Game-changers to converge at Gitex Technology Week

Trixie LohMirmand; Nikitas Glykas; Mahir Julfar, vice-president, venue management at the Dubai World Trade Centre; Fadi Ghandour; Khaled Al Awadhi; Omar Boulos, regional managing director of Accenture Middle East and Turkey; and Rabih Daboussi, vice-president of sales at DarkMatter, at an event to announce details of Gitex Technology Week in Dubai on Tuesday.

A breathtaking blend of frontier technologies, including blockchain, artificial intelligence, robotics and the Internet of Things, will be vying for limelight at one of the world's most avidly awaited annual innovation showcase - Gitex Technology Week - at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

Running alongside the razzle-dazzle show of stunning futuristic technologies will be - Gitex Future Stars - a startup event where scores of first-movers, game-changers and dream-makers from around the world will converge to share their rule-disrupting visions of a technology-enabled future.

Among the star line-up of speakers at the event, running from October 8 to 12, will be Werner Vogels, chief technology afficer of Amazon.com, who will be making his regional debut, organisers of the twin events said at a media briefing on Tuesday.

Organisers said the second edition of Gitex Future Stars is set to be the biggest ever confluence of the global startup ecosystem. International VC powerhouses and investors, including international "super investor" firm Andreessen Horowitz, Candace Johnson from SES & the European Angel Investor Network in France, and Mo El Bibany from the Rising Tide Fund in the US will be chief among venture capitalists and investors on site searching for the next big thing in technology.

The five-day event will welcome over 4,100 exhibitors, with companies from Finland, Georgia, Guatemala, Luxembourg and Syria exhibiting for the first time.

Gitex Technology Week's Vertical Days Conferences will include over 126 speakers and 230 sessions with experts from eight key industry verticals such as health, retail, smart cities, finance, transport and logistics, education and digital marketing.

The startup event will give young innovators a chance to be first movers, with funding opportunities to springboard their dreams into reality throughout the week, including over Dh1.2 million in cash and prizes across a number of competitions. In a regional first, it will also feature a dedicated corporate buyers programme in partnership with Wamda, the leading platform for entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa, organisers said.

Participating along with Vogels will be other technology gurus who have shaped the modern world's ICT landscape. Vogels, the keynote speaker, will discuss how Amazon progressed from a startup in 1994 to the fourth largest employer in the world. Others addressing the participants include Shafi Ahmed, who used VR to broadcast a live surgery to over 54 million viewers; Ben Silverman, former chairman of NBC and creator of the hit TV show Planet of the Apps, and; Erik Mendelson and Grammy award-winning producer Winston 'DJ Blackout' Thomas, co-founders of blockchain music production firm RecordGram and winners of TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield.

Gitex Future Stars seeks to show the future by displaying the latest in emerging technology from 700 startups that may be scouted by one of the 250 venture capitalists and investors attending the event.

To be featured at the startup show will be technologies that will continue to elevate future-facing cities and change realities for generations to come. These include a 100 per cent electric flying water taxi from French startup Seabubbles.

"To win in a disruptive economy, businesses must understand how the emerging technology of today will mean valuable opportunities in the future. This week is dedicated to education, innovation and sharing of technology and ideas that will shape the businesses of tomorrow," said Trixie LohMirmand, senior vice-president, events management, Dubai World Trade Centre, organisers of Gitex Technology Week.

"There is no better time than now to be a part of the Middle East entrepreneurial landscape. The startup ecosystem is thriving not just with ideas, but also with innovative startups and investors looking to help businesses scale up and expand," said Fadi Ghandour, executive chairman of Wamda Group, and founder of Aramex.

Winners of the Accenture Innovation Awards at Gitex Future Stars will receive an all-expenses paid trip to Silicon Valley. Winners of the Fintech and Social Impact categories will also be fast-tracked to the live presentation stage of Expo Live's Innovation Impact Grant Programme.

Toshiba I will be a strategic partner for the Pitch sponsorship and awarding prizes for the Best Arab Startup and Best Africa Startup, said Santosh Varghese, general manager - MEA, digital products and solutions, Toshiba Gulf FZE. "We want to encourage the culture of innovation that will drive the Mena region to smart digital transformation, support young entrepreneurs and enhance Dubai and the UAE's standing as one of the foremost capitals of innovation," said Varghese.

"Technology has been at the very foundation of mobility and with the evolution of technology, how we travel is changing rapidly. With projects like the Flying Taxis, the RTA is committed to enabling the future of transport in Dubai, thereby establishing a new benchmark for mobility," said Khaled Al Awadhi, director, Automatic Collection Systems, RTA.

The UAE-headquartered DarkMatter will demonstrate security solutions to protect businesses and governments from the increasing threats of a connected world.

VR powerhouse HTC will showcase the HTC Vive, which is set to change the way people consume visual content, said Nikitas Glykas, president MEA, HTC.

- issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com