Ian Birks will formally commence as Interim Chief Executive Officer from Wednesday 16 April, 2008 and will be based in Sydney.

‘Ian comes on board at a very exciting time. We are in the process of refreshing our strategy around member value and leading a thriving industry. With his background as a CEO and his experience and contribution at the AIIA Board level he is ideally placed to take the organization to the next level,’ said National Chairman of the AIIA Board of Directors, John Grant.

Earlier this year Mr Birks stepped down as the Managing Director of ASX-listed IT research and advisory firm Ideas International Limited after five years at the helm and 15 prior years in senior roles building the company up from its foundation.  He remains a non-executive director of Ideas International.

Prior to Ideas, Mr Birks worked in a number of senior roles for Prime Computer of Australia. He holds a BSc Tech (Hons) from the University of Manchester (UK) and is a member of AICD. He officially commences his position with AIIA on April 16 2008.

‘I am invigorated by the opportunity to work full-time as the leader of the country’s peak ICT industry association,’ said Mr Birks.

‘I am committed to the Board’s agenda to provide exceptional value for our members by shaping the image of our industry in the eyes of Australian business, government and the community and by providing industry leadership and influence in our critical focus areas of industry development, infrastructure, workforce, procurement and the environment.’

On behalf of 500 member companies and the wider ICT industry, AIIA has made three submissions to the Australia 2020 Summit. The submissions address AIIA's strategic focus on:

• the availability of appropriate industry skills
• the establishment of low cost and pervasive infrastructure
• the development of a business climate which encourages both global and domestic companies to invest in Australia and promotes Australian business to seek export opportunities.

The Summit will be held on on 19-20 April 2008. Members are able to access the full submissions through the AIIA website.

AIIA is currently seeking the views of member companies on a broad range of environmental issues. We would highly value your contribution to this survey and you invite you to participate.

Why AIIA is conducting this survey
AIIA is creating a NSW special interest group for people in the local industry who are actively interested in sustainability and environmental issues. These issues are of increasing relevance to our industry, and a steering committee of industry representatives has been formed to guide the process.

The ICT industry is at the forefront of new technologies that are providing the opportunity to develop energy efficient products and minimise our environmental impact as an industry.

To parallel official discussions and support ongoing consultation, Open Forum is hosting an Australia 2020 Online Summit, allowing all citizens to have their say in the direction our country takes in 2008 and beyond.

The Online Summit will run in parallel to the Australia 2020 Summit, and seeks to provide an opportunity for all Australians to have their say regarding the ten key areas which will be discussed during the summit.

The discussion threads will be made available to participants in the official summit, so as to inform their thinking and the direction of the policy development process.

The Australian Open Source Industry & Community Report is now available.

It is published by Waugh Partners as a freely downloadable PDF and is redistributable under a Creative Commons BY-ND license.

That means that you can share the report, unmodified, with your employer, clients, colleagues, public representatives and anyone else who may have an interest in the Australian Open Source industry and community. Of course, you can always quote from the report, as long as you cite the source.

The report is sponsored by NICTA, IBM and Fujitsu, and supported by OSIA, Linux Australia and the NSW Department of State and Regional Development

Australian Bureau of Statistics research has found that only 58% of Australian small businesses created in 2003/04 were still operating in June 2006.  Anecdotal evidence indicates that business survivability is even lower for high risk, technology based businesses.  Yet there is a way to improve the odds: overseas research has found that business incubators help increase business survivability to 87%.

AIIA is proud to welcome Eddie Geller to the national Board of Directors.

The AIIA Salary Survey is Australia’s most comprehensive survey of ICT industry salary rates and provides an accurate insight into the current marketplace.  The March 2008 Survey has now been released, and is only available to AIIA members.