Initiating operations back in 2012, The International Institute of Knowledge Management (TIIKM) is the pioneer in organizing international academic conferences- bringing together the brightest academic minds and the most cutting-edge research from across the globe. TIIKM was the first organization to introduce this concept in Sri Lanka with our own authentic twist. Even though there were several academic institutions and associations that were organizing conferences at a small-scale, they rarely met international standards and fell short of imparting the desired learning to participants. TIIKM stepped into the international conferences arena with the aim of changing this flow by organizing international conferences that empower participants- by providing a revolutionary learning experience, through insightful research, while prioritizing engagement and interaction with key industry experts via workshops (further evaluating implications and practical applications from the latest studies).

Since its inception, the Co-Founders of TIIKM, Oshadee Withanawasam and Isanka Gamage believed in the importance of providing quality over quantity- hence, they were very passionate about offering a novel knowledge-sharing experience between academics.

TIIKM set out on this journey with the vision of “Revolutionizing the Asian Research Culture”. The key determination was to link the academia, private sector and government sector together for better decision-making and robust policy decisions towards building a better world. Although the scope of TIIKM’s vision and purpose are very broad, at the start Oshadee and Isanka had to work alone towards visualizing, operationalizing and executing all tasks related to this initiative. Building-up from that point, today TIIKM is home for more than 40 direct employees and more than 100 indirect employees representing many countries from across the globe. Currently, many students, temporary lectures, and full-time/ tenured lectures from more than 75 developing counties have joined us as volunteers and part time contributors. We as an organization that works towards enhancing learning and development receive their support to promote our cause and in return, we work closely with them to help in building and advancing their economies. It’s a part of our CSR project.

Starting something is really easy, but maintaining and growing it is the most challenging part. Moreover, since the beginning, TIIKM took a proactive approach to fostering talent and instilling skills for continues learning within our teams. Towards the end of 2012, TIIKM recruited its first employee as an intern from a local university in Sri Lanka, and we are proud to say that at present he is a senior lecturer at that same university- serving as a testament to how we practice learning and development throughout the entire operation within our organization.

In 2013, TIIKM organized its first conference with the participation of more than 25 participants in the Marketing domain. Which was one of the key millstones of the TIIKM journey, since it provided the opportunity to gain a detailed understanding on the nature and expectations of participants, stakeholders’ and partners with regard to the quality requirement. Since then, gradually TIIKM has increased the number of conferences organized in a calendar year to 20 conferences by end of 2019.

In 2015, for the first time in its history, TIIKM decided to expand its presence overseas to become a truly international conference organizer by crossing geographical boundaries. The driving desire in the minds of our visionary leaders to build a globally recognized brand for organizing international conferences of exceptional quality pushed them to take calculated risks to organize their very first outside conference (on behalf of a highly acclaimed academic partner) in China. This was a monumental point in the history of TIIKM and had a profound impact on TIIKM’s story by steering us in a direction to dominate the Southern and Eastern Asian region. Since then, TIIKM has expanded their physical presence in Thailand, Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

TIIKM is an organization that invests heavily on Human Resources since the start. The ideology of the institute focuses on building an educationally empowered community by building efficient supporting platforms like conferences, Open access journals, workshops, forums and associations. In order to make this aspiration a reality, TIIKM built a strong working culture within the organization since the beginning- based on the concept of “TIIKM Family”. Within the family, employees have the freedom to innovate, create, build and experiment with their ideas and approaches to performing tasks. This makes them strong work collogues and partners for growth who share the same vison and mission of the co-founders. “TIIKM Got talent “, “Staff Education Support program”, “Inferno Awards Ceremony “, “TIIKM Annual get-together“ are some of the programs running internally at TIIKM to advance the talents, skills and potential of its staff members.

In the year 2018, TIIKM won its very first international award, for “Business Excellence“ at the Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Memorial Excellence Award Ceremony. In 2019, TIIKM introduced a new brand for academic publications: “KnowEx”. KnowEx is continuing strongly as a series of Academic Journal Publications.

In early 2020, TIIKM was one of the very first companies in the South Asian region who shifted to the virtual conference concept as a rapid-response to the restrictions imposed on travelling and public gatherings brought around by the COVID-19 pandemic. As adoptability and flexibility forms part of the core value system of TIIKM, it is practiced within the entire organization.

TIIKM remained resilient in adopting to the new normal conditions, which arose as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and global lockdowns did not pose a big challenge to the core activities of our organization. TIIKM had successfully converted the uncertainty stemming from the pandemic into new business opportunities. As a result, a range of new services and business operations were launch between the years 2020 and 2022. Namely, TIIKM Events, which has now become one of the leading event management solution providers is a result of our tactical flexibility during the pandemic. Launched in 2021, “TIIKM Education Academy” is growing rapidly to become an industry benchmark as an education solutions provider in the Post-Covid times.