Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies

  

What is APRICOT?

Throughout Asia and the Pacific Rim, Internet service providers, backbone and regional networks, web hosting facilities, firewalls, and Intranets are being created, deployed, and installed at a staggering pace. The technicians, managers, entrepeneurs and decision-makers responsible are under tremendous pressure to master the skills necessary to build and operate these increasingly complex systems.

The mission of the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT) is to provide a forum for those key Internet builders in the region to learn from their peers and other leaders in the Internet community from around the world.

Held annually, the ten day long summit consists of seminars, workshops, tutorials, conference sessions, birds-of-a-feather (BOFs), and other forums all with the goal of spreading and sharing the knowledge required to operate the Internet within the Asia Pacific region.

In an attempt to ease the travel burden on attendees, APRICOT is held in conjunction with one of the Asia Pacific Network Information Center's (APNIC) two annual meetings, the winter Asia Pacific Networking Group (APNG) meeting, and meetings of other Asia Pacific Internet organisations.

Wherever possible, APRICOT also attempts to derive synergy by having the meetings close to or back-to-back with other Internet events such as Asia Internet World, ICANN etc.

  • APRICOT's mission is to develop and advance the skills and understanding necessary to grow a robust Internet infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region. APRICOT is about bringing the world's top Internet experts together with those who can most benefit from their knowledge.
  • APRICOT attendees are the key builders of Asia's Internet. Many of the world's best Internet engineers attend APRICOT either to teach, present or do their own human networking.
  • APRICOT provides its sponsors the chance to participate in a quality, content-rich event with excellent opportunities to target their products and services at the decision-makers in the Asia Pacific Internet community.
  • APRICOT's primary goal is to provide a vehicle for the transfer of technology and techniques to the Asia and Pacific Rim region. As such, our attendance fees are set below those of the more promotionally orientated conferences and in fact are set to match the fees found at many similar Internet Operator Group meetings.
  • APRICOT is an activity supported by various Asia Pacific Internet organisations as well as numerous individuals who give freely of their time and talent, and is not a commercial profit making venture. Any surplus funds are rolled over to keep attendance fees low at the next APRICOT event and support outreach activities in the less developed areas of the Asia and Pacific region.

How APRICOT began

David Conrad, at the time the Director General of APNIC, saw the early NANOGs taking place with great success in the US. NANOG was aimed at the North American ISP market, with the rest of the world having no equivalent. David suggested the Asia & Pacific region should have its own Internet technical operations conference. Barry Greene, then working for SingTel, convinced SingTel to support the event, and Harish Pillay persuaded the Singapore Computer Society to sponsor it at the RELC Centre in Singapore.

With venue, Internet connectivity, and sponsorship assured, a team of volunteers constructed the terminal room, and Digital paid for the catering, the first ever APRICOT took place early in 1996. The first APRICOT social event was a visit to the Singapore Night Safari.

APRICOT and APIA

In September 2002, the APRICOT Executive Committee and the APIA Board agreed that APIA and APRICOT should work more closely together. And as from March 2003, APIA became the legal entity supporting the APRICOT conference effort. APRICOT is now APIA's main activity, with the board working with the APRICOT Advisory Committee (formerly the Exco) to ensure the future development and growth of APRICOT.

The revised organisation has the APIA Board responsible for the legal entity which supports APRICOT, with the APRICOT Advisory Committee replacing the function of the Executive Committee, and the APRICOT Management Committee taking on the day to day role of working with the local host on the APRICOT conference organisation and programme.