Saturday was another hectic day full of events. First of all there was the 8th National Student Conference on Information Technology - one of the most prestigious IT related events o the year. I’m not sure how they found us or why they decided to approach us, but about 3 weeks ago, the organizer of this event suddenly contacted us. Their invitation to deliver the keynote speech was all so abrupt with their sudden appearance at our office door, we simply said yes. So to be honest we were really not expecting the kind of grandeur that awaited us at the venue. The conference was held at a famous five star hotel in Kathmandu, the Yak and Yeti Hotel. Boy was it grand. It was a huge, almost palace like building with well-groomed bellboys, guards and everything. The inside was gorgeous and even air-conditioned! When we saw the crowd all suited up, we immediately regretted our attire. Not that we had much of a choice I guess though. Take was wearing slacks and his best polo, while I was wearing the only skirt I had brought.

The morning session in which Take delivered the short speech mostly ended with remarks from the organizers / important seniors involved. He talked about the importance of blending in technology (e-learning models) with the human factor that supplements the learning. As a final message, he implored the audience to consider developing the educational field through technology in Nepal as IT professionals. While there are so many outstanding e-learning type of innovations out there in the world, they cannot be directly imported to Nepal without adapting it to the Nepali context and curriculum. I think there is loads of potential especially in Nepal where there are so many different kinds of edcational challenges. But again I suppose that it is necessary to construct an incentive system where people are rewarded for their efforts in developing the educational sector. Without proper monitary incentives, I think it’s highly unlikely that the brightest minds will divert their time and effort there.

We had to hurry back right after lunch so unfortunately we weren’t able to hear a bunch of student presentations, which was the highlight of the event. The lunch was amazing by the way. It was a delicious buffet with different kind of salads, curries and desserts. I think our enthusiasm towards the food was a little too much, as we devoured our first plate in minutes and headed back for seconds.

The afternoon discussion event held at TECHRISE will be continued in the next blog post :) Lot of interesting findings on what’s actually happening at the industry level and the educational level.