Professor Emeritus Tapio Varis, United Nations (UN) chair on e-Learning has accepted to deliver the keynote at the 2013 National Software Conference and Competition organized by the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) in partnership with the Government of Cross-River State, a move expected to improve Nigeria’s global ICT rating and draw Foreign Direct investment (FDI).
ISPON, having secured the acknowledgement of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on her development efforts in the Nigeria Software Ecosystem, is ready to play host to Prof. Tapio Varis, before an estimated array of 850 ICT audience at her flagship National Software Conference.
The event is confirmed to hold between 22-23 October, 2013 at the Tinapa Knowledge City, Tinapa, Calabar, Cross River State with the theme: “Software Strategies for Retooling the Workforce (SORWORK)”.
Cross section of the audience expected include International/ECOWAS ICT Experts, Nigerian ICT professionals/engineers, hot-head coders/software-developers, government policy makers from Federal and State MDAs, Lecturers and Researchers, venture capitalists, students of computer science related courses from tertiary institutions around the federation, ICT Journalists and other stakeholders.
Selected distinguished Expert group to discuss his paper includes, but not limited to the following: Dr. Engr. Ernest Ndukwe,former EVC of NCC & chairman, Open Media Group; Prof. Pat Utomi – founder, Center for Values in Leadership; Amb. Nkoyo Toyo, member, Federal House of Representatives, Engr. Alfred Okoigun, MD/CEO Arco Petrochemicals Ltd; Barbara James – founder Henshaw Capital Partners, Prof. Charles Ayo,VC Covenant University; and Prof. Musbau Akanji – VC FUT Minna.
Meanwhile, Prof. Varis, the keynote speaker is currently promoting the conference internationally in USA, Europe, Japan and Africa, at the highest level of Intellectual knowledge domain.
In his recent correspondence to Chris Uwaje, president, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, Varis said as follows:
“Dear Chris, Thank you very much for your excellent preparations for my keynote presentation in Tinapa, Nigeria, on the 22nd October, 2013. I copied your expectations below and want to share this message with some relevant connections that I am working with. I will try to link my keynote to the following institutions: ‘UNESCO – our Global University System where I am acting president (and key to the Japanese and U.S), support your projects.
I already gave a Keynote with Prof. Tak Utsumi to the Union of Western African States in April 2013 via Tele-conference from New York. I will probably speak with Prof. Tak in New York before my coming to Nigeria.
Same also applies to the Center for Media & Peace Initiatives in New York where I am a board member – the President is Uchenna Ekwo, Ph.D. a Nigerian. I already spoke with him in April. I think we can make Nigeria more visible internationally in the media, too.
Recently, I published our recent book http://iite.unesco.org/publications/3214678/ “ at the UNESCO Institute for the Information Technologies in Education. I will also canvass ISPON project at IITE, where
I am also a Board Member when we have a board meeting in Moscow, Russian Federation, 12-15 September 2013.
I can also make a link to UNESCO-UNEVOC center in Bonn, Germany, where I am principal research associate on vocational and technical education and training.
Same applies to the Millennium Institute in Washington D.C. where am privileged to be a Board Member and we have a meeting on 18-20 September 2013.”
In furtherance of his commitment to ISPON and the scheduled National Software conference, the Prof further said: “I am copying this message to the directors of those institutes for their information. My preparations to the October 2013 Nigerian visit are advancing well.
Tomorrow I will discuss with the Ambassador of Finland to Nigeria, too. Yours very sincerely, Tapio Varis Professor emeritus UNESCO Chair in Global e-Learning University of Tampere, Finland.