Amazon, Alexa, Pakistan and everything else from Tech Summit Lahore 2019

We witnessed a houseful Tech Summit Lahore event yesterday, a conference focused on new and interesting developments in technology, its impact and how the world is changing. Though organized by TechTalk and Open Lahore chapter on a working day, the conference saw major participation from software development community of Pakistan. Attendees included senior professionals from Systems Ltd, Techlogix, CareAxiom, Confiz, Bayt and other notable software houses in Lahore.

The guest speakers included representatives from Amazon, Microsoft, CareAxiom, and Forbes who traveled to Pakistan to talk about new and interesting developments in technology and how it helps shape our lives.

Technological advancements, especially in the last decade or so, have happened at such a rapid pace that it becomes difficult to stop and appreciate all the improvements that have been made possible in our lives thanks to these advancements.

Everywhere from businesses to personal lives, there are companies which are leading the way to bring tremendous changes in how we perceive normalcy.

Tech Leadership Summit 2019 was designed to give these companies a platform to talk about how the technologies they are working on is changing the world as we see around us.

The event was filled to the brim with engaging and exciting talks about modern technologies and its futures. Fahad Aziz, a contributor at Forbes, talked about how exponential thinking is affecting the development in Technology and what the landscape could look like down the road for current technologies.

One particularly interesting talk was a fireside chat with Rizwan Malik, Senior Product Manager at Amazon hosted by Iram Nawaz, ex-Editor of Microsoft Press. Rizwan talked about how Amazon works and how well the upper hierarchy is connected and invested in even the smallest of the daily ongoing operations at the company. He shared his experience where he got a “Question Mark Email” from Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, himself. The email was related to a complaint by a customer whose email Jeff had read himself and was seeking a complete report on the issue within 24 hours.

He further highlighted the work that Amazon is putting to remain ahead in the smart speakers and digital assistant field. Unfortunately, when Alexa was first launched, it was not possible to include Pakistan in the initial launch plans due to some issues with taxation and regulations. However, as Rizwan highlighted that, apart from a few quirks and issues, Alexa does indeed work quite well in Pakistan and though Urdu is currently not supported yet Alexa is always getting smarter and learning more languages so eventually it will be supported in future.

There has been a big question mark over the involvement of Pakistani engineers in high profile companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple. Rizwan highlighted his own experience during the hiring process of Amazon and also urged more engineers and developers from Pakistan to contribute towards the improvement of these services. When more people from Pakistan will take part in the engineering process of such large scale companies, it will lead to a domino effect in improving the user experience for people living in Pakistan.

Fatima Rizwan, Founder and CEO of TechJuice, used the occasion to inform and educate the audience about effective use of digital marketing for anyone launching a new product. She talked about different methods which, both startups and established companies can employ to make sure word about their products get across their potential customers.

Other prominent speakers from CareAxiom talked about how cloud and other technologies are opening new avenues for faster innovation and release cycles. Continuous integration is now becoming a salient feature of development process, ensuring far greater compatibility and transparency for the end customer. The evolving role of technology leaders in the new, digitally connected world was also a hot topic during the talks given by some prominent names attending the event.