Digital Transformation – Invited Speaker for Brunei Shell 2022

Due to the event attendance count to be far more than expected (more than 100 representatives from Brunei Shell Petroleum, Brunei Shell Marketing, Brunei Gas Carriers and Brunei Shell Joint Venture), the approach of the event has been reiterated  to a panel speaker mode whereby the session was an engaging 45-minute forum discussion with Q&A and a 1-hour session of informal roundtable activity over lunch.

I began with a brief overview of my journey as an agile full-stack developer from 1999 up to my stance as an agile digital transformist and
digital future evangelist. My key constructs were the rehumanisation of technologies for Web3.0, IR4.0 and Society 5.0.

In correspondence to moderator and audience Q&A, I emphasized on Digital Transformation, Blockchain, Metaverse, and consequently when necessary on Artificial Intelligence and Multicloud for organisations. My main and complementary talking points for the panel and Q & A were on the below:

1. Digital Transformation for Organisations
   a. Why organisations digitalise and digitally transform
   b. People-Process-Tools with emphasis on:
   • People : People, Human Resource, and People-ware.
   • People : DevOps (and its sub-divisions).
   • People : Reskilling and Upskilling, Microcredentials.
   • People : VUCA2.0 Leadership.
2. The 5 most influential emerging technologies for 2022 and 2023 and their business impact on organisations:
   a. Blockchain.
   b. Metaverse.
   c. Artificial Intelligence.
   d. Cloud.
   e. Full-stack developers (for highly technical Q&A) involving back-end codebases and programming
   e. REVAMP Model (Omarali 2021): Realistic-Engaging-Virtual-Adaptive-Multimodal-Personaliseable.
   f. IF-I-HAD Manifesto (Omarali 2021): Infrastructure-Finance-Interoperability-Human Resource-Access-Data Handling.
3. Blockchain for Organisations
   a. Presentation of Blockchain technology will be served based on the 4 stages of Blockchain Project Management, with emphasis on the 1st Phase:
   • Phase 1 – What is Blockchain and its relevance to organisations.
   • Phase 2 – How to Identify and Prioritise Use Cases (overview).
   • Phase 3 – How to Construct Proof-of-Concept (overview).
   • Phase 4 – How to Develop a Minimum-Viable-Product (overview).
4. Focus on Phase 1 because this is where all organisations start when considering to introducing Blockchain Technology:
   a. Understanding the Blockchain Technology (technical and managerial).
   b. The different types of Blockchain platforms (technical and managerial).
   c. How blockchain supports short, medium and long term business objectives of the organization.
   d. Roles of key participants (senior leadership, business analysts, middle management, leadership, and sales and marketing).
   e. Common pitfalls and why NOT to Blockchain.
   f. Understanding cryptocurrencies, their uses and risks.
   g. Use case examples mentioned of Metamask and Opensea for NFTs, and the Government of Dubai Metaverse Strategy.

As a summation to my presentation and involvement to the event organised by Brunei Shell which comprised of attendees from Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP), Brunei LNG, Brunei Gas Carriers (BGC) and Brunei Shell Marketing (BSM), I would like to share my experience briefly below:

• Guided by the questions and talking points from the organising party, I presented on Digital Transformation in general, with emphasis on Blockchain technology (deep diving into Smart Contracts, decentralised apps, and other technical elements of Blockchain)
• In regards to Blockchain (and Digital Transformation), I emphasised on the importance of having Subject Matter Experts (SME) and skilled human resource / people-ware in the forms of DevOps, Blockchain Architects and Blockchain Project Managers.
• 30 questions were raised by the attendees during the session, of which
  • 10 were on Digitalisation and Digital Transformation with 5 of the 10 specific to developing skilled human resource.
  • 3 were on Blockchain of which 1 was specific to the use of cryptocurrency.
  • 1 was on data protection
• Due to time constraints, I lightly touched on emerging technologies and their concomitant roles to Digital Transformation and Blockchain technology, viz. Cloud technology, metaverse, cybersecurity.
• During intermission sessions, I had 1-to-1 discussions with attendees who approached me, and discussed about Blockchain specific to their interests (i.e. marketing, sales, socialisation, data handling, preparation, etc.)
• The event also showcased work on Digital Transformation being done by Brunei Shell, of which in general emphasised on Agile, Scrum, and Kanban business processes. These business process approaches are right up my street as I am multi-certified in Agile Practition, Agile Tech Developer, and all things Agile and Scrum leadership.