The 14th edition of the Telecom Review Leaders’ Summit, the global ICT industry’s largest event, was held both physically and virtually this year.
The virtual part of the event was broadcasted live through the use of 5G connectivity which was provided by Etisalat. The physical part place at the Meydan Hotel in Dubai, UAE.
The Telecom Review Leaders’ Summit gathered speakers from across the world like never before. In fact, the virtual aspect of the event helped Telecom Review’s partners expand their borders and to allow the participation of even more ICT professionals. With the help of Etisalat, the summit became the world’s first 5G-powered event which allowed physical attendees and participants to enjoy high-speed internet and virtual guests to have a seamless, low latency experience in real-time.
The summit featured a variety of insightful and interesting panels, debates and keynote speeches which focused on the ICT industry’s latest and greatest. It is no doubt that the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic caused telecom operator, vendors and service providers a great deal of stress which eventually led to widespread, fast-tracked digital transformation across the entire global industry and beyond.
Toni Eid, Founder of Telecom Review and CEO of Trace Media, stated, “Fourteen years ago, we promised that Telecom Review’s events would always be unique, and for many years we’ve been delivering the best outcome in terms of quality of attendees, sponsors, topics, speakers and even the setting. This year and due to covid-19, we had to offer something different that serves the interest of our partners. We decided to host a hybrid event, both physical and virtual. I’d like to seize this opportunity to thank every partner for their support and for believing in us and in the quality of our events.”
The discussion focused on the main industry trends such as managing the effects of the pandemic on networks as well as 5G, cybersecurity, data traffic and digitalization.
C-level executives from across the entire industry gathered to experience this unique, hybrid event under its annual theme ‘It’s all about Smart Networking’.
The summit was sponsored by Etisalat, Huawei, Benya Group, Integrated Dawiyat, Nokia, Tata Communications, MTN GlobalConnect, PCCW Global, Sofrecom, Commscope, SES Networks, TELUS, NXN, RedHat, csg, mycom, Intelset and Related. The summit participants included Eng. Majid Al Mesmar, Deputy Director-General of TRA UAE; Hatem Dowidar, Acting CEO, Etisalat Group and CEO, Etisalat International; Khalifa Al Shamsi, Chief Strategy & Corporate Governance Office at Etisalat Group; Jawad Abbassi, Head of MENA at GSMA; Frederic Schepens, CEO of MTN GlobalConnect; AnJian, President of Carrier Network Business Group, Huawei Middle East; Dr. Ahmed Sindi, CEO, Dawiyat; Ahmed Mekky, Chairman and CEO of Benya Group; Rayan al Turki, Acting on behalf of the CEO of Zain KSA; Osman Sultan, Chairman & CEO, Fikra Tech and Chairman of the Transformation & Restructuring Committee- Board Member Smile Telecom; James Kirby, Senior Vice President & Head Of EMEA, CSG; Elias Saab, Chief Commercial Officer, Sofrecom; Dr. Kamal Shehadi, Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer, Etisalat International; Haithem Mohammed Alfaraj, Senior VP of Technology and Operations Unit, stc; Paul Michael Scanlan, CTO of Huawei Carrier Business Group; Femi Oshiga, VP Sales, Service Providers MEA, CommScope; Aji Ed, CTO, Nokia; Azhar Sayeed, Sr. Director - Global technical development at Red Hat; Mounir Ladki, President and CTO, MYCOM OSI; Johannes Hummer, Regional Head of Middle East, Vodafone Partner Markets; Leslie Shannon, Head of Ecosystem and Trend Scouting, Nokia; Hatem Bamatraf, CTO, Etisalat; Ghazi Atallah, CEO, NXN; Hazem Galal, Partner, Global Leader for Cities & Local Government, PwC Middle East; Martin Creaner, Chief digital transformation strategist for the Huawei SPO Business Research Lab; Henrique Vale, Nokia Software VP MEA, Nokia; Philippe Vogeleer, Group Head Of External Affairs, Vodafone; Rabih Farhat, Managing Partner, Related; Samer Halawi, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Intelsat; Marc Halbfinger, CEO, PCCW Global; Vaneet Mehta, AVP & Region Head – MECAA at Tata Communications; Imran Malik Khan, Global VP Fixed Data, SES Networks; Patrick Sullivan, Area Vice President for APAC, EMEA & Latam, Verizon; Stephen King, Lecturer in Digital Media, Middlesex University Dubai; Sabri Ali Yehya, Chief Information Officer, Etisalat; Jihad Tayara, CEO, Evoteq; Yousef Khalili, Head of Smart City & Smart Government Practice & the UAE General Manager, NXN; Dr. Ibrahim Gedeon, CTO, TELUS; Dimitris Lioulias, VP of Corporate Strategy, stc; Dr. Chafic Chaya, Regional Communications Manager, RIPE NCC; Khaled Hegazy, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Etisalat Misr; Andy Purdy, Chief Security Officer, Huawei Technologies USA; Bilel Jamoussi, Chief, Study Groups Department, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU; Marcel Rizcallah, Senior Director, EMEA Consulting Security Domain Leader, Oracle; and Hani Obeid, Partner, NXN.
