Huge IT event 12 conferences in one for capital
A HUGE information technology gathering will be held in Wellington next July.
The event, ITx 2016, is being organised by 12 industry bodies, which aim to attract more than 1200 delegates over three days to the venue at TSB Arena and Shed 6.
Institute for Information Technology Professionals (IITP) chief executive Paul Matthews said the event might be slightly smaller than Microsoft’s annual Ignite technology conference, September.
But it would be the largest ‘‘independent’’ tech-rated conference in New Zealand in a generation.
It would be aimed at professionals working in the industry, rather the general public, and would culminate in an awards ceremony, the Excellence in IT Awards, he said.
Other partners in ITx include NZTech, NZRise, InternetNZ, the Telecommunications Users Association and the Open Source Society.
Matthews said the goal was to hold
last held in Auckland in 12 ‘‘individual tech-related under one roof.
‘‘ITx will bring together leaders in the tech sector from around New Zealand and the world.’’
The industry had been criticised for being ‘‘fragmented’’ but the event showed it was able to work together, he said.
Bringing what might otherwise have been several completely separate conferences together meant the partner organisations could share logistics and could provide greater value for attendees, he said.
conferences’’
The idea was that ITx would be a regular event, initially held every two years.
The announcement of the conference came in the wake of a report by Victoria University which said Wellington’s digital sector was a major contributor to the region’s economy but ‘‘nearly invisible’’.
Few people had heard of many of the 400 to 500 companies in the industry, the university study said.
Matthews said the harbourside venue for ITx would be at ‘‘maximum capacity’’.