GEC NEWS WIREGITEX Technology Week & GITEX Future Stars are ready to throw open the door to the future as the 2018 editions of the mammoth global tech events gear-up to offer a hands-on exploration of the digital tech set to transform how we live.
From emergency-service rescue robots, through VR for the workplace, to the intelli-tech allowing entire cities to be run by Artificial Intelligence (AI), GITEX Technology Week – taking place at the Dubai World Trade Centre, October 14-18 – is inviting visitors to ‘Experience Future Urbanism’ at a show buzzing with the unveiling of both cutting edge soft and hardware which developers say will realign everything we know about travel, work and play.
The five-day tech summit is held side by side with GITEX Future Stars (October 14-17); the MENA region’s hottest platform for bringing award-winning ‘techpreneurs’ to investors, where over 850 international startups will have the chance to meet more than 1,500 investors and corporate buyers. Think products that are beyond reality: AI that can interpret emotion through voice (Empath Inc) or predict fashion trends (Stylumia); a wearable, real-time translation earpiece (Timekettle); or even Healthcare firm Bioniks, who have amalgamated robotics and 3D printing to create Iron Man style prosthetics. Developers of space tech will also be involved, shooting for the stars in the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre’s Innovation Cup – one of four industry-sponsored Innovation Cups.
With 5,000+ firms from more than 100 countries exhibiting over 1.4 million square feet of floor space, GITEX Technology Week and GITEX Future Stars will welcome more than 100,000 visitors when they get underway next month. The Middle East and Africa’s biggest and boldest technology and startup events, the shows will offer unrivalled networking and partnership building opportunities with the developers of life-changing digital tech, serving a regional IT market projected to be worth $155 billion this year alone.
Trixie LohMirmand, Senior Vice-President Events Management at the Dubai World Trade Centre, said: “Advances in digital, communication, and even biological technologies aren’t just transforming the way we interact with each other, they are fundamentally shaping how we experience the city around us.
“This year, under the theme of ‘Experience Future Urbanism’, GITEX Technology Week will showcase how new innovations and solutions can enrich the level of human, economic and cultural development of our world, both individually and collectively.”
GITEX Technology Week will host leading creative experts from industry heavyweights including Twitter, Alibaba, Amazon and LEGO, with a keynote from Cassie Kozyrkov, Google’s Chief Decision Scientist.
Artificial Intelligence will take centre stage at GITEX Technology Week 2018, with more than 100 companies from over 25 countries showcasing AI-led tech – an almost 50% increase on 2017. Visitors will be able to experience innovations from Dubai Police, Smart Dubai, Etisalat and Microsoft – already key players in a market forecasted to be worth $1.4 billion by 2025 – at the MENA region’s biggest ever AI gathering. SAP will use the show as a launchpad for its ‘Future of Intelligent Living’ suite that incorporates AI, Predictive Analytics, Machine Learning and IoT (Internet of Things); while Japanese giant, Fujitsu, will have an exclusive reveal of their latest AI offering.
GITEX Future Stars 2018 will feature its most stellar line-up of conference speakers to date, covering three verticals: digital marketing, smart cities and finance. For the former, brands including Reddit (Joe Federer, Brand Strategy) and Sherpa (Xabi Uribe-Etxebarria) – renowned in the digital age for their global disruption tact – are sending their finest digital marketers to host masterclasses on standing-out in a day and age where audiences demand an integrated digital experience, with ten different seminars covering topics related to multi-platform marketing across mobile, web, wearables, AI and machine learning.
