{"id":17401,"date":"2019-10-29T11:58:53","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T07:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/?p=17401"},"modified":"2019-10-29T11:58:53","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T07:58:53","slug":"focus-on-technology-at-retail-congress-mena-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/focus-on-technology-at-retail-congress-mena-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus On &#8220;Technology&#8221; At Retail Congress MENA 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Retail Congress MENA 2019\u2019s first day of the conference on was packed with high energy and focus on \u201cTechnology\u201d, the sessions were presented by global thought leaders and experts to a full house of delegates coming from across the MENA to attend the largest retail focused conference in the region<strong>. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>David Macadam &#8211; <em>CEO, MECS+R<\/em> says, <\/strong><em>\u201c<\/em><em>The best and the brightest minds from the retail industry are in Dubai for the Retail Congress 2019, this year the conference sheds light on the latest trends, technology and innovations shaping the industry.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The first day of the conference on Monday 28<sup>th<\/sup> of October started with a welcome address by <strong>David Macadam<\/strong> \u2013 CEO MECS+R, <strong>Richard Dean<\/strong> \u2013 Dubai Eye, <strong>Younus Al Mulla \u2013<\/strong> Chariman of MECS+R &amp; <strong>Mazen Qandeel \u2013<\/strong> Board President of MECS+R; the keynote speech was by <strong>David Rowan <\/strong><strong>\u2013 <\/strong>Former Editor in Chief of Wired\u2019s UK and author of Non-Bullshit Innovation: Radical Ideas from the World\u2019s Smartest Minds (Transworld, 2019), a global quest for bold corporate innovation in the face of technology-led disruption; David\u2019s taken 130 flights in the past year to investigate the companies and entrepreneurs changing our world and has spent time with the founders of WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Google, Didi, Spotify, Xiaomi, Nest, Twitter and countless other ambitious startups from Tel Aviv to Shenzhen. His presentation highlighted the current and future trends in the world of consumer insights and consumer behavior.<\/p>\n<p>The keynote speech was followed by a Panel discussion by Leading technology companies discussing formats how the technology behind payment choices, fintech accelerator programs, biometrics used to build customer loyalty and how technology especially AI now reaches every touchpoint in the retail journey, this panel included <strong>Richard Dean \u2013 <\/strong>from Dubai Eye, <strong>Sayra Berirmen<\/strong> \u2013 Digital Innovation Director at Al Farwaniya Property Developments LLC (Reem Mall), <strong>\u00a0Owen Farrow \u2013 <\/strong>Leader Consumer Industry from IBM ME &amp; <strong>Asma Shabab<\/strong> \u2013 Strategy Consultant IBM ME, Africa &amp; Turkey. The next session was by <strong>Dina Sinadi<\/strong> \u2013 Head of Greenhouse from Chaloub, she shared Chalhoub Group\u2019s new groundbreaking initiative in the retail world called \u201cGreenhouse\u201d where retail mentors link with digital experts; followed by a session by <strong>David Allison<\/strong> \u2013 Founder of Valuegraphics discussing on how you can predict and influence the behavior of your customers and audience by managing Big Data; the first day of the conference ended with a session by <strong>David Blair<\/strong> \u2013 Global CEO of Fitch who shared his insight on \u201cDesigning the Future \u2013 Online, Offline and In Person\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Other highlights of this year\u2019s conference include Deal Making sessions. Last year alone, there were more than 600+ successful meetings conducted at the Deal Making sessions. This year the council aims to exceed last year&#8217;s connections. Current companies onboard the deal-making sessions include &#8211; Salhia Real Estate Company, Tamdeen Group, Line Investments &amp; Property LLC, Unified Real Estate Development Co., Landmark Group (Oasis Mall), Blachere Illumination, Yardi,\u00a0 ASWAQ Management &amp; Services and The Leisure Way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Retail Congress MENA:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Date \u2013 27<sup>th<\/sup> \u2013 29<sup>th<\/sup> October 2019<\/p>\n<p>Venue \u2013 Ritz Carlton Hotel, DIFC, Dubai, UAE<\/p>\n<p><strong>RETAIL CONGRESS MENA Proud Sponsors &amp; Partners: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Platinum Sponsors <\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 CELS Events &amp; Afkar Lighting<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gold Sponsors <\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Dalma Mall, Mall of Dilmunia, Salhia Real Estate, BackLite Media, Tamdeen Group, Red Sea Mall, Abdullah Al Othaim Investment Co. &amp; Al Othaim Leisure &amp; Tourism Co., Sahat Property Management Co., Line Investments &amp; Property LLC and Aswaq Management &amp; Services<\/p>\n<p><strong>Silver Sponsors <\/strong>\u2013 Unified Real Estate Development Company, Yardi, KINAN International Real Estate Development, Retail Emotions, Granada Investment Center Establishment, Al Hokair Group, ShopperTrak and BUZ Management and Marketing Consulting<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bronze Sponsors <\/strong>\u2013 JLL, Blachere Illuminations, Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq), Xpandretail powered by Savant, Dubai Retail, Retail Consulting Group, V- Count and Burj Nahar Mall<\/p>\n<p><strong>Support Partners<\/strong> \u2013 Cityland, The Azdef Group &amp; Azab Production, Crystal House Sharjah, Dhamani, Procurement+, Oleander, Careem, Pathfinder and Samha<\/p>\n<p><strong>Official Airline<\/strong> <strong>Partner<\/strong>\u2013 Emirates<\/p>\n<p><strong>Official Exhibition Contractor<\/strong> \u2013 Kingsmen Middle East<\/p>\n<p><strong>Technology Sponsor<\/strong>\u00a0 \u2013 Hypermedia<\/p>\n<p><strong>Media Partners<\/strong> \u2013 Selfie TV, Trending Business Insights<\/p>\n<p>Delegate Bag &amp; Lanyard Sponsor \u2013 CELS Group<\/p>\n<p>Delegate Badge Sponsor &#8211; Kinan<\/p>\n<p>Gala Gift Sponsor \u2013 Real Oud Factory<\/p>\n<p>Registration Partner \u2013 Nofa Solution<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about the Retail Congress MENA: Lea Venezuela, Director of MECS+R at +97143597909 or <a href=\"mailto:lea@mecsc.org\">lea@mecsc.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17402\" src=\"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/7-13.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"159\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-17403\" src=\"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/7A-9.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"159\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-17404\" src=\"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/7B-6.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"159\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Retail Congress MENA 2019\u2019s first day of the conference on was packed with high energy and focus on \u201cTechnology\u201d, the sessions were presented by global thought leaders and experts to a full house of delegates coming from across the MENA to attend the largest retail focused conference in the region. David Macadam &#8211; CEO, MECS+R [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17405,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17401\/revisions\/17405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}