After Riyadh, BTX Road Show and Awards 2022 continues with second event in Dubai
The three-city edition, BTX Road Show 2022 continued into UAE with the second event staged in Dubai on 29 June at the Shangri-La Hotel. The event featured multiple invited keynotes, technology keynotes, multiple panel discussion and four sets of awards.
The event was organised by GEC Media Group and was held under the patronage of The Private office of HH Sheikh Mohamed Bin Ahmed Bin Hamadan Al Nahyan. The event was supported by various partners including Dell – Ingram Micro, Redington, Juniper Networks, Logitech – Avientek, Zscaler, Blackboard – Anthology Advanced Integration, Rittal, IGOAI, Global CISO, Business Transformation, and Enterprise Channels MEA.
Close to 100 attendees were present at the event that began after lunch. Gurleen Rooprai from GEC Media was the Event Host and welcomed Ronak Samantaray, CEO of GEC Media Group to begin the event with his welcome introduction.
Samantaray welcomed the guests and attendees and His Excellency Ahmed Elmetwally, CEO and General Manager, Private Office of HH Sheikh Mohamed Bin Ahmed Bin Hamadan Al Nahyan, at the event. Samantaray gave an overview of GEC Media Group’s activities and how the portfolio of events has expanded from IT and now into business.
The opening speech was given by His Excellency Ahmed Elmetwally, CEO and General Manager of the Private Office of HH Sheikh Mohamed Bin Ahmed Bin Hamadan Al Nahyan. HE Ahmed Elmetwally spoke about the importance of adopting business transformation in UAE and the support being extended from the Private Office.
Next, Saleem AlBlooshi, Chief Technology Officer, EITC du presented the invited keynote. He covered the road map followed by du as it transformed itself to be able to meet the expectations of its enterprise customers as they themselves adopted business transformation.
Ellis Wang, from the Board of Executive and Advisory Team of The Private Office of Sheikh Saeed Bin Ahmed Al Maktoum, presented the next invited keynote. Wang presented the opportunities and challenges of entering the Metaverse with e-commerce as the sales model. The large number of examples and use cases that he presented gave the attendees a good idea of how the Metaverse can accelerate e-commerce.
The topic of the first panel discussion was managing the cost of a business transformation journey and the ROI of the project. The moderator was Saleem Ahmed S, President Middle East and Africa, Luftcar and panellists Neale Croutear-Foy, CTO Digital Banking, APEX Group; Ken Maas, Director of Technology, Axiom Telecom; Sunando Chaudhuri, Director of IT, ADNEC Group; and Pranay Sharma, Head of Analytics, Emirates Islamic.
The next technology keynote was by Nidheesh Parayath, Alliance Manager- Product Manager, Logitech Enterprise Video Conferencing, AVIENTEK.
The next invited keynote was by Padam Sundar Kafle, Head IT and Automation, Aster Hospitals UAE. He spoke on the benefits and challenges of transforming healthcare institutions and adoption of digital technologies.
The next invited keynote was by Dr Ullas Rao, Assistant Professor of Finance and Programme Director, Heriot-Watt University Dubai. He spoke on technology and innovation opportunities around the Metaverse model.
The topic of the second panel discussion was on diversity and inclusion to drive innovation in a business. The moderator was Sheeba Hasnain, Senior IT and Digital Transformation Specialist. The panellists included Yasmin Al Rawi, Artificial Intelligence Researcher and Trainer, Qualis for Quality and Consulting; Dr Athra Sultan Alawani, School Staff Development and Wellbeing Department, Ajman UAE, Emirates Schools Establishment; Seham El Behissy, Advisory Board Member, CEBC.
Sally Harby, Regional Sales Manager, Enterprise MEA, Zscaler presented the next technology keynote on the importance of transformation and solution benefits provided by Zscaler.
Varun Vij, Head of Information Security, presented the next invited keynote on Cyber in digital revolution.
Srinivasa Narasimhaiah, Director Information Technology, Julphar Pharma presented the next invited keynote on innovation and transformation in the regional pharmaceutical industry.
The topic of the third panel discussion was on automating security to enable successful digital transformation. The moderator was Arun Shankar, Editor, GEC Media Group. The panellists included Shahab Uddin, Group IT Infrastructure and Security Manager, Ittihad International Investment; Bader Husni Zyoud, Senior Information Security and Risk Management Specialist and Incidents Manager; Zaheer Mubarak Shaikh, Chief Information Security Officer, Al Maryah Community Bank.
The third panel discussion was followed by BTX Road Show Awards and Vote of Thanks by Anushree Dixit, Global Head Content and Strategic Alliances, GEC Media Group.
The half day event included multiple invited keynotes, technology keynotes, panel discussion and four sets of awards.
