Kevin Turner on Microsoft innovation Day in Riyadh

In this regard, Microsoft, along with its partners, recently organized the Microsoft innovation Day in the Four Seasons Hotel in Riyadh last Tuesday.

The event was a melting spot for more than 1700 people and decision makers from different government and business backgrounds. CEO Kevin Turner, who is also in charge of the strategic and practical leadership of Microsoft sales and services, shed light on the Microsoft vision on how to utilize technology in optimizing business outputs with the least cost possible. He also shared attendees Microsoft vision , presenting some business alternatives and the way of addressing them positively under the pressure of current unstable economic changes .

As the first of its kind, Mr. Turner's visit to the Kingdom came after that of Bill gates in 2006 in which he initiated the Global Competitiveness Conference in Riyadh where he recognized the Kingdom's 38th position in the Global Competitiveness report issued in accordance with the Global Bank. Mr. Turner this time highlighted the Kingdom's 16th position attributing it to the optimal use of technology and signifying its crucial role in the Saudi economy.

In an after-speech session with attendees, Mr. Turner stressed that human resources always stood as the backbone of any company or corporate institution.

"Companies that make optimal use of technology can elevate the efficiency and productivity of their employees, leading to the desired target with minimum costs and putting the company higher on the competitive scale,"

he said.

Within an event exhibition, many Microsoft partners were there displaying their products, techniques, solutions and services along with those of Microsoft. Among these were AMD, Dimension Data, Raya, International Window, Arabic Computer Co. and Arabian Netways Co.

On another level, Mr. Turner launched the Microsoft Initiative for Education and Development (Dream Spark) which entitles students to download Microsoft developer professional tools for free, and sustain their creative faculties in different scientific domains leading to bright future careers. This initiative is one among many that Microsoft had launched before taking as an example the Imagination Contest a few years back.

Within the same area, Regional Manager of Arabian Netways Co., Mr. John Musa, said:

"Our presence here today emphasizes our keenness to support the Saudi market amidst the current trend to the electronic government. In our participation today, we have taken the first step on the way that our technical partner, Microsoft, had already paved for accessing and interacting with technology."