SPEAKERS

Keynote Speakers

Professor Jon-Chao Hong

National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan

Jon-Chao Hong has received his doctoral degree in Education from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and is currently working as a Chair professor in the department of industrial education at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). As the director of Digital Game-based Learning Laboratory (GBL), he has developed 9 web games, 24 educational Apps and VR for skill training and language learning.
As the secretary general of Taiwan Creativity Development Association, he also organizes several creative contests relevant to STEAM, such as PowerTech Contest to invite elementary, junior and senior high school students to produce robots or miniatures in the morning and using these to compete in the afternoon to ensure students’ hands-on creation without parents or teachers’ assistance. As the executive secretary of International Exhibition for Young Inventors (IEYI), he also promotes the innovative contest to give students an opportunity to stimulate their science inquiry abilities, and also cultivated students’ creativity and thinking attitude of STEAM. In addition, he has published a number of academic articles in international journals related to digital game-based learning and thinking skills and creativity about 45 articles on Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) journals and received the Outstanding Research Prize from Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan.  
 

Associate Professor Mitsunori Hirogaki

Kyushu University, Japan

Mitsunori Hirogaki graduated with a Bachelor of Science: Commerce from Doshisha University and pursued his Master's Degree in Commerce and Ph.D.: Commerce from Kobe University. Dr. Hirogaki is currently an Associate Professor of Marketing Strategy at Kyushu University, Graduate School of Economics, Department of Business and Technology Management (QBS Business School), where he teaches Marketing Strategy and International Marketing. He also teaches marketing research and consumer behavior at Ehime University.
He has served as an administrator in various capacities at Kyushu University and as one of the professors in various training programs dealing with Marketing in short-term executive programs, an Introductory Education Program for Freshman MBA students, and a regular feature on QTnet "Morning Business School" radio educational program aired by FM Fukuoka, and at Nikkei Business School. As a member of a research group at the Center for the Study of the Creative Economy (Doshisha University), he works with big data analysis to construct systems that identify seeds of innovation. Dr. Hirogaki’s current research focuses on Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior in international marketing and marketing strategies in mature, developed societies.
He has published numerous papers in international journals such as Journal of Marketing Management; International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management; International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research; International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business; Micro and Macro Marketing; International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation; and International Journal of Business and Globalisation. He is a member of the Japanese Economic Association, Japan Society of Marketing and Distribution, Kyushu Association of Economic Science, and Japan Association for Consumer Studies.  

Invited Speakers

Dr. Shahid Anjum

Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB), Brunei Darussalam

Dr. Anjum has earned his Ph. D. from Nagoya University, Japan for research topic of Early Warning System for Financial Risk using Data Mining Approach. He is a Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer from Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), a Certified Investment Manager from Moody’s Canadian Securities Institute and Certified in Banking Risks and Regulations (ICBRR) from Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP), USA. He has studied in the “Master of Computer Science program” at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, School of Engineering, University of Detroit in Michigan, USA. He also holds M. Phil. Economics degree.
Dr Anjum has served as Deputy Director of Brunei’s Crown Prince Award’s Committee for Creative, Innovative Products and Technological Advancement (CIPTA) Seminar, as Deputy Director of ‘Digital and Creativity Research Thrust’ at School of Computing and Informatics and Senior Asst. Professor at School of Business. Dr Anjum has also served as Program Leader for Applied Economics and Finance as well as for Marketing Information System Programs. He is currently serving as Partner consultant and Exclusive Representative for select ASEAN countries for Tech6 digital solutions, Singapore and German-owned independent subsidiary enterprise (ATECS AG, Switzerland). For Tech6 digital solutions, Dr. Anjum role is to manage teams to looking after the domains of IT infrastructure development, system integration, software development, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ICT import-export to achieve market share enhancement targets in ASEAN 4. The German Subsidiary is involved in the domains of digital security, digital forensics, surveillance and monitoring and Dr Anjum has the high-profile role of expanding professional partnership with relevant government authorities in assigned destinations. Dr. Anjum has been a member and coordinator at ‘Center for Innovative Engineering’ at Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB) till 2024. He has served as an Adjunct Professor at College of Business & Information Technology, Lawrence Tech., Michigan, from 2008 till Jan 2015, has worked at Royal Bank of Canada (2011-2014) and at Asian Development Bank Manila (1998).
In the nutshell, Dr. Anjum has served in diverse roles like university faculty positions, member of university Vice Chancellor’s Advising teams, banking and international financial organizations, Corporations’ Boards and as an Investor and digital entrepreneur roles in various countries like Canada, Japan, USA, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Pakistan and Philippines. Dr. Anjum has rich academic research profile and has served as a Program Chair for the International Conference on Database and Data Mining) held in Chicago, USA in 2015. He has delivered various invited keynote speeches including on the topics of “Impact of Digital Maturity and Big Data towards Total Quality Management” (2022, UTB, Brunei), “Blockchain in Education: A Discussion in Digital Ecosystem Transformation & Resilience” (https://www.aeit.net/aeit2024.html) (AEIT 2024, Japan), Digital Innovations, Entrepreneurship and Digital Start Ups (2025, Univ of Poonch), “Blockchain and Generative AI in Education: A Discussion in Digital Ecosystem Transformation” (AEIT, 2025, Japan) (https://www.aeit.net/aeit2025.html), Adoption of Digital Transformation: Social Resilience Towards Sustainable Development (https://www.ic4e.net/2024.html) (IC4E, 2024, Japan), Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship (2025, Comsat). He has been moderator to expert forums, has served as Session Chairs to over ten conferences and as a technical committee member to over 20 conferences. Dr Anjum’s research has received Best Paper Awards in Tokyo and ASEAN countries. Dr. Anjum is a senior member of various Computer and Information Technology, Digital Finance and Economy, Management and Development Economics related associations and societies. Dr. Anjum is a widely published author and his publications have appeared in reputable Scopus journals including in IEEE Series and Springer publications. He has also written chapters in book series and currently three books are underway with Taylor and Francis Group and Nova Publishers on Digital Banking & Digital Finance, Fintech & Cryptos, Digital economy.
Dr. Anjum has conducted and has led various consultancy projects as well as training workshops and mentorship programs for Entrepreneurs’ bootcamp for at Darussalam Enterprise (DARe). As Principal Researcher, Dr. Anjum has been a part of team for a project submitted to Brunei Research Council to implement technology transfer from Malaysia and Switzerland to Brunei regarding setting up of Islamic Fintech Lab, gold and silver-based mobile wallet applications, embedded with secured blockchain and Ethereum technology. His current research interests include, among others, applications of data mining and business intelligence, artificial intelligence and process re-engineering, internal audit of financial and digital maturity, blockchain and banking risks, assurance and risk management of financial information technology (fintech) and models of digital economy and smart finance, besides, role of digital and AI technology in education.