Here are some photos taken during the 18th GCC eGovernment and eServices Conference (May, 2012) in Dubai, UAE. Patrick Schwerdtfeger spoke at the conference, focusing on the use of social media to accelerate adoption of eGovernment services by the public. This first photo is of him with Ali Al Kamali, the President of Datamatix and the Executive Producer of the conference.
This is the Ritz Carlton hotel ballroom where the conference was held. The Ritz Carlton Dubai did an excellent job with the facilities. The room was kept immaculate throughout the conference and the audio-visual components were seamless.
Patrick spoke on the first day and also on the fourth day. His first session was about Global Mega Trends and how they affect the eGovernance movement. His second session was about social media and how to communicate more effectively through those platforms.
The room was set up theater style for the first day and was then changed to circle rounds. The front stage area was impressive with two rear-projection screens and an elaborate backdrop. The conference attracted about 350 government officials from the six GCC nations (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, UAE and Qatar) as well as delegations from Taiwan, South Africa and India.
There were four ‘western’ speakers invited to contribute to the conference: Jorge Sebastiao from Cypress (who spoke about information security and sustainable infrastructure development), Dr. Boyd Hendriks from the Netherlands (who spoke about intellectual property architecture and content monetization), Krishna Iyers from IT Matrix (who discussed actual case histories where eGovernment services have been deployed successfully) and myself from San Francisco, California.
This was an excellent conference. It was well organized, well executed and well attended. Ali Al Kamali even announced the development of a GCC-centric search engine built on his extensive database of GCC organizations and contacts. These continued innovations will undoubtedly lead to even more successful eGovernment conferences in the future.
Patrick Schwerdtfeger maintains a video blog entitled Strategic Business Insights and you can watch past episodes (and subscribe to be notified of future ones) by clicking the button below.
Patrick is actively building his speaking and consulting business in the GCC region. His ‘Global Mega Trends’ keynote program and demographic forecasting model both offer exciting and optimistic messages for the Middle East, and he is available to contribute to your upcoming event as well. Please contact us to check availability for the dates you have in mind.
