INTERNATIONAL Data Corporation (IDC), the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecom, and consumer technology markets, is delighted to announce the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) as its primary sponsor for the upcoming Saudi Arabia CIO Summit to be held in Jeddah on Sept. 25–26. Themed as ‘Driving the Agenda for Business Success', this exclusive invitation-only event is returning to the Kingdom for the second successive year and will gather the Kingdom's most influential technology end users together to hear the first-hand visions and experiences of pioneering thought leaders from the world's premier information and communication technology (ICT) organizations. The highly anticipated two-day conference will address the very latest ICT developments within Saudi Arabia, from across the wider region, and throughout the world. In particular, there will be a strong focus on the CIO's role in driving business agility, the prioritization of IT projects, emerging trends in unified communications, the power of social media as a collaborative tool, datacenter manageability, business continuity, and disaster recovery. “We are very much looking forward to the launch of the Saudi Arabia CIO Summit 2012,” said Mohamed Jamil Bin Ahmed Mulla, Minister of Communications and Information Technology. “Particularly appealing is its role as a platform for the exchange of visions and ideas about the challenges currently facing CIOs, as this will fuel discussions on the latest technology solutions they can adopt in order to contribute to the progress and prosperity of the Kingdom. For our part, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology will spare no effort to make sure this event is a great success story.” IDC's country manager for Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz Al-Helayyil said that his organization's partnership with the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology represents a ringing endorsement for the event. “We are truly lucky to have the Ministry as a sponsor for the Saudi Arabia CIO Summit 2012, and I am confident that this partnership will add great value to the event. I believe this is an opportunity not to be missed for CIOs, as it will provide a chance to meet representatives of the world's most pioneering IT organizations and exchange first-hand experiences with them. Throughout the Summit, industry leaders will be on hand to deliver visionary presentations and in-depth analysis of the cutting-edge strategies being adopted by empowered CIOs from around the world.” Launched in Dubai in 2008, IDC's annual CIO Summit series broke new ground as the region's first truly vendor-neutral event for the Middle East and Africa's most prolific ICT end users and has since seen editions hosted to great acclaim in Istanbul, Johannesburg, Antalya, Riyadh, Cape Town, and Fujairah. With a focus on delivering cutting-edge insights that enable organizations to optimize the opportunities presented by the very latest solutions on the market, IDC's CIO Summit Series has consistently attracted the very brightest minds from the world's foremost information and communications technology pioneers. The Saudi Arabia CIO Summit was inaugurated in 2011 as a breakaway from the wider regional event that is held annually in the UAE. This step was taken in recognition of the growing global significance of Saudi Arabia on the world stage, especially in relation to information technology and telecommunications, and the intensifying focus on the Kingdom of the world's leading technology vendors as they experience relatively slow growth in the more mature markets of Western Europe and the US. – SG
