Strong international line-up for e-commerce conference

The Malta Communications Authority (MCA) has unveiled an interesting line-up of speakers for its annual conference at the Westin Dragonara in St Julians on October 24.

E-Commerce: Towards A Borderless economy is the theme chosen for this year. The conference will host a discussion about the latest trends, opportunities and challenges in conducting online commerce in Malta and abroad.

Foreign speakers hail from Vodafone Group, Cisco, 6PM Management Consultancy (UK), United Focus Pty Ltd, The Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology, Yorkshire Forward, and Ernst & Young.

These speakers will share their experience and knowledge in e-commerce in their respective areas of competence or the country/region they work in. These areas include regulation, technologies, security and technology management.

One of the most eagerly-awaited presentations is by Steven Smith from United Focus Pty Ltd. He will explain how Australian businesses and consumers have embraced e-commerce with enthusiasm. There are still pockets of resistance, determined late-adopters and still much work to be done to improve the online experience for all.

However the Australian governments and industry have worked together to make e-commerce an essential business tool in the country.

There will also be local speakers, who will share their views on the nascent e-commerce sector in the Maltese islands. These include representatives from government and private industry.

The conference will also analyse, among others, the building blocks that underlie the core notion of "e-readiness" and examining whether Malta's digital environment is conducive to foreign investment; the effects of e-commerce on the supply chain; the efficiencies that can be gained, especially by micro-enterprises, which constitute the majority of businesses in Malta; and the role of the government as an enabler and driver of e-commerce.

Speakers and participants will focus on the readiness of Malta to exploit e-commerce, the difficulties encountered so far, and the prospects of foreign direct investment in this area.

The conference is aimed at businesses in general, including manufacturers, retailers and suppliers; government agencies; financial institutions; electronic communications service providers; software developers and students.

The full programme and more details on registration, which closes on Monday, are available at www.mca.org.mt.