marketing Indulekha Nanayakkara, looked at the miracle phenomena of start ups that become successful overnight examining the growth hacking process as one where rapid experimentation is carried out by growth hackers who are marketers, engineers and product managers, specifically focusing on buiding and engaging the user base of business.
The session on ‘Role of the Chief Technology Officer’, moderated by WS02 Writer and Marketer Yudhanjaya Wijerathne, looked at the importance of the role of the CTO as the person who manages and creates financial policy of an organisation while the session Walk the Talk moderated by Calcey Director, Sales and Product Marketing Mudith Uswatte, along with a panel of three individuals from different backgrounds who have tasted success through perseverance sought to explain how anyone can bring their practices in sync with their missions, visions and values and prove their ability.
The session titled ‘Investment Journey’, had WS02 Founder and CEO Sanjiva Weerawarana as the main speaker who spoke on the aspects of funding and the journey of looking for an investor. The session titled ‘The future of Education’, moderated by Informatics Institute of Technology Dean Dr. Ruvan Weerasinghe, looked at the question ‘What is the future of education for Sri Lanka?’, looking at the E-dimension and potential of education. The session ‘Idea to Reality’, with the speaker being 2Messenger co-founder and CEO Jayomi Lokuliyana, took on the matter of bringing ideas in our heads into reality, whether these ideas are generated by an entrepreneur, corporate executive or a student. The session titled ‘Picking your dream team’, had as speaker Capital Maharaja Organisation Group Director Chevaan Daniel, who spoke on picking your partners in success for any meaningful business or community venture. Focusing on creative ways of carrying out interviews by considering the 5C method of Commitment, Cost-to-the-company, Connections, Character and Creativity, the session looked at the importance of finding people as passionate as yourself about working for a common vision.
The session ‘Create value in late stage investments’, moderated by Business Coach and Entrepreneur Fayaz Hudah, looked at the stage at which how one could sustain investment at the stage when one has bypassed the initial hurdles and are established in the market but nevertheless need to continue to focus on investment sustainability. The session ‘Corporate Growth through Innovation’, by speaker Mas Holdings Board Member and Chief Growth Officer Nathan Sivagananathan, looked at the aspect of innovation and how corporations could benefit from working towards brand change and innovation and how this impacts the economy.
The session ‘Think Global from the Start’, moderated by Buffet Systems Engineer Adnan Issadeen, looked at the importance of a wide globally oriented vision for your business enterprise. Drawing on inspiration from Abdul Kalam when he said, ‘It is a crime to dream small’, looked at changing the entrepreneur mindset to a global one, from the onset of the very beginning of the idea generation of a business.
To name a few of the exhibits of the many that were showcased were the gaming products of Arimac which were showcasing their virtual reality advertising and gaming products where one, with the assistance of an Oculus that you strap on so that with binocular type facility it re-defines the digital entertainment taking the person into the time and space of the advertisement or game concerned. Arimac which had developed a Virtual Kitchen product for in terms of advertising speaks of how one could, when taking part in that process become one with the ad and actually experience the virtual cooking process where you feel and sense the experience. In the same manner the gaming products that they have developed are similar where you actually feel you are scaling the walls on some fancy bike.
Meanwhile ParaQum Technologies Ltd. showcased two products; a network analyser and video coding solutions. The network analyser is a small box machine that analyses all the data that flows through the network and video coding solutions is a compressor of a video to save on bandwidth. ParaQuam Technologies was established in 2014 by University of Moratuwa Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering Faculty Head of Department Dr. Ajith Pasqual, along with three of his students. Today the company employs 30 full time staff and is working on diverse technological products in partnership with technological companies of Silicon Valley.
The Financial Times in the weeks to come hopes to continue the debates and discussions raised by Disrupt Asia, as well as continue to showcase some of the innovations that were displayed that we did not have the space to share in this article.
