Dubai, March 7, 2012 - International Data Corporation (IDC), the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets, is delighted to announce the regional launch of its hugely popular 'Directions' event at Dubai's iconic Jumeirah Beach Hotel on April 22. IDC Directions is a forum designed for ICT providers - including IT vendors, telecommunications operators, system integrators, IT service providers, resellers, distributors, and other industry stakeholders - to discuss emerging regional ICT market opportunities. It has been causing waves across the world's major ICT markets for a number of years now, and its long-awaited arrival in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey reaffirms the region's growing prominence on the global ICT stage.

Technology game changers such as cloud, mobility, big data analytics, and social networking are shaping the ICT spending priorities of consumers and organizations in the region. The technology investments being made by the region's key economic sectors, such as government, banking and finance, oil and gas, and telecommunications, are evolving continuously, driven by the need to support business agility and help control costs. Government organizations are continuing to invest in egovernment projects, citizen-centric services, and operational streamlining initiatives, leading to rapid growth in related IT spending. And although continued investment in infrastructure projects has driven strong growth in IT hardware expenditure, spending on the packaged software and IT services that help enable, leverage, and manage this infrastructure has grown at an even faster rate. Meanwhile, ICT adoption and use in the consumer segment continues to be propelled by the rapid proliferation of smartphones, media tablets, and other mobile devices.

The big four regional ICT markets - Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the UAE, and Turkey - will continue to attract most of the region's ICT investment over the coming years; however, rising stars such as Qatar, are making their presence felt through bold investment plans, and as a result, are expected to account for an increasing share of the market over the next decade. Meanwhile, new telecommunications infrastructure in the form of submarine cables and expanded mobile networks, are laying the foundations for an ICT explosion on the African continent. Overall, the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey clearly represents a new growth frontier for vendors, with increasing numbers of telecommunications companies and ICT multinationals taking up competitive positions for the long term, as evidenced by the recent spate of heavy vendor-led investment in the region. This is also spurring increased dynamism in the region's channel ecosystem, offering greater opportunities for IT services providers, systems integrators, resellers, and distributors.

"Sustained economic growth, coupled with a relatively limited rate of ICT adoption and the low prevalence of installed legacy systems, means that the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey region is poised to leapfrog technology generations in an attempt to catch up with the rest of the world," says Jyoti Lalchandani, vice president and managing director of IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. "This obviously presents a huge opportunity for the world's leading ICT vendors as they are faced with comparatively slow growth in the more mature markets of the U.S. and Western Europe. Indeed, we expect ICT spending in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey region (excluding Israel) to reach $253 billion by 2015, up from $205 billion in 2011, with IT contributing to more than $94 billion of that figure. This rapid growth in ICT adoption also presents a major opportunity for the region's telecommunications operators, which are increasingly looking to expand their service offerings and reach."

'Directions' differs from all other IDC events in the region as its aim is to provide guidance to the supply side of the market, rather than to end users. Running under the tagline 'The Next Decade of Technology Transformations and Opportunities for ICT Providers', the event will present the observations of senior international and regional IDC analysts as they use the very latest market findings to advise ICT  vendors, telecommunications operators, systems integrators, IT service providers, distributors, and resellers on the product, channel, country, and sector strategies they should be considering as they look to tap into the vast potential on offer in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. The event will bring together industry executives from across a wide range of functions, including general/business managers, country managers, product executives, sales and marketing executives, sector/industry specialists, strategy and business planners, technology specialists, and market intelligence executives, to name just a few.

Central to the agenda will be emerging technologies and models such as virtualization, cloud, mobility, and big data analytics; all of which have had a tremendous impact in markets around the world and are beginning to see demand and adoption within the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. The region's ICT market is now at a key juncture in its evolution, and IDC's 'Directions Middle East, Turkey, and Africa 2012' promises to deliver unrivalled insights into the impact that this evolution will have on the region's ICT provider landscape.

For more information about IDC's 'Directions Middle East, Turkey, and Africa 2012' event and to learn about the range of flexible partnership opportunities on offer, please contact Ms. Harleen Kaur, Senior Account Manager - Conferences at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, at hkaur@idc.com or on +971 4 364 2030.

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About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make  factbased decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For more than 47 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.

IDC in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey
For the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey region, IDC retains a coordinated network of offices in Riyadh, Casablanca, Nairobi, Lagos, Johannesburg, and Istanbul, with a regional center in Dubai. Further expansion plans for 2012 include the opening of an additional office in Cairo. Our coverage couples local insight with an international perspective to provide a comprehensive understanding of markets in these dynamic regions. Our market intelligence services are unparalleled in depth, consistency, scope, and accuracy. IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey currently fields over 80 analysts, consultants, and conference associates across the region.

© Press Release 2012