ArabNet summit focuses on smart government initiative

Smart government – Dubai’s initiative to use information and communication technology to provide government services to residents and businesses – was a key feature of ArabNet’s third digital summit conference, held last week in Dubai.

The conference, on May 27-28, brought together more than 70 global speakers and showcased more than 25 startups, with activity streams looking at smart government, e-marketing, programmatic buying, startup growth-hacking and the annual digital showcase.

ArabNet founder and CEO Omar Christidis said the partnership with smart government initiative Smart Dubai was the highlight of this year’s event.

“Having Dubai as an innovation hub in the MENA region allows entrepreneurs to be active players in this initiative and to help in building government services and developments,” he said.

This year’s event had a number of new features, dubbed content streams by the organizers.

The NEXT track event, for instance, featured advertising experts speaking on the latest advances in digital marketing and branded content.

The Startup track, on the other hand, covered the latest in investment strategies in MENA and startup-government relationship dynamics.

And the Maker Space track showcased the latest in drones, 3D printing and movement-control armor. This track was organized in collaboration with The Assembly.

“The future is not in digital platforms but in smart platforms,” Christidis remarked.

Original article by Pamela Kesrouani

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ArabNet summit focuses on smart government initiative