Software Park Thailand is using its annual conference today to create awareness of the impact on Thailand's software industry from implementation of the Asean Economic Community in 2015.

The conference, at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre, has the theme "Software Industry towards Asean Economic Community (AEC) 2015".

Software Park Thailand's director Thanachart Numnonda said the conference would focus on the economic community and the readiness of the Thai software industry for the changes it would bring. The AEC will be both a threat and an opportunity for local software businesses.

"This is our third Software Park Annual Conference," Thanachart said. "We aim to provide useful and relevant information on the software business, development techniques, and opportunities both within Thailand and on international markets."

The conference also features seminars and exhibitions by local and multinational software companies to display and demonstrate their technologies.

He said the event would attempt to raise awareness and provide knowledge about the AEC and its impact on the Thai software industry. It will also set out to display and demonstrate software and solutions developed by Thai software and IT companies, encourage Thai IT professionals to enhance their skills and capabilities to meet global standards, and build a collaborative network among private and public organisations. The conference will also support the alliance of software parks throughout the region in order to strengthen the Thai software industry.

Software Park Thailand has also announced that two organisations and one individual will be admitted to its Hall of Fame at today's annual conference. This recognises people and organisations for distinguished contributions to the industry or adoptions of technology.

This year, the honour is extended to the Department of Industrial Promotion (DIP), an organization called OpenCare, and Prinya Hom-Anek.

DIP is the government organisation that, for the past three years, has been helping Thai businesses to adopt technologies through its initiative programmes such as New Entrepreneurs Creation (NEC) and Enhancing SMEs Competitiveness through IT (ECIT). The department has helped to build up both demand and supply in the IT and software industries.

The OpenCare (Open Exchange for Collaborative Activities in Response to Emergencies) Foundation was established to utilize technologies in an effort to assist volunteers involved in emergency communication and alert networks, enabling quick responses to emergencies.

Prinya Hom-Anek is president and founder of ACIS Professional Centre, a provider of information-security training, consulting and security-management services. He has 20 years of experience as an IT and information-security specialist and has extensive training in network and data communication, Internet and network security and information security.

Prinya is recognised as one of the leading information-security professionals in the Asia-Pacific region. He currently serves as a member of the Asian Advisory Board of the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium and the Thailand committee of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association. He is also a committee member and secretary of the Thailand Information Security Association.