By : Bakinam Khaled

After a gap of two years, the IDC Saudi Arabia CIO Summit returns to an in-person format on September 19-20 in Riyadh as the Kingdom continues its rapid transformation towards a digital economy in alignment with the goals of Vision 2030.

Hosted under the theme 'Accelerating the Journey to a Digital-First World', the highly anticipated 12th annual IDC Saudi Arabia CIO Summit will combine a series of presentations, panel discussions, real-life use cases, and individual technology tracks. Delegates will be able to explore a broad range of themes central to their ongoing digital journeys and take an exclusive look at the very latest developments in technological innovation.

"As Saudi organizations tap into the value-creation opportunities being driven by digital transformation (DX), they are increasingly embracing a digital-first approach to building resilience into their business operations," says Hamza Naqshbandi, IDC’s associate vice president for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. "Spurred by significant investments in the creation of new customer experiences, digital ecosystem-based business models, digital supply chains, and evolving 'Future of Work' models, the Kingdom is poised to become a global digital powerhouse. These themes will shape discussions at this year's IDC Saudi Arabia CIO Summit — a trusted platform that connects leading ICT executives to help unleash new opportunities and solve some of the most pressing challenges that organizations are facing in their quest to enable a digital economy in Saudi Arabia."

The event will feature insights from IDC's CIO Advisory Council for Saudi Arabia, whose members include some of the Kingdom's most respected ICT leaders and experts:
 

·         Eng. Naif Sheshah, Assistant Deputy Governor, Planning and Development, and Chief Digital Officer, Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC)

·         Eng. Faisal Bakhashwain, Deputy Minister for Digital Transformation, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development

·         Yazeed Al Otaibi, Assistant Deputy Minister for Planning and Digital Transformation, Ministry of Health

·         General Sundah Alsehali, General Director of Information Technology, Ministry of Defense

·         Eng. Haithem Al Faraj, Group Chief Technology Officer, Saudi Telecom Company (STC)

·         Abdulaziz Abanmi, Chief Operating Officer, Saudi Payments

·         Yousef A. Alsuhaibani, Chief Information Officer, Mobily

·         Eng. Ghada Albugami, Chief Information Officer and Presidential Advisor for Digital Transformation, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University

·         Jason E. Roos, Chief Information Officer, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

·         Ayman Alharbi, Senior Director of IT, The Red Sea Development Company and Amaala

·         Bander Al-Shahrani, Head of IT, Public Investment Fund (PIF)

The annual IDC Saudi Arabia CIO Summit is the place to come for thought-provoking, in-depth discussions about cutting-edge tech solutions, emerging use cases, and proven strategies for driving success. This year's installment will conclude on September 20 with the IDC Excellence Awards 2022, which will recognize the efforts of Saudi Arabia's leading technology executives across three categories: CIO of the Year, CISO of the Year, and Women in Technology and Business.

IDC is honored to have a wide range of partners on board for the IDC Saudi Arabia CIO Summit 2022, including IBM as Host Partner; SITE as Game Changer Partner; Unifonic as Innovation Partner; Tech Mahindra as DX Partner; Red Hat as Smart ICT Partner; Cisco as Strategic Partner; AWS, Cloud4C, Google Cloud, Riverbed / Starlink, UiPath, Software AG, CEQUENS, and Microsoft as Summit Partners; Micro Focus, SS&C Blue Prism, Fortinet, VMware, Mendix, SBM, and AMD as Platinum Partners; Kofax, Udacity, Nexthink, Crayon, Cloudera, Snowflake, Nahil Computers / HPE, and Symphony Summit as Technology Focus Group Partners.