GEC Media Group, publishers of Business Transformation, Enterprise Channels MEA, The Titans, Cyber Sentinels, announced the winners of the BTX Top Executive Awards, BTX Enterprise Awards, BTX Solution Awards at BTX Road Show South Gulf edition on 8^th September 2021. The half-day event was organised at Grand Ballroom, Conrad Dubai, Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai in person.

The title sponsors of BTX Roadshow were Aruba HPE, Riverbed, Pure Storage, Veeam, Logicom, Netapp, Western Digital, Arcon, Veritas, SilverPeak, Alcatel-Lucent enterprise, SecureNet, Synology, Finesse, CORK information technology, International Group of Artificial Intelligence – IGOAI, Global CISO Forum, Business Transformation, and Enterprise Channels MEA.

The face-to-face event was started with the registration of all attendees and proceed with lunch and networking. GEC Media Group extended warm wishes to all the champions for their victory.

Here are the highlights of the various speaker keynote presentations.

Success and failures of business and digital transformation

In his keynote, Dr Corrie Block, CEO, Paragon Consulting talked about the lack of alignment to business outcomes and lack of awareness within the organisation and lack of control of vendors.

Panel discussion: How digital transformation, innovation, technology making businesses in UAE more resilient and efficient

The first-panel discussion on how digital transformation, innovation, technology, making businesses in UAE more resilient and efficient was moderated by Arun Shanker, Moderator, GEC Media Group.

Taking the discussion forward, Mohamad Rizk, Senior Regional Technical Director for Middle East, Russia, and CIS, Veeam said, In the next 18-24 months, organisations in the UAE are driving plans for innovation. They should catch up plans with multiple perspectives with checkpoints. Some of those points are culture, educating people and from technology’s perspective, they need varied solutions. A digital organisation should be always online. Any downtime of service means loss of money.

Shah E Room Khan, Information Technology Manager, Emirates College of Technology, Abu Dhabi, said, we have merged with different universities and colleges in Abu Dhabi for education. We are planning to implement new technologies especially Customer Experience technology which will help us to facilitate the students in different sectors where they can open a ticket for the help desk system, register online and payment as well. We have also done an agreement with a service provider for AI services to facilitate the students more.

Pankaj Bajaj, Head of IT, Capital Health, said they run as a business project. These are not technology projects at the end of the day. They are enabling business, operations and have already started the business intelligence where we are giving the insights to the management about how the revenue is going on, what are the patients experience we are getting, what are the clinical KPIs we are getting. Next our journey is artificial intelligence on existing EMR plus we are planning to publish our medical research in rehabilitation.

While addressing the event, Elie Kamel, Regional Channel Manager, NetApp said there would always be new innovations in healthcare, education etc. As he has been reading about digital twin which is a kind of a virtual twin of any physical object. Imagine in healthcare industry, they can create a virtual twin of a human being to study the effect of health and testing. So, it will create a huge influx of data.

Digital and business transformation initiatives in Tabreed

Ahmad Hilmi Lutfi Al Obaidi, Manager Capital Plant Performance and Investment, O&M Support, National Central Cooling Company talked about the transformation of operations function and said their Tasheel programme and i-Connect programme are targeting their digital infrastructure.

Technology Keynote: Maximizing Visibility and Performance for The Hybrid Enterprise

Salman Ali, Technical Channel Manager, Riverbed Technology discussed COVID pandemic and the new work culture in organisations and said managing digital experience is one of the most critical business objectives for most of the enterprises.

Smart technologies and sustainability in urban landscapes

Engineer Mohammed Ahmed Alrayees, Director of Sewage Treatment Plants and Drainage Network Department Dubai Municipality talked about their vision and said our vision is to develop a sustainable city for all citizens of Dubai and we emphasise on innovation for a healthy future.

Panel discussion: Threat actors and challenges for regional CISOs

The next panel discussion was moderated by Dr Hoda Alkhzaimi, Director of Center of Cyber Security, New York University Abu Dhabi, President, Emirates Digital Association for Women and joined by Mohammed Shakeel Ahmed, Aviation Cyber Security Advisor, Abu Dhabi Aviation and Jacob Mathew, IT Consultant, IT Governance, Architecture, Services, Security, Infrastructure and Operations – Government of Abu Dhabi. They panelists briefed about digitalisation and Cyber Security.

BTX Road Show 2021 South Gulf edition was organised with all the safety guidelines announced by the Emirates of Dubai.

With the successful completion of the BTX Road Show 2021, South Gulf edition in Dubai, the next BTX Africa will take place on 27 September.

GEC Media Group, publishers of Business Transformation, Enterprise Channels MEA, The Titans, Cyber Sentinels, announced the winners of the BTX Top Executive Awards, BTX Enterprise Awards, BTX Solution Awards at BTX Road Show South Gulf edition on 8^th September 2021. The half-day event was organised at Grand Ballroom, Conrad Dubai, Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai in person.

The title sponsors of BTX Roadshow were Aruba HPE, Riverbed, Pure Storage, Veeam, Logicom, Netapp, Western Digital, Arcon, Veritas, SilverPeak, Alcatel-Lucent enterprise, SecureNet, Synology, Finesse, CORK information technology, International Group of Artificial Intelligence – IGOAI, Global CISO Forum, Business Transformation, and Enterprise Channels MEA.

The face-to-face event was started with the registration of all attendees and proceed with lunch and networking. GEC Media Group extended warm wishes to all the champions for their victory.

There were three sets of awards as described below.

BTX Top Executive Awards

Recognising leadership driving transformation

This award recognises a top executives who have accelerated digital and business transformation through the pandemic and created a better future for their business. They have empowered remote teams, managed change, flattened organisational structure, made it agile and secure, managed customer satisfaction, and implemented digital tools like cloud, analytics, data integration, amongst others.

BTX Enterprise Awards

Recognising success stories in transformation

This award recognises enterprises that have embraced digital transformation and digital tools through the pandemic and achieved success in various areas. Such enterprises would have rebuilt customer experiences, managed customer expectations, leveraged online sales models, built forecasting models, have an in-depth and ready analysis of market and demand trends, built close collaboration and data sharing amongst teams, amongst others.

BTX Solution Awards

Recognising solutions for transformation

This award recognises the leading, exemplary, heroic efforts by vendors, channel partners, integrators, consultants, to manage the challenges of the end-user community through the lockdowns of the pandemic. This part of the IT industry helped the end-user community to successfully pivot their business models by using digital technologies and create a sustainable business through the pandemic and ahead, amongst others.

BTX Road Show 2021 South Gulf edition was organised with all the safety guidelines announced by the Emirates of Dubai.

With the successful completion of the BTX Road Show 2021, South Gulf edition in Dubai, the next BTX Africa will take place on 27 September.

GEC Media Group, publishers of Business Transformation, Enterprise Channels MEA, The Titans, Cyber Sentinels, completed the second leg of the BTX Road Show 2021, Asia Edition. The roadshow is focused on digital and business transformation with the overlying theme – The Change.

The half-day event on 2^nd September was hosted at the GEC Media Virtual Arena. The title sponsors of BTX Roadshow were Aruba HPE, Riverbed, Pure Storage, Veeam, Logicom, Netapp, Western Digital, Arcon, Veritas, SilverPeak, Alcatel-Lucent enterprise, SecureNet, Synology, Finesse, CORK information technology, International Group of Artificial Intelligence – IGOAI, Global CISO Forum, Business Transformation, and Enterprise Channels MEA.

The pandemic of 2020 disrupted virtually every industry and every nation. Citizens, social fabrics, businesses, supply chains, trade, communication, value systems, workplaces, leisure, entertainment, decision making, almost everything conceivable had to adapt and change and survive. Information technology and business applications and strategic decision making around how to support everyday life through technology, has also had to adapt.

This has prompted the need to relook at business and the IT organisation, the executives, operations, survival mantras, decision making, and finally outlook and forward-looking vision. The meaning of business continuity, disaster recovery, collaboration, virtual meetings, remote workforce, cloud, security, have overnight changed from esoteric into everyday work life meanings.

BTX Road Show 2021 Asia edition was opened by CEO Ronak Samantaray, Global Head, Content and Strategic Alliances, Anushree Dixit, and President, GEC Media Group, Malavika Shanker, through their welcome notes.

There were four speaker keynote presentations, three technology keynote presentations, and two-panel discussions. The event was followed by the BTX Awards. Close to 100 attendees participated virtually for the event. The event was streamed live from the virtual arena and on Vimeo also.

Here are the highlights of the various speaker keynote presentations.

From analog to digital to space, A pilot’s perspective

In the opening keynote address Captain Nivedita Bhasin, B787 Training Captain, superannuated after 37 years as executive director and chief of flight safety, Air India talked about her journey and explained the present digital era and said, “We are at the digital world, we are surrounded by technology whether it is social media, instruments, flying reporting, training, and weather reporting everything has turned digital.”

Regional trends in business and digital transformation

Manoj Saxena, Chairman RosettaNet Singapore GS1 digital standards, Senior Director Data and Digital transformation, Maxeon Solar Technologies, and Advisory board Global CIO Forum made his presentation on the partnership between government, industry and education system and said, “It is important that the government, the industry, and the education system come together. Always to solve the industry’s problem and challenges which we constantly go through.”

Organisational transformation leveraging sustainability and leadership

In the first panel discussion on Millie Gillon, Global Head Client Experience, Senior Managing Director, Standard Chartered Bank explained from a leadership perspective it is going top-down and bottom’s up so hopefully, we can somewhere in the middle and make some change and it’s really shifting from its no longer just some side project, its moreover cultural shift having dedicated people, resources and its extremely difficult so we are still trying to maintain our business.

Panelist, Vinay Awasthi, Worldwide Head of Print Supply Chain, HP said, “Now I think the most important thing is what are we doing and how intentional are we as we work on our sustainable goals.”

Manoj Saxena, Chairman RosettaNet Singapore GS1 digital standards, Senior Director Data and Digital transformation, Maxeon Solar Technologies, and Advisory board Global CIO Forum highlighted the way of changing consumer behaviour and said, “Today most consumers are cultured with lot of intimations, they have cultured with the information they see in the social media they see environmental issues; they are also conscious about environmental issues.”

Transforming the supply chain

In her presentation titled Transforming the Supply Chain, Nicole Tretwer, Head of Logistics Services, APAC, Swarovski talked about her company’s omnichannel capabilities and said, “In our case, we are focusing on giving the consumers the option on where they wish their items to be delivered to whether it be an in-store order and a to store order.”

Manufacturing and customer-centricity

Saket Gore, CEO Asia Pacific, The Himalaya Drug Company highlighted the evolving customer behaviour and said, “Today most consumers are cluttered with a lot of information on social media. There is a lot of lack of trust because of an overdose of information.”

Regional technology and innovation trends in industrial and consumer robotics

Prof Tadhg O’Donovan, Head of the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences Heriot-Watt University Dubai made his presentation on innovation trends and intelligence and explained “Robotics can be classified into many different areas. One way of classifying them is intelligence. Robotics is not just a typical robot. It is about autonomous systems and interactive systems and how they can all work together.”

Panel Discussion on Artificial Intelligence, powered by the IGOAI Forum

In the second panel discussion on “Panel Discussion on artificial intelligence, powered by the IGOAI Forum”, Moderator Ahmed Buhazza started the session with the introduction of panelists and briefed about artificial intelligence and its role in the present era.

Dr Chiranjiv Roy, Senior Vice-President Data Science and Analytics, SG Analytics, Member Forbes Technology Council talked about where artificial intelligence stands in the last few years and said, “Initially artificial intelligence started with an automation and today artificial intelligence is called as the new oil or the new soil whatever that you want to call it.”

Carrying forward the discussion, Ms Divya Dwivedi, Advocate, Supreme Court of India, Founder and Director, JND Charitable Trust highlighted legal laws and ethics for digital transformation said, “Human brain cannot be surpassed by artificial intelligence. I see artificial intelligence as a baby like we feed baby with all the information and they grow and they tell us that we are beyond you, it is similar with artificial intelligence.”

Mr. Abhivardhan, Managing Partner, Indic Pacific Legal Research, Chairperson and Managing Trustee, Indian Society of Artificial Intelligence and Law discussed what is the prediction for artificial intelligence and how mature it is and how fast it is growing every day.

Sriram Bhargav Madhav, Head of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Automation, Provenio.ai, Member Forbes Technology Council briefed what should be the key focus an enterprise should take to build artificial intelligence and said, “Every enterprise today is struggling with multiple challenges if I may say that, and I often try to simplify explaining what priorities organisation and enterprise should take.”

With the successful completion of the BTX Road Show 2021, Asia edition, the next BTX South Gulf edition will take place on 8^th September in-person at Grand Ballroom, Conrad Dubai, Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai, and BTX Africa on 27 September.