SiTF 25th Anniversary Gala Dinner

SiTF celebrates 25 years of milestones in the infocomm technology industry with a gala dinner at Marina Mandarin Singapore

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

By Chai Pei Shan

On 7 September 2007 (Friday), Singapore infocomm Singapore Technology Federation (SiTF) celebrates her 25^th Anniversary with a gala dinner at Marina Mandarin Singapore. With the ‘Academy Awards’ theme, guests were pleasantly surprised with the ‘adoration’ from the papparazi and red carpet during the networking cocktail.

The event was graced by Guest-of-Honour, Dr. Lee Boon Yang, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts. On behalf of SiTF, Ms Tan Yen Yen, organizing chairperson of SiTF V-Day and Mr Pek Yew Chai, Chairman of SiTF, presented a donation cheque of S$31,000 to Dr. Lee. This donation, in aid of the President’s Challenge 2007 was raised through SiTF V-Day (August 2007) and SiTF Golf Classic (April 2007), where conscious efforts were made to raise funds and reach out to the less fortunate in our community.

This gesture of generosity marks a positive beginning and wonderful evening which are exemplary of SiTF commitment and continued support from the industry.

Chairman, Pek Yew Chai, with welcome address
(Angela May, emcee far right)

Guests at SiTF 25^th Anniversary gala dinner at Marina Mandarin ballroom.

A commemorative video showcasing the achievements and accolades by SiTF also brought back fond memories and proudest moments of SiTF milestones since 1982.

Humor me!

The crowd was entertained by the fun-loving emcee, Ms Angeline May who captivated the crowd for the entire evening with her liveliness. The 21 year-old Singapore Idol finalist, Miss Maideen, also enthralled audience with her enchanting vocals.

Hossan Leong on stage

The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly - standup comedian Mr Hossan Leong, who entertained the crowd with his wit and rendition of Barry Manilow favorites. Politics aside, audience roared in laughter induced by his signature ‘Hossan-Humour’ – laced with caustic jokes about local campaigns and Singaporean lifestyle.

Splendor and sharing good cheers!

Indeed, it was a night of splendor and sharing good cheers as SiTF showed our appreciation to a dedicated team comprising of: luminary past chairmen, esteemed Councilors, Chapter Exco, SiTF members, Secretariat, organizing chairman of SiTF 25^th Anniversary Gala Dinner - Mr Seah Chin Siong, Country Managing Director of Accenture Singapore, and not forgetting, industry partners for their valued contributions to SiTF and Singapore’s infocomm industry over the past 25 years. This joyous evening celebrates the whole infocomm industry and marks the beginning of the next 25 years.

During the dinner, fun and entertaining awards of caricatures portrait drawings were each presented to the honored recipients. An exclusive set of SiTF 25^th Anniversary commemorative stamps was given to each guest.

Here’s the winner’s list:

SiTF Best Movie of the Year – SiTF “8 Chapters”

Award recipients – Chapters Chairpersons
(Dr Chong Yoke Sin, Ms Shirley Wong, Mr Foo Jong Tong, Mr Tay Chor Ter, Mr Wong Ka Vin, Mr James Loo, Mr Samuel David and Mr Tay Eng Hoe )

SiTF Best Director award – Mr Pek Yew Chai
SiTF Male Lead Performer award – Mr Seah Chin Siong
SiTF Female Lead Performer award – Dr Chong Yoke Sin
SiTF Best Supporting Role – Ms Monica Loh

SiTF Accenture Mr & Ms Personality award - Mr Stephen Lim & Ms Ho Se Mun
SiTF Accenture Best Smile Award - Mr Barney Lau
SiTF Accenture Cool Award - Mr Phey Teck Moh & Mr P. Bala

SiTF CISCO Mr Photogenic award - Mr Wong Soon Nam & Ms Tan Yen Yen
SiTF CISCO Mr & Ms Best Hair-do - Mr Loh Teck Heng & Ms Shirley Wong

SiTF Singtel Charismatic award – Mr William Claxton & Mr Criag John Gledhill
SiTF Singtel Athletic award – Mr Frank Koo
SiTF Singtel Suave award – Mr Ng Chong Kim
SiTF Singtel Energetic award – Mr Lim Seng Kong

The gala dinner was attended by over three hundred guests, and corporate sponsors – Accenture Pte Ltd, Cisco Systems (USA) Pte Ltd and Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Platinum sponsors), Singapore Exhibition Services Pte Ltd (Gold sponsors), Hewlett-Packard Singapore (Sales) Pte Ltd and Oracle Corporation Singapore Pte Ltd (Silver sponsors).

See news release: http://www.sitf.org.sg/news/news_releases/2007/NewsRelease_SiTF25thAnni_7Sep_.pdf25th

Photo gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/sitf.sg/SiTFGalaDinnerMarinaMandarin

SiTF Secretariat

ANNEX - 25th Anniversary’s Welcome Speech by Chairman, Pek Yew Chai

Minister for Infocomm, Communications and The Arts, Dr Lee,

Distinguished Guests,

Friends of SiTF,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for taking time to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of SiTF with us.

SiTF started off as Singapore Federation of the Computing Industry (SFCI) in 1982. Johnny Moo, was the first chairman who had started the journey for SiTF 25 years ago. In 1999, SFCI merged with Microcomputer Trade Association of Singapore (MTAS) to form the present SiTF. Along with many dedicated and passionate individuals, such as Willie Cheng, Bill , Noel, Wilson, Stephen, Zeid, Siew Choon, Chin Ngiap, Ken Wye, they had shaped and made what SiTF is today. And we are indeed very honoured to have them here. Please give them a round of applause.

Since its establishment, SiTF has strived to be the beacon of the infocomm technology industry; working with government agencies, local trade associations and international organisations to provide platforms to grow the Singapore ICT industry. Many initiatives were launched and implemented over the last 25 years, which includes the setting up of the Singapore Solutions Centre in Shanghai and Hangzhou where the purpose of the centres is to assist local ICT to penetrate into PRC market. Most of these would not have been possible without the help and support of IDA. And we would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their support. We are also grateful that we have excellent working relationships with agencies such as IES, MDA, A*Star, SPRING, EDB which we have close collaboration throughout these years.

As Singapore is only a “little red dot”, we need to work closely with our foreign partners. Our domestic market is small and if we do not venture beyond, it is not possible for Singapore ICT to grow. Hence, we have signed MOUs with friends of SiTF such as Korea IT International Cooperation Agency (KIICA) and Mobile Data Association in UK

SiTF is also a member of international alliances such as Asian Oceania Computing Industry Organisation (ASOCIO), Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) and World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA). All these engagement is to provide additional extension to our members.

In Nov 2007, SiTF will play host to the two international ICT events, ASOCIO ICT Summit and APICTA Award. ASOCIO ICT Summit will gather industry leaders where ICT masterplans from different economies will be shared while APICTA Award is an international competition amongst participating economies. In fact, we had just completed the local league competition for APICTA and we have an overwhelming response this year. These events provide excellent platforms for knowledge sharing, networking and showcasing our local innovations, products and solutions.

SiTF exists because of our members. This year we have chosen the theme, “Connect and Engage”. We believe that in order to stay relevant, we need to be connected and engaged with you. SiTF have many activities and amongst them are our flagship events. We aim to continue our flagship events such as IX, ICT Business Outlook Forum, SiTEX, V-Day, Golf Classic as we have received positive feedback about them. We hope our members will work with us so that we can work out what is best for the industry which ultimately benefits our members. To do so, we intend to increase our touch points so that we can broaden and deepen our relationship with our members.

I am indeed honoured to be given the opportunity to chair the federation and to be given the opportunity to work with so many talented people in the industry. I am especially grateful to all the councillors and the chapters’ exco who had come together consistently and had spent their own personal time and effort to contribute to the common goal of making this industry a better one.

Recently, the councillors had gathered for a brainstorming session. It is an opportunity for us to consolidate our current position and to decide what we would like to do “when we grow up”. We want SiTF to be an organization where members would be proud to belong, an organization that partners see value, respect and treasure. SiTF intends to be the lynchpin for a community that our stakeholders want to be a part of and to actively play a role in. And while making that happen, have fun together.

And tonight, let’s have fun.

Thank you.

- end-

Awards for SiTF Councilors on 25th Anniversary Gala Dinner

Councilors - caricature click to view all

By local caricature artist - Jit Leong

Story and photos by: Chai Pei Shan