Dr. Kai L. Chan, Special Adviser - National Competitiveness, Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA) delivering the keynote presentation at the 3rd Annual Smart Data Summit

3rd Annual Smart Data Summit Puts the Spotlight on Big Data Driven Innovation

MONDAY MAY 23, 2016

In a bid to stay competitive, companies across industries are generating a significant amount of data and utilizing different tools and techniques to gain useful insights. Against this backdrop, the Smart Data Summit that commenced today explored how organizations can harness the power of big data and analytics to derive maximum business value. Supported by Federal Competitiveness Statistics Authority (FCSA) and organized by global conference producers, Expotrade, the summit attracted over 300 senior IT, marketing and business intelligence specialists.

The summit was opened by Dr Kai L. Chan, Special Adviser - National Competitiveness, Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA). He delivered the keynote session on the topic using robust data and modelling to win Expo 2020. He emphasized upon the importance of data-driven analysis (DDA for policy and planning. Yousuf Mohammed Al Shaiba, Director - Smart Services Development Dept., Ajman Municipality & Planning Department took the discussion further during his session on creating a Smart Government, emphasizing on the smart services offered by Ajman Municipality.

The summit saw over 20 prominent experts and sector specialists including Mohammad Shokoohi-Yekta, Data Scientist, Apple; Sayan Dasgupta, Senior Data Scientist, LinkedIn; Usama Qasem, Regional Digital & Content Marketing Manager, IKEA and Michael Sultan, Senior Operations Research Manager, Etihad Airways deliver presentations on Prediction in Big Time Series Data; Leveraging Data Science to defend LinkedIn against Fraud and Abuse; Digital Marketing - Creating Content that sticks and Smart Database respectively.  

Mr. Brad Hariharan, Regional Director, Expotrade Middle East, said, “With reports predicting the UAE IT market sales to touch AED 22 billion by 2019, the IT market is set to undergo massive expansion. With the massive market potential in IT, we are thrilled to offer a platform that emphasizes on the opportunities that big data and analytics offers.”

Delving into the topic Analytics for Operational Excellence were panelists Atif Abdul-Rahman, Advisor - Customer Analytics, Saudi Telecom Company; Kathy Ning Shen, Associate Professor in Information Systems, University of Wollongong in Dubai; Michael Sultan, Senior Operations Research Manager, Etihad Airways and Ojas Kikani, Founder & Chairman, Yogin Technologies.

At the exhibitor lounge, global leaders such as Denodo, Oracle, Yogin Technologies, ACIS Information Technology, Hortonwoks, SquareOne Technologies and OpenText, to name a few showcased their technologies and solutions to senior industry leaders from across the GCC region.

Day 2 of the summit will have sector specialists Antonello Supino, Head of Business Intelligence, Dubizzle; Dishant Ramani, Loyalty & Analytics Manager, Al Safeer Group of Companies; Dr. Krishnadas Nanath, Faculty & Lead Corporate Trainer - Data Science, Middlesex University Dubai; Gaurav Oberoi, Digital Automation Consultant and Samer M. Chediac, Author & International Innovation Expert, amongst others take the study to throw light on the trends influencing different industries.

More information regarding the event is available at http://www.smartdatadubai.com. Follow the Summit on social media with the hashtag #SDATAS2016.