The World CIO 200 Summit completes Saudi Arabia edition on 9 Sep

World CIO 200 Summit 2021 continued with the second virtual event of the Saudi Arabia edition on 9^th September at the GCF Virtual Arena. Carrying forward its legacy of the past five years, this year, the roadshow is going to cover 36+ countries and provide a platform for 200+ exhibitors with 300+ engaging sessions. Over 4,000 C-Level executives will be recognised in the 2021 edition.

The event partners of The World CIO 200 Summit were Infoblox, F5, Exclusive Networks, BMB, Laserfiche Veritas, Finesse and Arcon.

The World CIO 200 Summit has four award categories including Legend CIO, Leader CIO, Master CIO, and Next-generation CIO:

• Legend CIO: Lifetime achievement awards.
• Master CIO: Experience of more than 15-20 years and unparalleled technological experience in a career life span.
• Legend CIO: Experience of 10-15 years and multiple domain expertise.
• Next-generation CIO: Experience of 5-10 years or less and undertaken mammoth projects in a less span of time.

The World CIO 200 Summit- Saudi Arabia edition was opened by CEO Ronak Samantaray and Global Head, Content and Strategic Alliances, Anushree Dixit.

During the event, there were four speaker keynote speakers and one panel discussion. The event was followed by World CIO 200 awards. The event was streamed live from the virtual arena and on Vimeo also.

Here are the highlights of the various speaker keynote presentations.

World CIO 200- Inspire 10 on 10 Session

In the opening keynote address Abdullah Al Othman, CIO, Ministry of Investment, Saudi Arabia highlighted the role and responsibilities of CIOs in these days.

World CIO 200 Country IT Outlook

Speaking at the event, Mushtaq Khan, Digital Transformation Manager, Obeikan Investment Group talked about how they have started blockchain technology in healthcare.

2021 Outlook

Nezar Edwan, Territory Manager, Infoblox talked about how digital disruption is changing the world in which we live and work.

2021 Outlook

While addressing the session, Yasser El Mashad, Cyber Security Specialist, F5 discussed the latest trends in the market regarding application security.

Cross Border panel: Leadership in Post Pandemic – cross-border view

The panel discussion was moderated by Arun Shankar, Editor, GEC Media Group with panelists including Anil Menon, Head of Information Technology at Lulu Group India, Nitin Bhargava, COO at Emirates Investment Bank PJSC, Sanjeev Madavi, Chief Digital Transformation Officer at Khimji Ramdas LLC, Iftikhar Arif, General Manager Information Technology and E-commerce at Muller and Phipps Pakistan and they talked about changes happening in the industry post-pandemic.

The discussion was based on the theme businesses led by their technology heads are revamping their infrastructure and application stack looking at vastly improved customer experience, higher returns from sales, business resilience and business continuity. Failed organisations and industries are experiencing consolidations, shakeouts, and exits for being laggards in technology adoption. The moderator raised some questions including: 

• In your opinion, based on your organisation’s experiences and the market sector that you operate in, which specific technologies and applications have helped your organisation build resilience, agility, and leadership in the last 18 months.
• As the head of technology decision making, responsible for pulling your organisation through the challenges of the last 18 months, tell us about your engagement with business and other peers, who worked closely to revamp operations and processes, and facilitate further digitisation and cloud migration.
• As we move into the recovery phase of the pandemic and further, many business opportunities are appearing ahead. In your opinion, what technology initiatives should organisations put in place to further build leadership and resilience in their markets and industries.

The announced winners of The World CIO 200 Summit – Saudi Arabia edition include:

Highlights of The World CIO 200 Summit:

• Grand Finale with 2 days of networking, collaboration, knowledge sharing and CAC.
• Tech Talk: The most novel way of making your presentations come alive.
• DX Inspire Awards: Global 20 Recognition for the most Transformative Projects and Solutions.

What is new this year

The 2021 edition is ready to build roadmaps for strategic decision making and identify yardsticks that are the key drivers of growth in the digital world. While CIOs can pick on sessions to help them fast-track their growth, the solution providers can build their brand, present their solutions and network with 500+ relevant C-level IT decision-makers flown in from 14 countries.

The top CIOs from respective countries will arrive in the United Arab Emirates for the grand finale in an all-expense-paid trip, on 5-6^th December 2021 at Topaz Ballroom, Fairmont Ajman. The event will also be part of the Dubai Expo 2020.