Second International Conference "Software Outsourcing Summit"

During June 5-7, 2002 Second International Conference "Software Outsourcing Summit" took place in Saint-Petersburg. It took place for the second time because after huge success in year 2001 it had been a decision to make this event annual.

Software Outsourcing Summit is the biggest IT event of the kind both in Russia and Eastern Europe, where software developers meet potential customers. Total number of visitors was more than 500 people (including conference’s participants, exhibition visitors and participants of the exhibition, mass media representatives). It is a growth of more than 50% corresponding to the previous event.

The Summit can evenly be called international - among participants there were representatives from almost all continents - Europe, Asia, America and Africa. The most numerous delegation came from USA (30 people from 20 companies), Finland (20 people form 11 companies) and Japan (12 people from 10 companies). Moreover there were participants from Germany (3 companies), UK (3 companies), France (2 companies), Sweden (2 companies), The Netherlands (2 companies), Belgium (2 companies), South Korea (2 companies), Austria (1 company), South Africa (1 company), Denmark (1 company), Ireland (1 company). Totally it was 245 companies and organizations from 20 countries.

Leading IT centers of Russia were represented on the Summit, such as Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Taganrog, Rostov-on-Don, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamtchatsky, Sarov, Shezhinsk and others.

Traditionally there were participants from CIS countries on the Summit such as Ukraine, Byelorussia, Armenia as well as from Baltic states (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia) and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic).

Among VIP participants of the Summit were Mrs. Esther Dyson (president of EDVentures), Mrs. Eila Ruumukainen (senior vice-president of Sonera), Mr. Michael Weldon (vice-president of Xerox), Mr. Jan-Louis Lacomb (vice-president of EADS), Mr. Robert Williams (former IBM high executive). Leading international IT-corporations such as Microsoft, Borland, Sonera, EADS, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Scala, Samsung, LG, Sun Microsystems, Xerox participated in the Summit.

Organizers of the Summit were Saint-Petersburg consortium of software developers "Fort-Ross IT Services", National software development association "RUSSOFT", Association "Norden", "Digital Design".

Sponsors of the Summit were "Baker & McKenzie" and "Sonera" - these companies had been also sponsors for the previous summit in 2001. Moreover the Summit had a new sponsor - "Borland". Internet-sponsor of the Summit was "SoftJoys" company from Saint-Petersburg. The Summit took place with actively support of Saint-Petersburg city administration within the frames of Hi-Tech week "High Technologies, Innovations, Investments" that was held in Saint-Petersburg in the beginning of June with the support from the Russian Ministry of Industry, Science and Technologies of Russian Federation.

Seven international IT associations became official partners of the Summit: BITKOM (association of IT companies of Germany), Northern Virginia Technology Council (USA), ITEK (Danish IT-association), The Federation for the Information Industry (VIW) in Austria, National Outsourcing Association (UK), ScotlandIS (Scottish IT-association) and Ukrainian Association of Software Developers. Among partners of the Summit were Inforus consortium (Russia), Russian Digital Alliance (USA), Outsourcing-Russia.com internet portal, Key3Media (USA) representative in Russia, Gartner Group, American-Russian Chamber of Commerce of Boston (USA), Luxoft and Interface (Russia).

It was the first time when an exhibition of providers and sponsors took place during the Summit. Companies were represented on 40 stands. Exhibition and match-making areas covered more than 1000 square meters.

Together with the Summit a workshop "Russian Nuclear Scientists in the Software Market: Unique Opportunities and Challenges" (organized by FRAEC, USA) and ADONIS-project working group meeting were held.

More than 50 representatives of mass media were registered for participating in the Summit. They were representing specialized PC-magazines, business magazines as well as several TV-channels. During the Summit 3 press-conferences were held.

Information sponsors of the Summit were 12 publishing houses including "Express-Electronika", "PRIME-TASS", READ.ME magazine, "SK-PRESS", "Computer-Inform", "Computer-Info" and others. General information sponsor of the Summit was "Open Systems Publishing". Foreign mass-media was represented with Wall Street Journal (USA), NIKKEI and Daily Network News (Japan), Technical Weekly and Computerization Magazine (The Netherlands).

More information about the Summit including program, participants list and profiles, presentations is available on the web-site of the Summit: http://www.soft-outsourcing.com