The Smart Data Summit Plus & the Future Datacentres and Cloud Infrastructure Summit 2022 took place on the 16 & 17 November 2022 at the Mövenpick Grand Al Bustan in Dubai, UAE. The summit brought together senior IT & tech experts to explore advances in technology, network and drive business conversations. The event also hosted the 2nd edition of the SDS+ Data Awards, an initiative that celebrated organisations going above and beyond in their implementation of AI and big data analytics. Over 400 data analytics & IT professionals from across the region attended the summits that took place side by side.
Through a mix of inspiring keynotes and informative panel discussions across the 2 days, delegates had access to invaluable insights from key thought leaders. Across both the summits, 85+ speakers gathered from the MENA region to discuss all things DATA: data driven decision making, data storage, data security, ways to unlock the true power of data and analytics. DATA was the buzz word on everyone’s mind.
The Smart Data Summit opened with a keynote by Hoda Al Khazaimi, Director of Cyber Security Center, New York University Abu Dhabi who spoke on the topic of Digital Leadership – Paving Pathways To Progress With Advanced Technologies. This was followed by a fireside chat with Dr. Fadi Salem, Director of Policy Research, MBR School of Government,who discussed Artificial Intelligence (AI) & The Roadmap To The Digital Realm For The Mena Region.
Over at the Future Datacentre and Cloud Infrastructure Summit, delegates were treated to informative keynotes from Dr. Mohamed A. Saad, Head of IT Systems Architecture & Infrastructure Solutions Design, National Bank of Egypt who addressed the topic of Cloud Computing Trends in 2023, Ali Husnain Shah, Head of IT Department, East Delta Saudi Co. – KSA, who spoke on Datacentre Cybersecurity & Resiliency and Salih Ismail, Lecturer – School of Science and Engineering, Curtin University Dubai, who presented on the topic of Infrastructural overview of Security.
Other topics that were discussed at the summits included Digital Transformation (DX) across MENA governments & public sector enterprises, latest Marketing & Predictive Analytics trends in the MENA region, People & Workforce Strategies to Succeed in the World of Metaverse, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Business Intelligence, Cloud Data Security & Resiliency, Challenges around Data Governance, Data Ethics & Data Privacy, Digital Infrastructure, Data Centre Strategy & Trends for MENA Region, Construction & Delivery of Mission Critical Infrastructure and much more.
The SDS+ Data Awards covered 12 key categories and recognized organisations that are pioneers in data disruption, solving critical challenges, engaging and innovating with tangible results.
The award winners were:
- Dubai Municipality for the Smart Data Champion Award
- Dubai Police for the Smart Data AI Innovation Award
- Lulu Group International for the Smart Data Excellence Award – Retail
- Emirates Group (Emirates Airlines & Dnata Travel) for the Smart Data Excellence Award – Travel & Hospitality
- Dubai Health Authority for the Smart Data Excellence Award – Healthcare
- Gulf Marketing Group for the Smart Data Excellence Award – Ecommerce
- Roads and Transport Authority for the Smart Data Excellence Award – Government
- DU (Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company) for the Smart Data Excellence Award – Telecom
- Dubai Land Department for the Smart Data Excellence Award – Real Estate
- GEMS Education for the Smart Data Excellence Award – Education
- AW Rostamani Group for the Smart Data Excellence Award – Automotive
- First Abu Dhabi Bank for the Smart Data Excellence Award – BFSI
The Smart Data and the Future Datacentres Summit presented by Expotrade was sponsored & supported by key players in the industry such as Huawei, Dataiku, RED, Snowflake, Denodo, FICO, Fivetran, Evam, Dsquares, opendatasoft, CAT, Multinet, Corning, CPI, ABG, NEOS, Legrand, Convergytics, AIESEC and many more.
