26 April 2016
Dubai, UAE - The fifth instalment of the Digital Media Forum (DMF) has drawn to a successful close on April 26th 2016. The event was held at the ballroom of the Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi hotel, perfectly embodied the theme "The Future Restarts at 2016 DMF," welcoming a plethora of industry leaders from across the world. The eventful roster included topics such as Media and Performance, Creativity and Technology, as well as panel discussions and interviews with some of the region's top power influencers in digital marketing.

DMF represents Dubai's biggest gathering for top leaders from the MENA region and throughout the international community. The annual event provides a networking platform where the world's most renowned social media advocates can discuss the future of technology and business solutions, in addition to discovering the latest marketing knowledge within the digital world.

This year's roster saw the event kick off with an opening speech by Najla Semaan Mazboudi, CEO of SpotOn Media Services and Events and Founder of the Digital Media Forum and MENA Digital Awards, followed by a keynote speech from Carlos Domingo (Senior Executive Officer - New Businesses & Innovation. Topics of discussion included Public Company Visibility- An Exchange's Perspective by Adam Kostyal, SVP and Head of Global Listing Services at EMEA Nasdaq, Sweden, along with a topic titled More Stupid Ideas by Will Rust, Executive Creative Director of OgilvyOne MENA.

Other topics included The Impact of technology on Brands by panelists Taghrid Al Saeed, Senior Vice President at Mubadala Group Communications, Mohammed Jaradat, Head of Digital, Jaguar Land Rover MENA, Nawaf Felemban - Founder and CEO of Kasra and Sheelah Odedra - Agency Partner, Facebook, MEAP and moderator Heba AlSamt Digital Media Director at Dubai Channels Network. Alexander Bregman, Strategic Partner at Google EMEA's topic was Content consumption in a mobile-first world while Digital Media Services (DMS) facilitated a panel discussion titled "Unlocking the value of audience data" Panelist to include agency, client and publishers side. Alexandru Cernatescu, Group CEO & Co-Founder of Infinit Solutions in Romania addressed the topic, is there a next big thing in marketing technology?

Benjamin Ampen, Head of Revenue at Twitter MENA, spoke about Your Live Connection to the Culture, while Joud Nawar, Senior Research Manager at IPSOS MENA spoke about MENA Digital Consumption. The program continued with a discussion titled Fireside Chat: How Digital and Technology can contribute to businesses in an Economic Downturn by panelists Tarek Daouk, Regional Managing Director MediaVest MENA at Starcom MediaVest, Mounir Harfouche, Chief Executive Officer, MullenLowe MENA, Oussama Gholmieh, Managing Director, Impact Proximity, and Ramzi Haddad, Managing Director, Carat UAE and Lower Gulf Moderator Omar Abou Ezzeddine Deputy GM - Managing Partner, Clear Tag.  Robin Mehta, Managing Director of RAW presented a case study titled Using Technology to Change the Rules, while Simon Attwater, Executive Creative Director at DigitasLBi discussed a topic titled Embrace Boredom. Adrian Enache, General Manager and Co-Founder of The Masterplan Agency spoke about Measurability and its Impact on Business Results, followed by an interactive networking session.

"This year's event has seen a spectacular turnout of some of the best media-minds in the digital and creative industries," said Najla Semaan Mazboudi, CEO of SpotOn Media Services and Events and Founder of the Digital Media Forum and MENA Digital Awards. "With the advent of digital media as one of the fastest-growing industries globally, this year's event aimed to facilitate discussions about the role that technology and innovation plays in shaping the world we live in.

Michel Malkoun - COO, Digital Media Services, DMS, said, "Innovation and digitally focused platforms such as DMF are essential to the growth of the digital media industry, as they help to infuse global standards into the region. As long-term partners of DMF, we are proud to be associated with an event which year after year has succeeded to address the future of digital media and deliver new perspectives which we can all learn from".

Adam Kostyal - SVP, Head of Global Listing Services EMEA, Nasdaq, who was also a speaker at the event, said, "The GCC region is an important market for Nasdaq. As one of the world's leading providers of technology to the exchange industry, our market technology powers more than 100 markets worldwide, including amongst others the Saudi Stock Exchange Tadawul, Dubai Financial Market and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.  Furthermore, we see an inflow of international companies looking to list with Nasdaq at our various listing venues across the world. Companies within tech, digital and media are often scalable and fast growing, and the GCC region is therefore also interesting for us from a listings perspective. Companies in these sectors are extremely scalable and will often be rapidly relevant from an exchange perspective."

This year's event was sponsored by strategic partner, Digital Media Services (DMS) (Member of Choueiri Group). Gold sponsors included DMS, MEC, ArabAd and Dotmena, while Silver sponsors included Ipsos and Dubizzle, GARAGE 366, NABD, and ZEE ENTERTAINMENT. Media partners for this year's event were Sayidaty Magazine and AWI Company, while the Cicero & Bernay was the Public Relations partner, along with RAW as the Social Media partner.

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© Press Release 2016