Last year’s Inspiration iAward winners are certainly inspirational!

inchain Pty Ltd and the Northern Territory Departments of Education and Training and Health & Community Services combined ‘cartoon characters’ with leading edge ICT solutions to create ‘Marvin’, a PC based animation program which has increased education and health awareness in indigenous communities in regional Australian and across Asia.

Marvin uses interactive, animated characters – or avatars – to communicate information. The characters can be scripted to use dialects and cultural nuances, which help to ensure the comprehension and acceptance of information by the audience.

As Nick Russell, Managing Director of inchain commented, “winning the iAward for e-government and services and then the overall Inspiration award has helped enormously to increase Marvin’s credibility and the exposure of our products across Asia Pacific.

“The recognition that we’ve achieved to date for the iAwards will help us to make an even greater influence in communities where English is not necessarily the most common language. Marvin helps us to help others speak to people in their own language and in doing so, get significant and beneficial results.”

According to J. Easterby-Wood, Manager of Interactive Communications and Development for the Northern Territory Department of Health, a cast of hundreds of indigenous and non-indigenous crew contributed to Marvin’s overall development.

“Prior to MARVIN, some of these people had never been involved in any ICT activity and in many cases English is a third or fourth language, so for them being involved in best-practice awards such as the iAwards – and being recognised for their efforts – is inspiring and truly makes us feel as though despite (or indeed because of) the remoteness, the conditions, the challenges faced, it was something bigger than all of us and one of the few times you don’t mind standing up and saying 'hey we were there, we went up against the best of the best and held our own’,” Mr Easterby-Wood said.

Find out who wins this year’s Inspiration iAward on Friday 7 April in the Grand Harbour Ballroom, Star City Hotel in Sydney. Click here to make your booking.

Winners in each category will be invited to represent Australia at the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) in Macau in October 2006 where they will compete against entrants from other APICTA member economies, including Brunei, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

iAwards is sponsored by AIIA, the Australian Financial Review and CSIRO ICT Centre. Supporters include Category Partners, National ICT Australia, the Australian Computer Society, Cliftons, IBM, the Welsh Development Agency and Big Mouth Marketing Communications; online media partner, ZDnet and partners Accenture and I-Nex Corporation, and Mr Alan Baxter, Chairman of Fujitsu Limited, who will head the judging panel featuring prominent judges from Australia’s ICT industry, government, academia and aligned industries.

Australia’s ICT labour market remains in balance, with a stable approach to ICT salaries suggesting claims of an overall skills shortage are inaccurate.

Results from AIIA’s latest Survey of Salaries and Remuneration Packaging in the Australian ICT Industry showed salary increases of 5.2 per cent over the period March 2005 to March 2006. Read more

Under the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement signed in 2003, Australian exporters now have greater opportunities for business growth in the region.

Government and corporate initiatives to encourage growth in Singapore's technology industries are paying off, with the country now on top of the world in technology adoption and network readiness. It is also perfectly placed geographically, with China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and India all short connections by plane, phone or the Internet. Read more

Global TeleHealth
Symantec Read more

21 and 23 March: Sydney and Melbourne - Global Connect
5 April: Melbourne - Health-e-Nation 2006
6 April: Queensland - SME Marketing Workshop
12 April: Sydney - Powering the Participation Age breakfast
1-3 May: Texas - Special registration price for WCIT 2006
Read more

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