Department of Information Systems

Gartner Symposium/ITEXPO Africa 2007

The department of Information systems would like to thank its staff member and honours students for their contribution in organising the Gartner conference. This conference, held from 27-29 August at Cape Town International Conventional Centre, attracted over 1,300 delegates from the IT industry locally and abroad. Its main theme was "The Consumerisation of IT, Embracing the Revolution". Delegates deliberated on various critical issues facing the industry including the impact of consumerisation, the Web2.0 phenomena, control and compliance issues in IT and IT contribution.

Profs. Derek Smith and Mike Hart attended along with ten (10) IS full-time honours students (the latter were selected by Gartner to assist at the conference and did a very professional job). A special tribute to our own Richard Longden-Thurgood who acquitted himself incredibly well in his focused answers to difficult questions posed the Gartner consultants. In front of a very large audience and a TV crew during the final discussion session, he and the other 2 more mature post-grad students received considerable applause from the delegates and the Gartner consultants. Richard is to be congratulated for being an outstanding ambassador for the department.

Michael Kyobe
IS Marketing