E-watch from Summit Dubai

They join more than 30 blue chip organisations, including Summit patron Dubai Internet City, Bywater, Comtrust, Accenture, IBM, Microsoft, Vertscape and Oracle.

Summit Dubai organisers are pleased with the level of support particualry as the trend in the region is to make last minute bookings, even up to three days before an event, according to Summit Dubai CEO, Saira Azhar,

'Summit Dubai delegates are continuing to make bookings. I witness a more of wait-and-watch approach, especially in the case of individuals from international and regional markets, where air routes are operating off-schedule.

'We are still running at more than 150 confirmed delegates, while all our blue-chip participants have readily confirmed their attendance and support for the conference,' she said. 'Any 'fall-out' is minimal and from distant markets.'

Quizzed about the role of e-business, given the current world affairs, Azhar stated that the Summit Dubai e-business implementation message is even more essential, in the current uncertain economic scenario : 'Our expert speakers will definitely be able to throw some light on the situation and how businesses in the region can cope with change - even change that is driven by potential unrest,' she said.

In recognising that the embracing of e-business in Corporate Middle East has been slow when compared to European and American corporate markets, she suggested that uptake could get slower still in the current climate : 'This further confirms to me at least, that business need to understand just what e-business can do for them - costs can be saved; income can increase.

'Summit Dubai 2001 is designed to bridge any knowledge gap between business and e-business and to provide a platform for discussing real-time global issues impacting the region.'

Highlighting e-business influence on small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in particular, Azhar said that European research reveals companies in this segment can continue to reduce costs by 20 per cent and more by embracing an e-business environment.

While, on a global scale, Summit participant, Oracle, is just one blue chip who has shown cost savings of more than $1 billion in twelve months.

'There are absolutely no reasons why such savings - and more - cannot be enjoyed by companies in the region,' she said.

Summit Dubai stages three tiers of activity - speaker seminars, a B2B networking exhibition and e-workshops. ITP, Summit Dubai's support publishing house, joins various sector leaders as an e-workshop host including ASP Gulf, CacheFlow, Bayt.com, Sankhya InfoTech among others.