Technology for social impact: The launch of Saviman

Date: Monday 09 February 2015
18:00 to 19:30
Location: British Council Library | Colombo

Derived from the Sanskrit word ‘guidance’, Saviman is a new venture born at the FUTURES - Social Innovation Forum organised by the British Council in 2014. Four participants of the FUTURES forum have come together to start a much-needed service that will take socially driven initiatives and organisations to the next level. Saviman is a service dedicated to supporting social enterprises and non-profits by providing free technology advice. Saviman brings together a group of experienced technology experts who share the passion of delivering social change through technology.

Join us at the launch of this exciting initiative, where the founders of Saviman will tell you their story, demonstrate how Saviman works using real case studies; followed by an exciting and engaging panel discussion on how technology is used to amplify social and environmental impact.

Agenda

1. Welcome

2. Brief Intro to Saviman Story - Rohan Jayaweera

3. Saviman Web Site Launch and Brief Demo - Chandika Jayasundara

4. Panel Discussion

5. Conclusion

Speakers

Harsha Purasinghe

Chief Executive Officer, MicroImage

Harsha is a serial entrepreneur who founded a number of technology ventures and contributed towards building notable products since his debut in the software industry at the age of 19. Harsha is behind the founding of Microimage, Microimage Mobile Media, and Microimage HCM Asia and was recognised as the 'Most outstanding entrepreneur in IT/BPO industry in Sri Lanka' in 2007. He was also selected for the '2014 Eisenhower Innovation Fellowship' granted by the Eisenhower Fellowship in the USA.

Rohan Jayaweera

Chief Operating Officer, MicroImage Media

Rohan was the first employee of Google for Sri Lanka and during his time he helped brands, organisations and the Sri Lankan government to develop its digital practices. During his tenure, he managed digital practise, policy framework, publisher, video and telco partnerships, community and entrepreneurship development. He is interested in the adoption of technology for emerging markets development, mentoring and coaching and business development assistance for startups and entrepreneurs.

Isura Silva

Manager, Sarvodaya Fusion

Isura is a social entreprenuer with a passion to create rural social entrepreneurs. He manages Sarvodya-Fusion (www.fusion.lk), a leading ‘Information & Communication Technology for Development’ (ICT4D) social enterprise in Sri Lanka, a specialized program of Sarvodaya – the 55 year old national charity, with a mission seeking ‘e-Empowerment of rural communities’.

Chandika Jasundara

Chief Executive Officer, Cinergix

Cinergix was founded in 2008 in Melbourne Australia and set up its core R&D operations in Colombo soon after. Their leading product 'Creately' has garnered global recognition, featured on events such as DEMO, Techcrunch 50 and has won awards such as the “Top 10 Web app of Asia”, “Top 10 startups in Australia”. Creately is loved by hundreds of thousands of users and has amassed thousands of global brand name customers like NASA, Salesforce, Cisco and many small and medium businesses.

Samisa Abeysinghe

Vice President of Delivery, WSO2

Samisa Abeysinghe has over a decade of experience working with systems integrators and software vendors with global exposure. Samisa, in his current role, leads the development of WSO2’s three open source platforms such as the WSO2 Carbon enterprise middleware platform, WSO2 Stratos cloud middleware platform, and WSO2 StratosLive PaaS. He is a visiting lecturer in the Computer Science and Engineering Department, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.

Sharanya Sekaram

Executive Committee Member, Unity Mission Trust

Sharanya’s work and activism are centralised on youth empowerment, with a focus on unity/integration and gender equality. An LLB (Hons) graduate of Staffordshire University, she is currently employed at the Kadirgamar Institute under the Ministry of External Affairs as a Research Analyst. She is also an Exco Member (Team Leader: Public Relations and Media) of Unity Mission Trust as well as the deputy curator of the Colombo Shapers.