CIO Connect Summit & Awards highlights transformative trends

 The inaugural edition of the event focused on the theme ‘Role of Technology in Enabling Business Transformation & Resilience

The CIO Connect Summit & Awards organized by Leap Media Solutions on May 13th, the publisher of CXO DX brought together an industry gathering of CXOs and facilitated a day full of informative sessions that helped map the latest in technology trends. Held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Dubai Marina hotel, the event was also a platform for Technology leaders to have purposeful conversations with several leading Technology providers who were among the exhibitors at the event.

The event focused on the theme ‘Role of Technology in Enabling Business Transformation & Resilience’ and had a lineup of keynotes and discussions led by industry and technology experts. The discussions at the event focused on topics from cloud to the edge, Generative AI and Ml to cybersecurity solutions, and data modernization that are enabling and securing business transformation.

The event also included Awards that recognized outstanding individuals who have been playing a key role in IT transformation initiatives in the industry as well as companies that are significantly driving the Transformation trends through the solutions they bring to market.

Dell Technologies and Ingram Micro were the Platinum sponsors at the event. The Gold sponsors of the day included Logitech along with Alpha Data, Extreme Networks with Ingram Micro, Freshworks and DM World, Pure Storage with VAD Technologies, Accops with Bulwark Technologies as well as D-Link and Mindfire Technologies. The silver sponsors included Paessler, Finesse, Amviz with ExtraHop, ManageEngine and Cloud Box Technologies, Sophos as well as Sangfor with DVCOM.

The Awards categories included recognitions for IT Leadership, Sustainability Excellence and CyberSecurity Excellence, given to senior Technology leaders of leading companies from different verticals. There were also Awards given to recognise outstanding IT Managers from different verticals helping the cause of digital transformation at their companies.

Among the speakers of the day, Charbel Zreiby, Regional Director, Channel Data Center Specialists, Dell Technologies who spoke on ‘Bring AI to your Data with Dell Technologies’. Following him, Ahmad El Soufi, Regional Senior Presales Consultant, Extreme Networks presented on ‘One Cloud to manage one network’.

“Innovation, Technology and Sustainability’ was the focus of the third keynote of the day by Samer Semaan, Director Distribution and Alliances – Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Pure Storage. Aamir Mushtaq Shaikh, Lead – Channel Partnership and Alliance (Middle East) at Freshworks, the next speaker of the day spoke on ‘ In IT Together: Harnessing AI for better Workplace Experiences”

Shyam Sundar Chelnat, Regional Sales Manager from Accops MEA presented on ‘Uncomplicate Your Remote Access’ and the final keynote speaker of the day Rejeesh Kumar, CTO of Mindfire Technologies focused on ‘Converging Frontlines: Cybersecurity is Data security’ in his presentation.

Following the keynotes, there were engrossing four panel discussions that covered different aspects of Technology.

‘The path to AI democratization in the enterprise’ was the focus of the first panel and the session explored how enterprises can be more successful in their path toward AI democratization.

Walid Salem, IT Lead , Middle East, Zurich Insurance Company Ltd was moderator of the session. The participants in this session were

1. Dr. Jassim Al Awadhi, Senior Director, Du
2. Manny Johal, CIO, Premeira Education Group
3. Waqas Haider, CISO, HBL Microfinance Bank
4. Loubna Imenchal, Head of Enterprise Business video collaboration, AMECA, Logitech

The second panel discussed ‘Managing Cloud Optimization’, addressing various approaches and elements of cloud optimization as well as aspects of cloud risk management.

The session was moderator by Gigi Mathew Thomas, Group IT Director, Ittihad International Investment LLC.  The panelists in this session were

1. Ali Katkhada, Group CIO, Depa Group
2. Padam Kafle, Head of Innovation, Aster Digital Health
3. SatyaShankar Chirravuri, Head of Technology Platforms – Cloud & Security,  Al Futtaim
4. Sunil Paul, CEO, Finesse
5. Darius Dordi – Cyber Security Manager at Sangfor Technologies

R. Narayan, Co -Founder and Editor in chief of Leap Media Solutions moderated the third panel that discussed Data Governance in the Era of Gen AI

The panelists in this session were:

1. Dr. Ebrahim Al Alkeem, Cybersecurity and AI Director, Abu Dhabi Government
2. Nisha Rani, CISO, MMI & ELR group
3. Prabhakar Posam, CIO, Transworld Group
4. Jishant Karunakaran, CEO, Mindfire Technologies

The final session focused on ‘Building cyber resilience in the multi-cloud’ that was again moderated by R. Narayan, Co-Founder and Editor in chief of CXO DX. The participants were:

1. Hussain AlKhalsan, CISO, Zand
2. Kausar Mukeri, CISO, Gems Education
3. Abhinav Kumar, AVP – Information Security, NMC Healthcare
4. Ankit Satsangi, Director BEEAH GROUP
5. Fouad Tawk, Area vice president – METNA for EXTRAHOP

Following the sessions, the Awards finale brought down the curtains on a very successful inaugural edition of the CIO Connect Summit and Awards.

Winners List: