Abu Dhabi hosts international telecoms event

"Mecom provides a timely opportunity to check the pulse of the Middle East communications industry," said Ed Malkoun, Group Exhibition Director for organisers IIR Exhibitions. "Participants want to know what's happening regionally and how international trends are unfolding across the regional telecoms landscape," he added.

The event which will be held in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi from today (25 May) until 27 May at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) has attracted over 200 companies showcasing next generation communications technology and solutions for government, healthcare, hospitality, banking & finance, oil & gas, real estate, retail, manufacturing, logistics and media sectors.

A new feature this year at Mecom features a series of one-day 'Communications in Enterprise' forums spread over three days, covering specific industry sectors from manufacturing, oil and gas, healthcare to travel and hospitality.

"Participants in these dedicated forums will gain valuable market intelligence and be better informed in their decision-making to source next generation of communications solutions for their own industry sector,"

commented Malkoun.

To underscore Mecom's importance to the regional industry, service providers Etisalat, Du and the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, have all confirmed their presence at the event this year, as well as international market research companies such as Ovum.

Commenting on Ovum's participation Angel Dobardziev, Emerging Markets Practice Leader said," We fully understand convergence across telecoms, IT services and software. We invest heavily in researching what is happening in this dynamic market, analyse the change and identify the threats and opportunities ahead for our clients."

Running in parallel at the event is a special one-day Telecoms Leaders Summit and Roundtable where leaders of the top telecommunication companies and regulators in the Middle East and Africa will be taking part in today (May 25) to discuss the global and regional challenges facing the industry.

With probably the largest gathering of senior representatives from the Telecoms sector to converge on Abu Dhabi, headline speakers include H.E. Mohamed Al Ghanim, Director of TRA, Osman Sultan CEO of Du and Khalid Al Kaf, CEO of Saudi-based Mobily.

The event also features the Connect Strategic Telecoms Summit for industry decision makers on May 26-27. Presentations include competing in today's telecoms market, innovative business models, the future of convergence, and making money from value-added services.

"The Connect conference has attracted some very high-powered speakers such as Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon.com, Olaf Kroll, Director Business Development, Myspace.com and Saad Al Qahtani, VP home business unit for the Saudi Telecom Company STC,"

stated Malkoun.

Sponsors this year read like a who's who of the regional industry. Heavyweights including Oracle, IBM and BS Technologies have taken gold sponsorship while Qualcomm. FVC and Polycom have opted for silver sponsorship status.