[ 18 -19 April 2002 ] Trust Infrastructure and Beyond – “Towards a Trusted Economy” Conference
April 18, 2002[ 2 May 2002 ] CNSG Plans ITCN Saudi Arabia 2002 at Dhahran International Exhibition Centre in Dammam, Saudi Arabia
May 2, 2002The National Infocomm Awards Gala Dinner was held on Tue, 23 Apr at the Ritz Carlton Millennia Hotel. Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, and Senior Minister of State for Defence, Mr. David Lim Tik En was the guest of honour. The Main Panel of Judges consisted of key government leaders and industry players, including 2 international judges, Dr. Engelbart and Mr. Guy Kawasaki. A total of 5 winners were selected from both categories, the Most Innovation Use of Infocomm Technology group and the Most Innovative Infocomm Product/Service group.
There were 3 main stages of evaluation. In the preliminary evaluation, the Awards Secretariat evaluated the application submission and the nominees and shortlisted the top 8 candidates for each award category. In the second stage, the relevant Evaluation Sub-Committee made site visits to the 8 short listed candidates in its award category and these candidates were asked to present and demonstrate their applications/products/ services to the committee members. The committee further evaluated and shortlisted the top 5 candidates for each award category.
In the last stage, the 5 short listed candidates in each award category made a final presentation to the Main Panel of Judges. The judges selected 3 winners from the Most Innovative Infocomm Product/Service group and 2 winners from the Most Innovation Use of Infocomm Technology group.
The Main Panel of Judges consisted of key government leaders and industry players. It was chaired by IDA Chairman Mr Lam Chuan Leong, and vice-chaired by IDA Acting CEO Mr Leong Keng Thai. It consisted of the Deputy Secretaries of both MOF and MTI (because of the importance of these 2 government agencies), as well as the industry associations such as Singapore Business Federation (SBF), Singapore IT Federation (SITF), Association of Telecommunications Industry of Singapore (ATIS), Broadband Media Association (BMA), Singapore Venture Capital Association (SVCA), ec.Think and CommerceNet Singapore.
The Main Panel also consisted of 2 international judges, who are leaders in their areas of specialization, and are innovators in their own rights. They were Dr. Engelbart who has over 20 patents to his name and pioneered interactive computing including the mouse, Hypermedia and Groupware. He was also awarded the National Medal of Technology which is the highest award in its class in the United States; the ACM’s Turing Award, The British Computer Society’s Lovelace Award to list a few. The second International judge was Mr. Guy Kawasaki, CEO of Garage Technology Ventures, a venture capital investment bank that provides funding services for high tech startups. Mr. Kawasaki is better known as ‘chief evangelist’ and among those credited with making the Macintosh a success at Apple Computer.
In the Innovative Products and Services category, the 3 winners were FairEx International (FairEx E-Trading Systems), InfoTalk (InfoTalk-Recognizer) and Muvee Technologies (muvee AutoProducer).
In the Innovative Use of Infocomm Technology category the 2 winners were Fuji Photo Film (Print@FujiColor) and Supreme Court (e-Litigation). The guest of honour Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, and Senior Minister of State for Defence, Mr. David Lim Tik En gave away the awards to the winners.