Our Year in Review - the ICT Committee

Chair: Magda Chelly, Co-Chairs: Hitan Mehta, Faizal Parvez

The Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Committee’s mission is to inspire, educate and engage Chamber members and non-members on the
transformative capabilities of Information Technology to their business. With 2020 being a really difficult and different year, it has been a year where technology and
communication were critical for businesses, especially after a massive adoption of new technologies and remote working. As we suddenly got affected by a
new normal, we had no idea how we could continue our mission and goals as a Committee, not to mention our businesses and our members’ businesses activities. The discussions around COVID-19 emerged, and people’s energy and thoughts were all directed towards the immediate goal; generate business and keep afloat.

With the support of our Committee members, we have quickly challenged ourselves in a way that allowed us to persevere and continue the support for our
members. In fact, after the initial stressful few weeks, businesses have started realising the importance of technologies for business resilience. This is where
the ICT Committee reviewed the previous months of activity with the spotlight on advocacy efforts, events, education and research, and adapted to the new
normal. We have enabled our members through various activities, including but not limited to podcasts, webinars and articles on the Orient Magazine. Our focus was the ability to pivot during those time and be flexible, empowering and building hope and positive impact, throughout content that was relevant within this particular period.

The goal of the Committee is to add value to the Chamber and its members through activities that demonstrate the value of ICT solutions to their business; educate them on future ICT trends that will impact their business; offer member networking opportunities to better enable business across the region; share knowledge and insights, and attract new members to the Chamber. As we come to the end of the most challenging year in our own history, we are hopeful for 2021 to be a more flexible world, where we understand the impact of technology and communication, and how important those are nowadays for our businesses. We can collectively benefit from the usage of fantastic new ways of doing business, reinvent ourselves, and our business models, but especially keeping it with the right security and privacy in mind for our clients. Cancelling and/or postponing physical events allowed to reconnect differently and differentiate our content to ensure real added value for the members and our supporters.

2021 looks like a fantastic new opportunity for the committee to engage further through a focus on:

• A variety of content that goes beyond traditional face to face meetings
• A diversified set of themes around new technologies, including but not limited to 5G, artificial intelligences, etc.
• A focus on educational content around cybersecurity, privacy, ICT regulatory challenges, etc.
• A diversity goal for our ICT committee members, with different profiles and different experiences.

Every challenge raises an opportunity, and the ICT committee takes the opportunity in 2021 to build further, empower and educate further our members, and create stronger support network.

Find out more at britcham.org.sg/committees/ict.