HRH The Prince of Orange and EU Commissioner Kroes to attend World IT Congress in Amsterdam

Amsterdam, April 15th 2010 – The organization of the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2010) in Amsterdam anticipates a high level of international interest in this conference, which will be held between May 25th and 27th. Delegates will hear speeches by approximately 200 leading international government, business and industry and academic representatives. It was announced today that two prominent public figures from the Netherlands will also attend: His Royal Highness The Prince of Orange and Mrs Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda.

Mrs Kroes, who is the new EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, will address the conference on the first day, May 25th. She will highlight the role of ICT applications and implementations in the European information and knowledge society. The Prince is highly interested in the different tracks of the congress. The Prince will open the second day of the congress on May 26th.

Other keynote speakers
Other keynote speakers will include Paul Otellini (CEO of Intel), Virginia Rometty (Senior Vice-President of IBM), Maria van der Hoeven (the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs), Elvira Nabiullina (the Russian Minister of Economic Development and Trade), Lynn Blodgett (CEO of ACS (Xerox)), Henk Broeders (Chairman of ICT~Office), Stephen Elop (President of Microsoft’s Business Division), Pierre Hessler (Member of the Board of Directors Capgemini), and Fransisco Ros Peran, (the Spanish Minister of Telecommunications and Information and representative of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union).

Program
WCIT 2010 is about ICT applications and implementations rather than the technology itself. The 2010 conference will discuss ICT-related challenges in ten different themed areas such as Energy, Security and Mobility. Some 2,500 captains of industry, government ministers and academics from over 80 countries will come together to exchange ideas on how innovative IT solutions could be used to help resolve global economic and social problems. One of the outcomes of the conference will be the Declaration of Amsterdam, which will serve as a springboard for WCIT 2012 in Canada. The Dutch government will contribute by promoting the Netherlands as a prime location for IT companies. The Netherlands is increasingly becoming the IT gateway to Europe, which is creating a highly-skilled workforce and leading to new employment.

About the World Congress on Information Technology
The World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) is regarded as one of the world’s most influential conferences on IT. WCIT is the flagship of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), a consortium of IT branch organizations from across the world whose members represent over 90% of the global IT market. The 17th edition of the conference will be held in the RAI exhibition complex in Amsterdam from May 25th to 27th 2010. The congress is an official event organized under the auspices of the Spanish EU presidency. It is supported by the European Commission and hosted by the Dutch IT branch organization, ICT~Office, in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Amsterdam City Council. The main commercial partners are Capgemini, Intel, KPN, IBM, Microsoft, UPC, Xerox and KPMG.