The Middle East Chief Information Officers Summit (MECIO 2005) will be held at the Fairmont Hotel, Dubai on June 19 & 20. The summit will provide new research-based insights and promote relationship building between IT executive management from the corporate and government sectors, together with the senior executives of the major IT solution providers.
MECIO 2005 will feature eight conference sessions based on IT Leadership, Innovation & Business Value and include in-depth discussions on crucial issues such as Challenges Facing the CIO, Risk Management & IT Security, e-Enabled Business and Matching IT Services with Business Needs.
Ghazi Atallah will be opening the conference with his presentation on Service Oriented Architecture: Can your Infrastructure Adapt to the new IT Model?
"A Real-Time IT infrastructure is the answer to the emerging new IT model. Cisco Systems' Service Oriented Architecture addresses this challenge by empowering enterprises with Real-time interaction. There is an increasing need for IT infrastructures to be able to adapt immediately to new environments faster than ever before, making the need for Real-time adaptability a necessity. This is at the center of Cisco Systems’ vision for the Intelligent Information Network where we help companies take advantage of the network as an enabler of their business strategies in order to drive productivity and business agility, while lowering total cost of ownership, at faster speeds and in an integrated way.” said Ghazi Atallah, Director of Operations-Middle East, Cisco Systems International.
Dr. Philip van Heerden, Senior Analyst – Middle East & Africa, IDC said "We believe that the business expectations pushing CIOs to think and act in a more business-oriented way and CEOs in a more technology-focused way will increase in the future, as all organizations become more dependent on IT resources. We also believe that CIOs and business executives should work together to improve the way IT performance supports business performance".
Dr. Philip van Heerden is the moderator for MECIO 2005 and will facilitate discussions during the conference sessions.
The keynote speakers at the Summit are Ghazi Atallah, Director of Operations-Middle East, Cisco Systems International; and Steven Frantzen, Managing Director and Group VP:CEMA, IDC
IT leaders from Gulf International Bank, Blue Coat, ADNOC Distribution, Al – Tayer Group, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority, APC, Sybase, Standard Chartered Bank and Dubai eGovernment will also address delegates at the fourth MECIO summit
50 key regional CIOs from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar participated in the MECIO 2005 research study conducted by IDC earlier this year.
CIOs and the board face three primary, common challenges related to optimizing IT value in the enterprise: Effectively managing IT costs, Ensuring high-quality IT operational performance and Generating high-quality IT-related business performance reported IDC, the premier global market intelligence and advisory firm in the IT & telecom industry. IDC are the Strategic Research Associates of the Summit and have developed the first focused CIO/CEO Interface Research Report for MECIO that focuses on the key drivers of IT leadership, innovation, and business value. Primary Research Findings will be made available to all conference participants and will also be discussed at the Executive Briefing during the summit.
Leading CEOs in the region are casting their vote for “The Middle East CIO of the year” award that will be presented at the Summit. This award has been instituted by the MECIO summit to honour a Senior IT Executive, from the Middle East for business and technology leadership who has done most to close the gap between IT and the business.
More information about MECIO 2005 is available at www.mecio.net.
Cisco Systems are the Platinum Strategic Partners of MECIO 2005 while Blue Coat, Dubai eGovernment and APC are Silver Strategic Partners and Sybase are the Networking partners. Media Partners include Computer News Middle East, Linux World Middle East & Africa, Security Advisor Middle East, Network World and Khaleej Times.
