The "Speak Out on ICT" Contest is a public-speaking competition intended to foster interest in an Information and Communications Technology career, and in particular to encourage leaders with good oratory skills among the cohort of students pursuing or planning to pursue IT courses in Singapore . The Contest is organized in conjunction with the iX Conference, which is Asia 's Premier IT Conference.

Who May Participate

Entry into the Contest is free, and there are two classes of competition:

. The Senior Competition is open to students currently enrolled in polytechnic or university education in Singapore. The contestant need not be pursuing a major in IT-related studies.

. The Junior Competition is open to students currently enrolled in secondary or junior college education in Singapore. The contestant need not be pursuing any IT-related subjects.

How to Participate

Contestants must prepare a written entry in accordance with the rules, and submit to the organisers on or before the closing date. Based on the quality of the written submissions in their entry, judges will select 8 competitors in the Senior Competition and 10 competitors in the Junior Competition. These contestants will be notified and invited to attend the Finals, where they will participate in the oratory competition hosted at SMU. There, contestants will be given 10-15 minutes to present their speech in front of the judges. Just like speakers at the iX Conference, contestants may use slides or other audio-visual media to accompany their presentation.

Click here to download the contest rules and entry form.

Who Judges The Contest

The contest will be judged by the SiTF Executive Council and the iX Conference Organising Committee.

Judging Process

This is a public speaking contest, with two phases of judging. The first round is to determine who will be invited to speak, based on the quality of the written submissions. The second round is to determine who is the best speaker, based on the quality of their oratory presentation. At the completion of the oratory presentations, the judges will announce their selection of one winner in the Senior Competition and one winner in the Junior Competition.

Awards

Each winner will be invited to present their speech at the Congress of the iX Conference, a public event with 800 - 1,000 attendees representing a broad cross-section of the ICT industry in Singapore and across the region. The winner of the Senior Competition will speak for 15 minutes, and winner of the Junior Competition will speak for 10 minutes, followed by a brief awards ceremony. SMU will present a cash prize of $500 and a certificate to each winner. Finalists will receive a certificate.

How to Apply

Interested contestants must prepare a brief synopsis of their presentation. They are encouraged to research the theme of the iX Conference, which is "ICT at Work - Collaboration and Peer-to-Peer Technologies".

Contestants will be judged on the subject matter of their presentation, its relevance to the conference theme, and on their delivery. Entries must be submitted in accordance with the rules, and must reach the organisers on or before the closing date. Visit our website http://wiki.ixconference.com for more information.

The Winners

On behalf of the judging committee,  we are pleased to announce the winners of the iX Conference Speak Out on ICT contest, based on the oratory finals held  at SMU School of Information Systems on 27 May 2006.

Winner in the Junior Competition
Lim Perk Lun, National Junior College, " P2P Software: One is Enough "

Winner in the Senior Competition
Kelvin Quee Yew Hao, Nanyang Technological University, " Collaboration: A Symphony of Technologies "

The two winners will present to the audience at the  iX Conference Congress on 22 June, where they also receive a cash prize.

The judges were also impressed by many of the other contestants, and the following were particularly noteworthy. 

- Wang Ruohan, Victoria Junior College, "Challenges and Promises of P2P Systems".  Rouhan delivered a confident and informative presentation on P2P systems, highlighting some security and scalability concerns.  He was runner up in the junior competition.

- Nguyen Thi Thao Duyen, National University Of Singapore, "Collaboration At Work - The Efficiency Of Peer To Peer Instant Messaging Applications".  Nguyen provided a lively presentation focused on the pros and cons of IM applications in the workplace.  By examining IM from the enterprise perspective, her presentation was seen as more relevant.

- NG Pin Quan, Columbia University (graduated Anglo Chinese Junior College), "Knowledge Aggregation And Transaction/Agency Cost Strategies Through P2P-Based Workspaces And Networks".  Pin Quan's well-researched presentation was rated very highly on subject matter and relevance.  His delivery was confident and he spoke clearly, especially toward the memorable "resistance is futile" ending.  However, much of the talk assumed a somewhat academic tone, perceived as perhaps too abstract for the target audience (enterprise IT managers).  Pin Quan was runner up in the senior competition.

- Kaushal Dugar & Karthik Raja, Singapore Management University, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, "Using P2P Project Collaboration Applications To Form Metadata About Information Used In Interest Based Communities".  Karthik delivered the presentation, which was rated highly on subject matter, and was delivered with passion.  The presentation described work that the two are pursuing to develop an application that encourages users to share metadata for their project files.

- Ng Ming Yeow, National University of Singapore, "Why The Software-As-A-Service Model Is The Future Of Collaboration".  Ming Yeow's presentation was a timely critique vendors who pay too much attention to the buyer rather than the user.  He strongly advocated the model of software as a service, which the judges found compelling, and profiled some AJAX applications.  So his presentation was rated very high on content, and he received good marks for relevance and delivery.  Ming Yeow was second runner up in the senior competition.

- Cheryl Chen Shulian, Singapore Management University, "Collaborate, Don't Just Communicate!".  Cheryl's presentation focused on the role of Wikis in the enterprise, and advocated a change of work styles.  She got high marks for relevance and delivery, but the judges felt that the subject matter lacked the depth of the earlier presentations.

The competition committee and judges  would like to thank all the contestants for their efforts, and we believe that it has been a beneficial event for both contestants and judges.  Thanks to SMU for hosting the competition.

View the press release here (pdf).