deTECH 2018 Sets Out to Inspire Tech Leaders

By Emilia Ismail

SOME 300 tech enthusiasts, student entrepreneurs, industry experts, and prominent founders attended the inaugural deTECH Conference 2018, held in conjunction with Penang Skills Development Centre’s I4.0 week.

Steven Sim, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, who officiated the two-day conference opined that the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) is about empowering consumers.

“Grab did not kill taxi. The monopoly, fare control and the attitude of taxi drivers did. Technology itself is not the disruption. Disruption happens because of consumers dissatisfaction.

“Innovations and new enterprises are making use of the technology to fill in the gap in human satisfaction.

“Today’s market is geared towards fulfilling and empowering the human person in many ways. It empowers customers.

“Similarly, the government is thinking of ways to deal with customers dissatisfaction. Young people are no longer passive consumers and voters. They are the drivers of the new economy and the forces of social change.

“And we see this pattern around the world where young people disrupt not only the economy but also social-political sphere,” Sim said in his opening remarks.

He then toured the exhibition hall and greeted the crowd and participants.

Sim (left) speaking to a representative from BFM 89.9 radio station (right) during his tour of the exhibition hall.

Meanwhile, Ayuh Bina founder and aCAT Penang program director Howie Chang said that IR 4.0 has disrupted various industries.

Ayuh Bina founder and aCAT Penang program director Howie Chang

“Startups such as Foodpanda, UberEats and DeliverEat disrupted the F&B sectors as consumers increasingly choose convenience over dining in the restaurants. Zalora, Lazada, Taobao and many others disrupted the retail industry by allowing customers to compare product and pricing more efficiently without going to the store.

“This has impacted the brick and mortar restaurants and retailers.

“Many are worried about the impact of the digital disruption of their own industries and how can their organisation adapt and cope. Digital skills such as machine learning and coding were not known a few years ago, but as of today, these skills are needed,” Chang said.

Chang, however, stressed that although IR 4.0 may have disrupted various industries, it also opens up new opportunities.

“deTECH aims to ignite critical discussions such as creating different forms of entrepreneurship and industries beyond what we have today. We want to ignite a movement in today’s digital world where business owners and leaders embrace technological breakthroughs. There will be opportunities for us to learn in this exciting digital era,” Chang said.

PSDC’s director of learning & talent development Poh Heem Heem

PSDC’s director of learning & talent development Poh Heem Heem shared Chang’s optimism. “PSDC’s objective is to train and upskill the workforce to prepare for IR 4.0.

“But training the existing workforce alone is not enough. We cannot fully harness the growth and economic potential of Industry 4.0 by ourselves.

“Therefore, our success milestones are partnerships – win-win collaborations to develop human resource development programs to train the workforce for the next wave of Industry 4.0.

“PSDC and aCAT Penang are connected through a common platform which is the Penang STEM. This talent pipeline anticipates what lies currently and way into the future of Industry 4.0,” Poh said.

Penang STEM is an initiative galvanised by the state government to bring together like-minded organisations to create a synergistic ecosystem to promote learning, development and interests in STEM-related subjects in young children.
 

(From left) Project lead for deTECH Conference 2018 Chang Jia Ying, Penang STEM CEO Ang Lye Hin, and Howie Chang.

Penang STEM CEO Ang Lye Hin, who was present at the conference, echoed Poh’s sentiment about the importance of partnerships. “Penang STEM has recently partnered with Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah Timur Laut (PPDTL) to formalise STEM-related extracurricular activities for the schools in Penang.
 

Representatives of PPDTL/Teachers of the STEM task force touring PSDC during break-out time.

“This pilot project will prepare the younger generation to meet the needs and demands of the future economy.

“We cannot change the structure of the curriculum, but we can change the structure of the extracurricular activities. The 6 STEM centres under the Penang STEM banner will perform gap analysis to identify what is missing in the current extracurricular activities and come forward with solutions to satisfy the needs,” Ang said.

Participant Ng Kai Yan from Motorola Solutions said the conference was informative. She was delighted that Penang has provided such a progressive conference.

“Digital technologies are changing the world. I signed up to discover how I can stay ahead in my career.

“The speakers are very engaging, and the topics are very interesting. The workshops not only help me to exercise my understanding of the topics but also allowed me to engage with new people,” said Ng.
 

  

Co-organised by PSDC and aCAT Penang (both founding members of Penang STEM), deTECH 2018 aims to empower and inspire people through exposure of a variety of modern technological trends and how to position and equip people with future skills to become creators, not just consumers of digital technology.
The conference is supported by 22 speakers from all around the world, industry experts leading panel discussion, creative and technical workshops as well as a 20-booth strong exhibition hall, displaying the latest budding startups, local startup giants covering the theme of fintech, blockchain, cloud computing, internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence, design thinking and big data.

The conference’s platinum sponsor is Aemulus Corporation Sdn Bhd while NEM Malaysia is the gold sponsor. ViTrox Technologies Sdn Bhd and iPay88 Sdn Bhd are the silver sponsors.

Soft Space Sdn Bhd, Sedania Innovator Bhd, Gurney Paragon Mall and Omnimatics Sdn Bhd stepped forward as the bronze sponsors.

Media partners for the conference are BFM89.9, Goody25 and Millenials.

Penang STEM, Exabyte, Cradle and BEAM are proud supporting partners of the conference.