IDC IT Managers Forum and Expo set to tour Middle East and Africa for first time

Running under the theme of 'Making IT Matter: Finding Opportunities and Defining Value', the conference series has been tailored specifically to meet the needs of IT and Business Executives seeking to discover how technology can be used to enable and transform business models and processes.

Beginning in Abu Dhabi on May 12th and ending in Kuwait on October 28th, the IDC IT Managers Forum and Expo 2009 will visit 10 other cities including Dubai, Riyadh, Casablanca, Ankara, Nairobi, and Johannesburg, playing host to over 3,000 of the region's top ICT end users along the way.

For the Dubai leg, IDC will be returning to the city's iconic Atlantis resort following the overwhelming success of its MENA CIO Summit 2009, which was also held at the Palm Jumeirah's flagship development in early February.

"IT Heads understand that the future of IT rests on their shoulders," says Jyoti Lalchandani, Vice President and Regional Managing Director of IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. "But how can they change the way they approach innovation and organizational issues so as to get where they need to go? And how can they craft a more positive, exciting future for their organization? IDC's IT Managers Forum and Expo 2009 will answer these questions and underscore the vital importance of managing the forces of rapid technology change and business disruption, especially during these uncertain economic times."

It will present cutting-edge analysis of the drivers and metrics that will be critical to the IT market in the coming years, as well as provide insights into:

- Technologies that encourage the alignment of IT with wider business strategies
- The enterprise-focused strategies that IT Heads should pursue to cope during a downturn
- How technology-driven initiatives can propel growth in these uncertain times
- How IT must focus on ROI and alignment as strategies for success
- How IT can be utilized to increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, improve the bottom line, and safeguard customers.

This pioneering series of full-day conferences will feature high-impact presentations from some of the region's most influential ICT thought leaders on the subjects of most importance to today's overworked and under-budgeted IT Managers, including Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Virtualization; Security and Business Continuity; Outsourcing and Managed Services; and Business Optimization.

It will also include real life end-user case studies on topics such as Unified Communications, Virtualization, Web 2.0, Green IT, SOA, Open Source, and much, much more.

More than 30 senior IDC analysts will be on hand to offer expert advice and guidance on the unique issues of critical importance to the modern-day organization, and the events will offer unrivalled peer-to-peer networking opportunities via interactive sessions and informal discussions.

And to ensure the very latest technology is at the delegates' fingertips, there will be an exhibit floor showcasing product offerings from the world's leading solutions providers.

IDC has partnered with a host of leading vendors to ensure that the series covers all the very latest technology trends. MEEZA has signed up as Forum and Gold Partner for Doha, while FVC and Polycom will be joint Platinum Partners in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Riyadh, Casablanca, Cairo, Lagos, and Kuwait.

IBM and Iron Mountain Digital have teamed up with IDC as Platinum Partner and Gold Partner, respectively, for the Istanbul edition of the roadshow, while Qlik View has signed on as Platinum Partner for both Turkish events.