Press release: Cory Doctorow to Headline at iWeek 2013

Published on: 2013-05-17

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Cory Doctorow; the globally-renowned science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger; will be speaking at iWeek 2013 in September. “It is a real win for iWeek to have someone of Cory’s stature speaking this year. The fantastic thing is he is so multifaceted that he is sure to appeal to the widest possible audience,” said Jaap Scholten, ISPA co-Chair.

Cory is also former European Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founder of the UK Open Rights Group which is sure to be of particular interest to iWeek attendees. In addition, ISPA has also secured Roy Kruger, Technical Advisor to the Minister of
Communications, for this year’s iWeek conference.

iWeek, co-hosted by the ZA Central Registry (ZACR) and the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA), an annual feature on the South African Internet industry calendar for the past 12 years, is arguably the event most anticipated every year.

Other local and global industry luminaries featured at this year’s event are Chris Althaus, CEO of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association; Juanita Clark of the Fibre to the Home Council; Malcolm Kirby, CEO of Metro Fibre Networks; as well as social media guru and change speaker, Ryan Hogarth.

This year’s instalment of South Africa’s premier Internet industry event will be held from 09 to 12 September 2013 at Thaba Ya Batswana, Impala Road, Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve, Johannesburg. Additional valued partners include the ZA Domain Name Authority (ZADNA), the Internet Society – South African Chapter (ISOC-ZA), the Wireless Access Providers’ Association (WAPA) and the Fibre to the Home Council (FTTH-C).

iWeek offers a great opportunity for exposure and there are a number of sponsorship opportunities with Liquid Telecom already having become a Silver sponsor and Miro and Scoop Distribution also signed up as event sponsors.

Few people realise that iWeek is now in its second decade which is an incredible achievement. The reason iWeek has matured into the de facto annual industry gathering is due largely to ISPA selecting the right partners. ZACR, for its part, is also contributing to the development of the web throughout the continent by bidding for the right to administer the proposed .africa generic Top Level Domain (gTLD).

Mr Scholten said that iWeek was an especially valuable gathering as it brings together established players who are able to share valuable lessons with start-ups still trying to make their way in the world of the web. South Africa as a whole benefit thanks to the participation of international delegates who offer insight into global best practice across an array of disciplines.

iWeek does not only limit itself to cutting edge discussions. This year’s event will see a number of training sessions running in parallel to discussions, and include IPv6, IPv6 for Managers, Internet Number Resource training as well as training from Team Cymru. In addition to this, ZADNA together with ZACR will co-host a domain name industry day.

Anyone interested in taking up a sponsorship at iWeek should contact Elaine on 010 500 1200 or mail queries (at) ispa.org.za. Please visit www.iweek.org.za for further information.

Further Information

For further information, please contact the ISPA secretariat on the Contact ISPA page.