Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Saif Al Sharqi inaugurates Second Digital Business Channel conference for Middle East & Africa in Fujeirah

Farouk Hemraj, CEO and co-founder of Distree Events, said, "We have seen a 60% increase in registrations from the Business Channel partners from across the region this year. This is testimonial to the success of our 'by-invitation only' corporate event experience. Over the next two and a half days, we will give vendors and potential channel partners the opportunity to develop in-depth discussions and initiate a selling cycle."

"We look forward to hosting hundreds of IT decision-makers for the fourth time in a row at DBC MEA 2006. It is an honour that the organizers have chosen to return to us again in our beautiful location at Fujairah, and we look forward to providing an unforgettable platform yet again for networking and relationship-building," said Patrick Antaki, General Manager, Le Meridien Al Aqah.

Around 170 senior executives have registered to attend DBC MEA that is 100% dedicated for the B2B (business to business) IT channel in MEA. DBC MEA is organised by Distree Events, who also organise DISTREE MEA and Digital Consumer Channel (DCC MEA). The companies attending DBC MEA can be categorised as IT Solution Providers, Value Added Resellers (VAR), System Integrators, Resellers, Dealers, and IT Consultants, among others with several belonging to more than one category (see table below). Most also cover one or more technology sectors including networking, security, storage, telecommunications and other horizontal applications (see table below).

Registered attendees represent 148 companies with a cumulative turnover of over US$ 5 billion and staff strength of over 13000.

"Last year, the first-ever DBC MEA conference successfully hosted a total of 267 participants (vendors and channel) and received highly positive feedbacks from all attendees," underlined Farouk Hemraj. "It strengthens the fact that our technology-focused channel events meet both vendors' and channel partners' needs and expectations."

DBC MEA 2006 follows the special DISTREE formula: a high-level, full service event in the comfort of a world-class venue. It is sponsored by AMD as platinum sponsor, supported by Juniper Networks and Xerox as gold sponsors, and Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Lexmark and Packeteer as silver sponsors.

The event will bring together leading vendors, including (in alphabetical order) 3COM, AMD, APC, ATS, EPSON, Extreme Networks, FTI, Fujitsu Siemens, HITACHI Data Systems, HP, IBM, Imation, Infosec, Juniper, Lenovo, Lexmark, Mirapoint, Netgear, Packeteer Europe, Potential, Quescom, Sky Electronics, Skyrecon Systems, Sony, Sun Microsystems, Tech Access, VIA, and Xerox.

In addition to the well known one-on-one meetings and 25-minute boardroom presentations, the conference features six new workshops scheduled at the same time on September 20th, each one for up to 20 people. Prior to the event, both vendors and business partners had the opportunity to directly pre-reserve their on-site appointments via a pre-booking process driven by DBC MEA website.

The second prestigious DBC MEA Awards Ceremony will honour the top vendors with a trophy in four best-in-class categories: Best Vendor, Best Boardroom Presentation, Best Product Innovation, and Best Business Solution.