Internet, finance, media leaders to speak at ArabNet

"ArabNet is the best place to build a deep understanding of the digital transformation that is taking place across industries -- from media to advertising, from telecommunications to commerce," said Omar Christidis, ArabNet's Founder.

This year's Shift Digital Summit will have a particular emphasis on the two most crucial developments in the industry: Social and Mobile. Over eighty leadership players from the web and mobile industries will address these issues to an anticipated audience of more than 1,000. Leaders from top internet companies such as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft will share the stage with executives from mobile companies like Nokia and Ericsson, prominent regional investors including Fadi Ghandour, CEO of Aramex and Feroz Sanaulla Executive Director Middle East, Turkey, Africa at Intel Capital, and media companies such as MBC, The National and Sony Entertainment. The updated cast of speakers at ArabNet can be found at http://www.arabnet.me/speakers/

The summit will be kicking off with a Developer Day on March 22, targeted at engineers, developers, and techies from across the region. It will include programming case studies, tutorials, and in depth workshops by engineers from top regional and global companies. Some of the topics that will be discussed include developing mobile apps for different platforms like Google's Android, popular content management systems like Wordpress, user interface, and user experience. At the end of the day, attendees will have the opportunity to take part in exciting competitions and Sprints to develop applications to grow the Arabic web.

The Two-Day ArabNet Forum (March 23 - 24), the heart of the summit, will focus on a series of panels discussing acceleration, group buying, venture capital, mobile apps, telecom strategy, content & services, streaming media, social media marketing, media buying, e-marketing, gaming, tech for development and social media & citizenship. A number of workshops will also be held on topics including; local communities and content, e-retail, forums marketing, and marketing with cutting edge hardware.

The Community Day (March 25) targets students and young adults and aims to raise awareness about the opportunities presented by digital and online technologies and entrepreneurship. The day will feature panel discussions on the current state of the web/mobile industries and the technologies of the future, career talks by leaders from top internet companies and inspirational talks from leading entrepreneurs to motivate and advise attendees as well as technical talks by developers. The Community Day will also include a series of workshops covering digital activism, community journalism, social media and other topics of interest to today's connected younger generation by local organisations that are active among the community.