GITEX GLOBAL 2022: Main Tech & Business Insights
Updated: Jun 6
What is GITEX GLOBAL
GITEX is a tech ecosystem event for the MENA region covering trendy topics, like Smart Cities, AI, Education, Future Mobility, Telecommunications, Sustainability, Marketing, Coding, Metaverse, Web 3.0, and even more. During five days countries from across the globe, government authorities from the Middle East, startups, and businesses exhibit their last achievements to the wider audience and disclose the latest innovations and trends in the area.
What's new at GITEX 2022
The world is changing rapidly so does the conference. This year, the following topics and approaches arose among the others:
DevSlam — a special stage for developers;
XVERSE — dedicated stages and pavilions for Web 3.0 and Blockchain;
Sustainability as a part of business strategy;
Cybersecurity;
Ukrainian government sessions and panels.
Telecommunications at GITEX Technological week insights
5G industrial use cases can change the way things happen today. Connectivity in hardly accessible areas to bring remote control and automation to the next level: warehouse management, mining, and building automation are just a couple of examples where improvements can be crucial.
Telecommunications have become crucial as a service provider for future digitalization. GITEX is more about industrial, oil & mining, and construction. Nevertheless, property management, online education, etc., are possible only due to connectivity improvement.
Telecommunications is not only a network anymore. It's a bunch of services to be provided to businesses and customers. Flying taxis, mining, and automated warehouses are based on connectivity provided by operators, like Etisalat. So, competition for telcos jumps to the next level. It's not about operator vs. operator only; it's about operator vs. Amazon and similar digital service platforms. And we at JEVERA are extremely happy to be a part of this journey.
There are no boundaries for connectivity anymore. My heart melted when I heard that low-altitude aerostats are used to provide connectivity in hardly accessible areas in Africa with a coverage area of approximately 8,000 kilometers each, forming part of World Mobile's Dynamic Network made on Blockchain. This is what I call a creative approach.
EdTech at GITEX Technological week insights
Education may be provided via screens, virtual reality, and virtual tutorship. This is hardly pushed by Huawei. The Chinese giant is one of the key partners of innovations in the UAE region. Nevertheless, no one thinks about the mental health and sight loss of teachers and students.
AI-powered education can be more personalized, but more tutors will be needed. Technologies may help us understand students' way of thinking and information perception. But to provide outstanding educational results, we need to add human teaching. Just like analyses helps us to evaluate our health status, an experienced doctor is needed to make a prescription and treatment program.
Digital nomad parents are a part of the distance learning club via one gateway. Today relocation is not a big deal, but having kids of school age makes this much more complicated. Access to remote learning with tutorship may be a solution. Kids are taught by the same person through the years and get used to managing their schedule with one platform. Social skills are still not a part of this equation but we will see.
Innovations trends to consider from GITEX Technological week 2022
Ordering software can be as easy as ordering pizza. JEVERA Delivery Head Lesia Kasian fell in love with the Builder.ai approach. Template-based orders for software solutions can be an option for small and medium-sized businesses. Throughout the years, we got RFPs from companies across the globe like "I want Uber, I want Coursera, etc.". The template-based approach allows you to have core features and choose toppings options, which is great when you have no time to think about the software architecture.
IoT + Data Analytics allow embedding green power faster by managing consumption in real-time, which is much more complicated for construction sights and manufacturing than average Saturday streaming at home.
No-code, low-code is not a big deal anymore. It's just here. Numerous startups and mature products from Asia are presented on GITEX. All of them pitch pretty same things and value propositions. The question is how to make unique features digitized; what about privacy and data security? Who owns the code?
Empathy is a new king in marketing. Thank you, Mimi Nicklin (best-selling, global, author of Softening The Edge, an experienced coach, and the Creative CEO of her ad agency, Freedom) for bringing this out to me. "I hear you and I feel your pain" is a business rule to create the best possible customer experience, not support from your therapist. It means brands care about creating a frictionless experience. Data + empathy can boost marketing and make product communication more human-to-human-like.
Each country today fights for its right to lead some innovations. Japan presents electronics, Brazil agriculture, etc. All countries are trying to become new AI, metaverse, and web 3.0 hubs in some areas. At the end of the day: some countries have real expertise, while others just buy it and try to attract the right talents.
Summing up
GITEX GLOBAL is obviously worth visiting if you work in a MENA region and UAE in particular. Any of this size conference is an opportunity to grab all trends in one place and to feel the pulse of the industry.