BlackBerry Innovation Forum 2011 unleashes the regions’ Enterprising Minds

The BlackBerry® Innovation Forum, which took place in Dubai today at the Dubai World Trade Center, was the center stage for some of the region’s most respected business leaders, featuring presentations from top business and technology speakers as well as a showcase of the latest mobile business solutions.

 

The forum is part of a series of events taking place throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa which brings together business leaders and mobile innovators.

 

This year the BlackBerry Innovation Forum focused on the theme of Enterprising Minds, demonstrating how organisations can empower staff to deliver real customer value. The days presentations and solutions showcase talked about the most important mobile trends including social networking, mobile commerce, the consumerisation of IT, migration to the cloud and tablet computing in the enterprise.

 

The event was also the perfect opportunity for businesses across all sectors and industries to learn and understand the true benefits of smartphone and tablet technology, while getting a first-hand view of the breadth of solutions offered by the BlackBerry® platform and its partners.

 

Attendees at the event had the chance to meet existing BlackBerry customers, many of which were speakers at the event, describing their own unique business challenges and successes they have had using the BlackBerry® solution.

 

Speakers 

 

Rory O’Neill, Vice President, Marketing EMEA at RIM, was the keynote speaker at the event. With his role in building compelling mobile applications, software and cloud service propositions for the BlackBerry platform, he was able to offer actionable insights into mobile trends that the business sector should be considering in the months to come. 

 

A host of industry leaders also joined Rory on the panel, including:

 

Rohit Talwar, a global futurist, award winning professional speaker and head of Fast Future Research. Rohit authored ‘Designing Your Future – Key Trends, Challenges and Choices’, edited ‘Achieving Transformation and Renewal in Financial Services’, and contributes regularly to books and journals on futures and strategic change.

 

Melvina Tarazi, Head of Industries at SAP MENA, spoke about leveraging information and communications technology (ICT) to solve business challenges and deliver quantifiable ROI. Melvina has successfully led multiple IT and consulting organizations across diverse geographies.

 

 

Ganesh Swaminathan, Director – Business Practices and Office of Innovation at CSC, who discussed supporting development of new service offerings, supporting innovation initiatives and programs including account innovation, involving people, process and technology.

 

Customer presentations included H.E. Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, TRA Director General; and Neetan Chopra, Vice President – IT Strategy & Architecture, Emirates Group IT, who discussed the benefits that BlackBerry mobile solutions have offered their organizations in maintaining sustainable growth in challenging industries.