IDC announces expanded schedule for 2010 CIO Summit series

Running under the theme 'From Pressure to Performance', the third annual CIO Summit will take place in three of the region's most dynamic business centers: Dubai, Istanbul, and Johannesburg.

Having evolved from just one location in 2008 to two in 2009, the upcoming 2010 series will be divided into three, ensuring even greater relevance for those in attendance. The Middle East CIO Summit will take place at Dubai's Madinat Jumeirah on January 24-25th, the Turkey CIO Summit will be held at Istanbul's Sapanca Gural Hotel on March 9-10th, and the Africa CIO Summit will be hosted at Johannesburg's Emperors Palace Hotel on March 15-16th.

The global economic crisis - having come so suddenly and so severely - has clearly had an impact on the ICT landscape. However, the underlying drivers for IT demand and proliferation remain strong and largely unchanged since 2008. Businesses and consumers show no signs of questioning the value of technology, in contrast to the recession of 2001-2002.

The drive towards modernization and the proliferation of the Internet and mobile devices will continue in emerging geographies, where IT spending is expected to rebound to pre-recession levels by mid-2010 (assuming gradual recovery in global trade and economic growth).

Mr. Jyoti Lalchandani, Vice President and Regional Managing Director for IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, says:

"Our research shows that there is no reasonable likelihood of a repeat of the 2001-2004 downturn in IT markets, when businesses and consumers questioned the value of IT investment and prolonged the duration of the IT market slowdown far beyond the actual duration of the economic recession."

"This current contraction in IT spending, as bad as it is, will prove more short-lived and temporary in nature, related entirely and directly to the duration of the macroeconomic recession and external factors," added Mr. Lalchandani.

Whilst the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey remains a growth region, and IDC strongly anticipates a rapid and sustained recovery in IT demand during 2010, there has been a clear shift in end-user focus from driving expansion to reducing costs, optimizing existing infrastructure, and ensuring efficiency. As such, it is becoming more important than ever for ICT vendors to develop even closer ties with CIOs and senior IT decision makers so as to better understand their needs.

With more than 300 of the region's most influential IT decision makers in attendance, the IDC CIO Summit Series 2010 will address these trends and provide an unrivalled opportunity to build new business relationships. Global thought leaders from some of the world's leading ICT suppliers will be on hand to present their pioneering visions of the future and tackle the topics of greatest importance to today's CIO, such as datacenter efficiency, data and storage management, security, compliance, IT consolidation, automation, virtualization, and the forging of greater IT-business alignment.