SPECIAL COVERAGE - IT Insight :: IT & Telecom magazine covering Asian & Gulf's IT&T market (Publishes every month from Islamabad/Rawalpindi - Pakistan). Giving special insight to Pakistan's IT and Telecom industry

The sophisticated yet soft spoken Mrs. Katayia Tayar, president and founder of Arabcom Group, publisher of HITEK magazine and organizer of the annual 'Middle East Smartphone & Wireless Summit' welcomed a large number of top official government and corporate delegates, exhibitors, forum participants and trade visitors comprising businessmen, professionals, resellers, end-users GSM operators, WISPs, and the general public to its 3rd edition. The two day event at Emirates Tower Dubai was divided into four sessions Mobility, Broadband, RFID and Security. Being one of the pioneers of the IT and Telecom initiatives in the Arab world, she is involved in cause for the last nine years.

In addition to Mrs Katia Tayar, Keynote speaker at the opening ceremony included, Ms. Rehab Lootah / Senior Business Manager Dubai eGovernment Mobile Portal Dubai eGovernment, Mr. Jim Morrison / CEO Imate, and Mr. Salim Ziade/Commercial and Consumer Category Manager Personal Systems Group, Hewlett Packard Middle East.

As a leading regional event to focus on the latest wireless and mobile technologies and their enterprise applications, the 2005 Summit focused on the hot topics such as Enterprise Wireless Networking - Wi-Fi - RFID - WLAN - WISP (Wireless Internet Service Provider ) - Wireless Broadband - WiMax - VoIP -Triple Play - Mobile Computing - Wireless Security - Mobile Devices Security features , and more. Delegates got to hear 20 International Top level Speakers representing: Imate, HP, Sony Ericsson, Intel, WiMax forum, Ipaxiom, Dubai egovernment, Pointsec, Sybase, Dexterra, Oracle, Cisco Systems, SRtelecom, Alcatel, Picopoint, Proxim Wireless, IBM, Sun, Netlink, Airspan. One of the most interesting parts of the event was the exhibition of diverse wireless solutions as well as end user gadgets, which was open to the general public.

The dazzling line of speakers included Mr. Ayman Majzoub Sales Director Pointsec Middle East & India, Dr. Jagdish Bansiya Director of Engineering Product and Technology Division Sybase Products Middle East - Mr. Muneeb Ghuman Director Sales MENA Dexterra, Inc., Ms. Hoda A. Mansour Director, Telecoms & Media, Oracle EMEA Oracle, Mr. Muarrif Ahmad Director of Business Development EMEA IPaXiom, Mr. Keith Doucet Marketing Director WiMAX Forum, Mr. Chris Beardsmore, Market Development Manager, Europe M.E. & Africa, Mr. Michel Naggar, Director MEA, Alcatel, Mr. Houssam Salha, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Picopoint Middle East, Mr. Jerome Alexandre, Manager, European Systems Engineer, Proxim Wireless EMEA, Proxim Networks, Mr. Giovanni D'Amico,

Wireless Broadband & Sensing Solutions Business Area Leader Central East Europe & Middle East (CEMAAS), Mr. Graham Porter, Marketing Manager, Sun Microsystems MENA, Mr. S Satyajit, Chief Strategy Office (CSO), Dubai netlink L.L.C, Mr. Anwer Kotob Regional Systems Engineering Manager-Gulf Region and Pakistan Cisco Systems, and Mr. Rizwan Butt, Director Sales (MENA), Airspan.

Participants came from all over the world to attend the summit from both Public and Private Sector. 35 Official governmental delegations, from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Jordan, Tunisia, UAE, Syria, Morocco, Palestine in addition to more than 750 registered participants from USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, UK, France, Germany, China, Japan, Korea, India, Ireland, Scotland, Pakistan and many other countries furnished the venue.

“To ensure the focus of the event, we invited sponsors and exhibitors to showcase the newest, cutting-edge products and services which are currently in demand by the wireless and mobile industry. Therefore, delegates get the exclusive opportunity to view and purchase new wireless products and solutions first hand” said Katia Tayar CEO Arabcom group organizer of the summit.

“To ascertain the quality of the conference held in conjunction, the selection of the speakers is highly rigorous and only 20 papers out of 200 requests to speak have been accepted. The speakers selected will present the latest advancements and issues relating to developing and implementing wireless and mobile technologies” said Jean Louis Farwagi Vice President of Arabcom group.

Ms. Rehab Lootah / Senior Business Manager Dubai eGovernment Mobile Portal Dubai eGovernment told IT Insight that even though Dubai Governemnt has been the first one to implement Mobile Portal in the region, the two main hurdles in the way of Mobility are high prices of access and little awareness about the technology. Ayman Majzoub Sales Director Pointsec Middle East & India said that security was always the hottest issue and it has become even more challenging due to the explosion in growth of mobility.

Syed Noman Kashif, event director, told IT Insight that he was pleased with the growth of the event. He added that it would have been great if all the registrants from Pakistan could have shown up and benefited from this unique event in the region. In addition to the speakers and exhibits, it offers an excellent networking platform for IT and Telecom professionals. Being the global meeting place for the Mobility & Wireless broadband industry, the summit attracts key decision-makers to learn and purchase the latest product and solutions, offered by innovative technology vendors and service providers.

As part of the ARABCOM group (The Xperimental Group: Events management, HITEK magazine: Publishing
, ARABCOM: Consulting - Representation Trading), Syed is also involved in the publishing of its Telecom and IT magazine - HITEK. He welcomed IT Insight to the family of IT/Telecom publications and wished it prosperity. He stated that ARABCOM group is also famous for its other flagship event; the ARABCOM which has a 'high tech' theme each year. Depending upon the invitation by the head of the state, this event takes place at a different Arab state each year. This year it will be held in Dubai, UAE. He extended a special invitation to ARABCOM 2006 to participants from Pakistan.

The writer is a BSc. (EE) & MBA from USA. Some of his certifications include MCSE, CCNA, NGDLC, ATM and NGN among others. He has worked in Telecommunications, and taught in various universities. Currently he is working as an Telecom/IT Consultant in UAE and running an online newsletter (http://www.farooq.com.pk)

He can be reached at info@farooq.com.pk