The COMEX Exhibit in Oman

By: Sherief Ahmed

Over the past few years you can see the spike in technology concentration in the Middle East and North Africa. Technology was a slow moving industry until the arrival of modern day UAE. Heavy investments in technology and business developments changed the minds of many in the region to realizing how important local technology development really is. There has been a huge flow of interest from foreign technology investors that so many very large technology shows make it a point to have large shows in the MENA.

COMEX has been running on a yearly basis since 1990 and it has been a very successful exhibition for the largest IT, Telecom and Consumer Electronics in the region. In Oman there has been high visibility for technology companies and individuals with the shows they have in their International Exhibition Centre. What is special about COMEX this year is the fact that CISCO is the ICT lead sponsor for the event.

As many of you know, CISCO is one of the largest networking hardware companies in the world and it demonstrated a new technology at the exhibit, which could be the future of communication. The demonstration of the next-generation virtual “On Stage” TelePresence was live. What this technology is a 4 dimensional live image, simply put a hologram. If you recall watching Star Wars movies and they would have holographic video conferences, this is the real thing. Cisco demonstrated this amazing technology live on stage. You may look at videos of this and be amazed on how great the technology really is.

This technology will surely be adopted in future communications in the business world before reaching homes for private use. The fact it was demonstrated in MENA will secure its place in the future of business in the region. This will surely help businesses in the region and will most likely cut travel costs. Business meetings and communication will be a lot more seem less.

This also presents a big opportunity for young IT Professionals, because this is a new technology that is just about to hit the market. There is huge opportunity to develop complementing technologies or even develop better holographic video conferencing. Whenever there is new technology, there is always a chance to improve on it and the growing MENA technology sector will surely have opportunities to do just that.

For more information visit: http://www.comexoman.com/2012b/