Techno Sri Lanka 2017, the national engineering and technology exhibition and flagship event of the IESL was ceremonially launched at Hotel Galadari on Monday, 9th June, 2017 from 6.00 p.m. onwards in the presence of a packed audience. Mr. Karunasena Hettiarachchi , Defence Secretar, was the Chief Guest for the occasion which was attended by a large number of stakeholders including Engineering Professionals, Business Heads of leading industries and organizations related to engineering and technology and media.

Welcoming the audience, President of IESL, Eng. Jayavilal Meegoda, briefed about the developments that exhibition has seen through the years since its inception in 1985 and its status today as the national engineering and Technology exhibition.

The President Elect of IESL & Chairperson of the Organizing Committee for Techno Sri Lanka 2017, Eng. (Prof.) Mrs. Niranjanie Ratnayake explaining this years’ exhibition theme; “EMPOWERING INNOVATION” with the Tagline; SMART, INVENTIVE, DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT stated that the world is changing and engineers are in the forefront of this change. She stated that expectations are very high in today’s society, however, the Planet’s resources are fast depleting and engineers have to be smart and innovative to achieve high goals with very low resource consumption. She added “ Technology should reach the masses and make them do things differently, as doing ‘business as usual’ will not leave a healthy planet for our children and grandchildren. We need ‘disruptive technologies’ that will revolutionize the day-to-day activities, such as mobile technology, nanotechnology, household solar PV technology and perhaps other inventions and breakthroughs to satisfy the society’s expectations and still not be blamed by our future generations for not leaving them a livable Planet Earth.”

Chief Guest, Eng. Karunasena Hettiarachchi, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, in his speech laid stress on the importance of Innovation in the country’s forward march. He added that the 3 armed forces has decided to display and demonstrate their achievements of the R & D efforts at the Techno Sri Lanka this year.

The’ Techno Talk’ this year was delivered by the Guest Speaker Eng. (Prof.) Rohan Munasinghe and it was on the interesting topic of ‘Local Technological Development Efforts and Experiences’

Speeches were also delivered by representatives of various sponsors of the event.

The event concluded with the Vote of Thanks delivered by Vice President of IESL, Eng. Kamal Laksiri and Cocktails that followed.