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The Middle East, Turkey and Africa region continue to remain a growth area and it is clear that a shift has taken place from a focus on growth (and the implications that this has for IT investment and strategy) to a more prudent focus on cost reduction, optimization and efficiency. This shift also implies a broader set of new challenges and changes in the priorities of CIOs today.
Keeping this in mind, IDC is delighted to announce the schedule for the 2010 edition of its hugely popular Middle East, Africa, and Turkey CIO Summit series. Running under the theme 'From Pressure to Performance', the third annual CIO Summit will take place in three of the region's most dynamic business centers: Dubai, Istanbul, and Johannesburg.
Having evolved from just one location in 2008 to two in 2009, the upcoming 2010 series will be divided into three, ensuring even greater relevance for those in attendance. The Middle East CIO Summit will take place at Dubai's Madinat Jumeirah on January 24-25th, the Turkey CIO Summit will be held at Istanbul's Sapanca Gural Hotel on March 11-12th, and the Africa CIO Summit will be hosted at Johannesburg's Emperors Palace Hotel on March 16-17th.
With more than 300 of the region's most influential IT decision makers in attendance, the IDC CIO Summit Series 2010 will address trends and provide an unrivalled opportunity to build new business relationships. Global thought leaders from some of the world's leading ICT suppliers will be on hand to present their pioneering visions of the future and tackle the topics of greatest importance to today's CIO, such as datacenter efficiency, data and storage management, security, compliance, IT consolidation, automation, virtualization, and the forging of greater IT-business alignment.
The first-hand visions and experiences of recognized industry leaders
Unrivalled networking opportunities
Extensive analysis of the major ICT trends of the coming three to five years
A detailed insight into driving innovation, cost effectiveness, and process efficiency through technology
A comprehensive appreciation of the evolving CIO role
An invaluable opportunity to keep up to date on the latest key business and technology challenges
The rapid change in macroeconomic conditions continues to impact demand for IT products and services, and a dramatic recovery in 2009 is highly unlikely in spite of the best efforts of various government stimulus initiatives, which should begin to have more effect in the first half of 2010. Businesses remain focused on cost savings and reductions as they attempt to ride out the storm, and consumers are now directly impacted by rising unemployment and job insecurity in addition to poor availability of credit and weakness in real estate values. Having said all of that, the underlying drivers for IT demand and proliferation remain strong and largely unchanged since 2008. Businesses and consumers show no signs of questioning the value of technology, in contrast to the recession of 2001–2002.
Preparing for the imminent recovery in IT investment is therefore as essential as successfully navigating the current downturn. The recovery in IT spending will be uneven: geographically, by technology sector, and by vertical industry. Understanding the varying drivers for the pace of recovery according to this triangulation of market opportunity (geography, technology, and industry) is therefore essential in order to successfully prioritize short-term investments to maximize growth potential in the next 2–3 years. Amid the need to control costs and align business strategy with the radically altered macroeconomic environment in 2009, there is also a responsibility to ensure that this cost effectiveness and damage control does not come at the expense of competitive positioning for the more crucial long-term game of expanding market share and presence over the recovery period of 2010–2013.
The challenge to the regional CIO therefore, is to create business impact with technology - the role of the CIO will be key to driving and positioning such investments, as IT performance will be related to business performance. The ongoing need for infrastructure sustainability will require an ongoing focus on data and storage management, security and compliance. Investment in core infrastructure solutions will weather any downturn. |
Overview