Important IT conference to take place during Gitex Technology Week

The Gitex Technology Week Global Conference, one of the region's largest and most high-profile IT forums, is set to attract senior CIOs from some of the Middle East's most dynamic business and government organisations, as well as developers from the world's leading IT companies.

The Global Conference is part of Gitex Technology Week, which takes place at Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC), 19-23 October 2008.

Organiser Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) has expanded the programme to include 35 sessions of interactive discussion, featuring leading industry experts on new generation technology. These will include focused discussion on the role of technology in the region's dynamic real estate sector, the need for enhanced smart communications devices, as well as the opportunities for new revenue models for telecom players.

Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General, Dubai World Trade Centre said:

'Because of the critical mass of regional and international executives attending Gitex Technology Week, the Global Conference has evolved into a major forum for direct discussion between technology developers and end users. We have invested significantly in expanding the Conference this year, to enable the widest possible discussion around the needs of the region.'

Some of the leading experts in the field of IT will be speaking at the event, including the Chief Information Officer of the multi billion dollar Aluminium firm, DUBAL. Ahmad Alumulla, who has nearly twenty years experience working for the seventh biggest Aluminium company in the world, will talk on the role technology plays in enabling business success.

Also speaking on a similar topic at the Gitex Technology Week Global Conference is Tariq Y. Elsadik, the Chief Information Officer at Abu Dhabi based conglomerate Al Fahim.

Fadi Hindi is the Head of IT Planning and Enterprise Architecture for Dubai Customs. Hindi will be hosting a tutorial on 'Enterprise Architecture: Drawing up a Blueprint for alignment'.

In addition, John Fitzgerald, CEO, Beyond Encryption Technologies is a well known security expert, who played a leading role in the computer security training company, SANS across Europe and the Middle-East. Fitzgerald will host a clinic on security solutions for small to medium-sized businesses.

For the first time, Gitex Technology Week Global Conference will host a special Developers Day, a technical forum for examining the latest development tools and environments, with a particular focus on the potential for increasing the range of programming coming from within the Middle East. The sessions will include contributions on Microsoft technologies, Oracle tools, Open Source and Java.

In addition, a series of specialist sessions will focus on the potential for collaboration across the industry in the fields of security, certification and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) creation and management.

Almarri commented: 'We see significant potential to use Gitex Technology Week's positioning in the IT sector to stimulate new innovations across the region. Our aim is to use the Developers Day to provide a platform to showcase some of the most interesting projects and successes coming from within the developer community of the Middle East, which will be a first for the whole industry.'

Other sessions within the Global Conference will focus upon three of the major components of Gitex Technology Week - communications, consumer electronics and business technology.

Within the specialist GULFCOMMS panel discussion session, industry leaders are set to hold a landmark review of WiMax technology, the digital communications system that could provide wireless 'metropolitan area networks' across the region.

Gitex Technology Week Global Conferences is working with conference management partner Corporate Publishing International (CPI), the region's leading publisher of IT titles and partner of IDG, the world's largest IT publishing organisation.