Dubai – International Data Corporation (IDC) today launched the twelfth edition of its annual IDC Middle East CIO Summit, with more than 350 of the region's most influential ICT leaders in attendance. Hosted at The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Center, the event is exploring strategies for thriving in an era of multiplied innovation and automation and is set to conclude tomorrow when the winners of the IDC CIO Excellence Awards 2019 will be announced during a dedicated ceremony.

His Excellency Wesam Lootah, CEO of Smart Dubai Government, opened the day's proceedings by delivering the Summit's honorary keynote address, titled 'Inspiring New Realities', during which he outlined the widescale digital strategies that Smart Dubai is implementing as it looks to transform the city’s everyday experiences with the help of emerging digital technologies.

IDC's chief research officer, Meredith Whalen, continued with this theme by presenting delegates with a series of proven best practices for improving the digital posture of their organizations. She was followed by Matthew Eastwood, IDC's group vice president for enterprise platform research, who chaired a fascinating panel discussion on strategies for scaling a technology revolution with Zubair Ahmed, CIO of Emirates Islamic Bank; Mohamed El Fanichi, CIO of Landmark Group; Mohammed Shah, IT & Smart City director at Knowledge Economic City; and Ismail Abed, CIO of Agility.

Jyoti Lalchandani, IDC's group vice president and regional managing director for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, also addressed the gathered ICT industry luminaries, explaining how a new ICT world order is beginning to take shape. "As digital transformation continues to reshape the global economy, innovation will multiply, platform wars will intensify, and data will increasingly be used for competitive advantage," he said. "Given this unprecedented disruption, it's imperative that organizations make the right decisions today to ensure they remain competitive tomorrow."

The remainder of the day saw a series of senior global and regional IDC analysts host 16 individually themed focus groups that enabled attendees to tailor their Summit experience to address their own particular areas of interest. These roundtable sessions offered advice on a broad range of issues such as transforming the modern enterprise with machine learning, leveraging intelligent robotic process automation, conquering data challenges to deliver better business outcomes, and enhancing enterprise security with the help of proven best practices from G7 governments. These sessions were supplemented by the first-hand experiences of Dr. Kalthoom Mohammed Ali Hassan, Director of Hospitals at the UAE's Ministry of Health and Prevention, and Mishal Al-Hellow, head of IT at Arcapita Investment Management.

The IDC Middle East CIO Summit 2019 continues tomorrow (February 28), with delegates set to hear from special guest speaker His Excellency Younus Al Nasser, assistant director general of Smart Dubai and CEO of Smart Dubai Data, as he explains how data is fueling Dubai’s digital transformation. Day 2 will also include a dedicated CEO session featuring insights from some of the Middle East's most prominent business leaders. Focusing on the theme 'Leadership for the New Era', the esteemed panelists sharing their thoughts will include:

Olivier R. Harnisch, CEO of Emaar Hospitality
Ahmad AR. BinDawood, CEO of Danube and BinDawood
Dr. Marwan Al-Zarouni, CEO of Dubai Blockchain Center
Lennard Francois Otto, CEO of IMG Worlds of Adventure
Khaled Al Melhi, CEO of Injazat.

The event will draw to a close with the IDC CIO Excellence Awards 2019, which have been designed to honor those IT leaders that have excelled in conceptualizing and delivering game-changing digital transformation initiatives for their organizations. IDC's CIO Advisory Council will be on hand to distribute the awards, with winners being announced in the following categories: Best Customer Experience Transformation; Best Business Operations Transformation; Best IT Service Transformation; CISO of the Year; and CIO of the Year.

IDC's valued partners for the Middle East CIO Summit 2019 include Oman's Information Technology Authority as ICT Partner; MicroStrategy, Genesys, Forcepoint, and UiPath as Platinum Partners; Injazat as CEO Session Partner; Quinnox, Attivo Networks, FireEye, Honeywell, Hitachi Vantara, Automation Anywhere, BlackBerry, ServiceNow, Nutanix, Sage, OpenText, Commvault, Nexthink, and Alpha Data with HPE as Focus Group Partners; Robotik World and Digital Communication as Innovation Partners; Freshworks, OutSystems, Equinix, ManageEngine, Plantronics, MDS ap, Huco, and Qlik with SquareOne Technologies as Exhibit Partners; ZephyrTel and Veeam Software as Breakfast Partners; and FintechNews Network as the event's official Media Partner.

For more information about the IDC Middle East CIO Summit 2019, please visit  www.idcciosummit.com/dubai. You can also search for news or tweet about the Summit using the hashtag #IDCMECIO.

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. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at @IDC.

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, Nairobi, Lagos, Johannesburg, Cairo, and Istanbul, with a regional center in Dubai. 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 130 analysts, consultants, and conference associates across the region. To learn more about IDC MEA, please visit www.idc.com/mea. You can follow IDC MEA on Twitter at @IDCMEA.

© Press Release 2019

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