Dubai, United Arab Emirates - 7th October 2015: (ME NewsWire)
Zomato, the restaurant search and discovery platform, held the second chapter of the Zomato UAE Summit and it's first User Choice Awards in the UAE on Tuesday, 6th October, 2015. The Summit witnessed a gathering of over 500 seasoned restaurant owners, senior marketing professionals and industry veterans.
Held at the JW Marriott Marquis, Dubai the Summit featured the who's who of the F&B industry.
The Summit comprised of a few speaker sessions and 2 panel discussions - perfecting the guest experience and how technology is changing the restaurant industry.
Heino Gehle, Regional Director Zomato MEA set the ball in motion with an introduction to Zomato and the Summit. This was followed by a brief speech by R. Sivaram, Senior VP and Head of Retail Assets & Cards, Emirates NBD; followed by a 15 minute session on how to create context with your customers by Andrew Burgess, Middle East Director of TINT.
This was followed by Zakarya Alaalam (Co-Founder, (Wokyo Noodle Bar), Chef Bobby Kapoor (Chef Partner, Aroma & Spice), Chef Jean (Executive Chef, Unilever Food Solutions), Aldert Van Zyl (Director of Food & Drink, Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek) and Tanita Sandhu (Executive Director, Brand & Communications, TECOM) sharing their insights on Perfecting the Guest Experience in an extremely engaging and animated panel discussion.
Pankaj Chaddah, Co-Founder, Zomato, presented an interactive session on how to manage reviews on social platforms like Zomato.
The second panel discussion touched upon the effect of technology on the F&B industry in the UAE. It delved largely the confluence of Food and technology and how tech is changing the way consumers dine. R. Deepakchandran (Head of Cards, ENBD), Aftab Sayed (Director of E-Commerce & Digital Services, Marriott International MEA), Dimitri Metaxas (MD Resolution MENA, Omnicom Worldwide), Raki Phillips (Co-Founder, SugarMoo) and Suraj Gill (Head of Enterprise, Zomato) spoke on this panel and shared their insights on the topic.
The summit was wrapped up post a keynote by Pankaj Chaddah, Co-Founder Zomato where he took the audiences through exponential growth Zomato has seen over the past year, the upcoming products and ancillary services such as Online ordering, Table Management, Cashless payments and Point of Sales - giving everyone a peek into what's in store in the coming few months.
The key highlight of the summit was the unveiling of the first edition of Zomato's Users Choice Awards. The winners for UAE were:
Dubai
Best Brunch - Saffron - Atlantis the Palm
Most Romantic - The Farm
Best Desserts - Sugaholic
Best Cafe - Tom&Serg
Best View - At.Mosphere
Best Bar - Barasti - Le Méridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina
Best Nightlife - 360° - Jumeirah Beach Hotel
Best Debut - AB's Absolute Barbecues
Legendary - Kamat
Best Rated Restaurant - Tresind
Abu Dhabi
Most Romantic - Peppermill
Best Desserts - Magnolia Bakery
Best Cafe - Shakespeare and Co.
Best Bar - Heroes - Crowne Plaza
Best Rated Restaurant - Hakkasan - Emirates Palace
-Ends-
About Zomato
Zomato is a restaurant search and discovery app, providing in-depth information for over 1.5 million restaurants across 22 countries. Zomato's core content features include restaurant information such as scanned menus and photos, sourced by its massive feet-on-street team across cities it is present in globally. Users can rate and review restaurants, as well as create their own personal network of foodies for trusted recommendations.
In addition to restaurant search and discovery, Zomato has expanded its offering to include in-app Cashless Payments, Online Ordering, Table Reservations, Whitelabel Apps and a Point-of-Sale system, creating cutting-edge technology to connect restaurant businesses and customers in ways that will revolutionise the restaurant industry.
*Source: ME NewsWire
Contact:
Pallavi Sangtani
Marketing & Communications Manager
+971-55-5575022
pallavi.sangtani@zomato.com
© Press Release 2015
