The Kuwait CIO Summit 2022 features a tailored agenda filled with handpicked topics, discussions, panel sessions, and keynote presentations from regional and global technology experts that will explore all of today's hottest ICT issues.
The 2022 edition will be hosted as an in-person event on May 25, 2022. Here's what you can expect:
As organizations strive to recover from the uncertainty wrought by the pandemic, they are taking a digital-first approach to build resilience into their operations. The journey to the future digital enterprise has accelerated, driven by significant investments in new customer experiences, new digital ecosystem business models, digital supply chains, and Future of Work initiatives. All of this must be supported by resilient cloud-enabled digital infrastructure and applications, rapid app development, digital platforms, data-driven and AI-enabled intelligence, and security and trust. Strong leadership, an appetite for innovation, and a sound strategy for addressing regulations will all be key to driving the digital agenda.
10:0010:15
Driving Digital First Government
Dr. Ammar H. Al Husaini
Deputy Director General, Central Agency for Information Technology
10:1510:35
Deliver the Trusted Digital Foundation to Accelerate Innovation
Kassem Issa
Director Managed Cloud & Telecom Services, Diyar United Company
Majed Al-Halaseh
Senior Solution Engineer (Kuwait), VMware
10:3510:40
Q&A (Ask questions and stand a chance to win an Exciting Gift)
10:4010:45
Healthy Bites Break
10:4511:00
Building a Digital Backbone for the New Kuwait
Vijay Jaswal
Chief Technology Officer (Middle East and Turkey), Software AG
Many organizations are actively seeking a digital backbone — the fundamental, structural support for all systems, apps, things, networks, and employees. It is probably too challenging to meet today’s disruptions in a competitive market without such a backbone. In fact, it is essential if you want to digitally transform your organization. Like a physical spine, this backbone must be resilient: if it fails, everything fails. This session will explain how your digital backbone is your most important structure, highlighting how it provides a solid foundation for digital transformation and the future of 'New Kuwait'.
11:0011:05
Q&A (Ask questions and stand a chance to win an Exciting Gift)
11:0511:45
Tea/Coffee & Networking
11:4513:10
Best Practice Session (Parallel Sessions)
From Secure to Trusted: A Journey to Digital Leadership
11:45 - 11:50
Opening Raffle
11:50 - 12:00
Dynamic Resiliency in the Realm of Risk Fluctuation
Marwan Oklah
Regional Account Manager, Trend Micro
Dynamic Resiliency in the Realm of Risk Fluctuation
Today, it is clear that the enterprise shift from digitization to digitalization and digital transformation is improving efficiency, productivity, and ultimately revenue. However, this shift has introduced significant challenges in terms of cybersecurity and cyber-risk. This session will explore how cyber-risks can be articulated as positive contributors to building cyber-resilient security architecture.
12:00 - 12:05
Q&A (Ask questions and stand a chance to win an Exciting Gift)
12:05 - 12:15
Extended Detection & Response: Demystifying Common Myths About XDR
Tamer Odeh
Regional Sales Director, (META), SentinelOne
Extended Detection & Response: Demystifying Common Myths About XDR
There has been a tremendous buzz across the cybersecurity community about the emerging technology known as extended detection and response (XDR). Unfortunately for practitioners, there has yet to be a single definition of XDR that is widely accepted by both analysts and vendors purporting to be knowledgeable on the subject. What is XDR and why should you consider the technology in your enterprise security stack? What should you expect from vendors that claim to have built the perfect mousetrap? What is the reality and what is just hype? This session will walk you through some generally accepted value statements associated with XDR while debunking a few common myths that continue to muddy the water for security teams.
12:15 - 12:20
Q&A (Ask questions and stand a chance to win an Exciting Gift)
To swiftly infiltrate companies and organizations, threat actors leverage automation and take advantage of sophisticated intelligence capabilities by collecting signals and data in real-time. This session will share a vision for leveraging more automation and data collection to strengthen cybersecurity postures and enhance cyber-resilience.
12:30 - 12:35
Q&A (Ask questions and stand a chance to win an Exciting Gift)
12:35 - 13:10
Panel Discussion: Vendor Selection and Management: Best Practices and What to Look Out For
Digital Transformation Corporate Solutions Leader, Kuwait Oil Company
Dr. Mohammed Almulla
Acting Vice President of Academic Support Services, Kuwait University
Sameer Abduh
Head of IT Security Operations, Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait
Panel Discussion: Vendor Selection and Management: Best Practices and What to Look Out For
For the IT sourcing and procurement professional, demanding workloads and deadlines leave little time for an in-depth review of technology markets and vendors, sourcing best practices, and specific IT investment opportunities and partnerships. This session addresses key sourcing challenges related to digital transformation and the evolving role of vendor management within the enterprise, combined with actionable intelligence on best practice for driving better deals and reducing costs without risking vendor relationships.
Accelerate Digital Innovation with New-Age Technologies
11:45 - 11:50
Opening Raffle
11:50 - 12:00
Low Code: The Fast Track to Innovation
Rodrigo Castelo
Vice President (Middle East & Africa), OutSystems
Low Code: The Fast Track to Innovation
Change has never been more of a constant than it is today, adding overwhelming pressure to differentiate and innovate. Given the immense lack of talent, a perfect storm for massive failure is brewing within IT and business if nothing is done. The good news is that there are technologies that allow for faster delivery and support mission-critical systems with high complexity of functionality and high loads of users — all without requiring talent with 'Silicon Valley-level' skills. Since fast innovation for the rest of us is now possible, are you ready to embrace it?
12:00 - 12:05
Q&A (Ask questions and stand a chance to win an Exciting Gift)
12:05 - 12:15
Modern Data Protection
Harsh Thakkar
Distribution Sales Manager (Middle East), Veeam
Modern Data Protection
12:15 - 12:20
Q&A (Ask questions and stand a chance to win an Exciting Gift)
12:20 - 12:35
Transform Cost Center to Profit Center
Rami Al-Haddad
Group CIO, National Aviation Services (NAS).
Transform Cost Center to Profit Center
How we transferred the IT department at NAS from a cost center to a profit center with multi-million-dollar revenue stream delivering Aviation IT and online solutions to customers from Australian to America, a very unique achievement for a Kuwaiti Company in this sector.
12:35 - 13:10
Panel Discussion: Alignment, Collaboration, and Co-innovation with Line of Business
Dr. Rania Azmi
Founder & CEO, Alexandrite Decisions
Ajai Thomas
CFO, Kuwait International Bank
Panel Discussion: Alignment, Collaboration, and Co-innovation with Line of Business
CIOs need to acknowledge that technology initiatives will increasingly happen outside of the traditional IT organization as LOB executives gain digital savvy and cloud-based apps and services become more powerful and appealing. That means that traditional partnerships with LOB peers become more fragile and difficult to orchestrate. To maintain IT relevance and integration across functions, CIOs should adopt a strategy of building alliances with LOB organizations and ecosystem partners that transcend transactional project-focused efforts to build broad-based and programmatic support for the IT mission and goals.
From Secure to Trusted: A Journey to Digital Leadership
11:45 - 11:50
Opening Raffle
11:50 - 12:00
Dynamic Resiliency in the Realm of Risk Fluctuation
11:50 - 12:00
Dynamic Resiliency in the Realm of Risk Fluctuation
Today, it is clear that the enterprise shift from digitization to digitalization and digital transformation is improving efficiency, productivity, and ultimately revenue. However, this shift has introduced significant challenges in terms of cybersecurity and cyber-risk. This session will explore how cyber-risks can be articulated as positive contributors to building cyber-resilient security architecture.
Marwan Oklah
Regional Account Manager, Trend Micro
12:00 - 12:05
Q&A (Ask questions and stand a chance to win an Exciting Gift)
12:05 - 12:15
Extended Detection & Response: Demystifying Common Myths About XDR
12:05 - 12:15
Extended Detection & Response: Demystifying Common Myths About XDR
There has been a tremendous buzz across the cybersecurity community about the emerging technology known as extended detection and response (XDR). Unfortunately for practitioners, there has yet to be a single definition of XDR that is widely accepted by both analysts and vendors purporting to be knowledgeable on the subject. What is XDR and why should you consider the technology in your enterprise security stack? What should you expect from vendors that claim to have built the perfect mousetrap? What is the reality and what is just hype? This session will walk you through some generally accepted value statements associated with XDR while debunking a few common myths that continue to muddy the water for security teams.
Tamer Odeh
Regional Sales Director, (META), SentinelOne
12:15 - 12:20
Q&A (Ask questions and stand a chance to win an Exciting Gift)
12:20 - 12:30
Security Automation for the Digital Journey
12:20 - 12:30
Security Automation for the Digital Journey
To swiftly infiltrate companies and organizations, threat actors leverage automation and take advantage of sophisticated intelligence capabilities by collecting signals and data in real-time. This session will share a vision for leveraging more automation and data collection to strengthen cybersecurity postures and enhance cyber-resilience.
Q&A (Ask questions and stand a chance to win an Exciting Gift)
12:35 - 13:10
Panel Discussion: Vendor Selection and Management: Best Practices and What to Look Out For
12:35 - 13:10
Panel Discussion: Vendor Selection and Management: Best Practices and What to Look Out For
For the IT sourcing and procurement professional, demanding workloads and deadlines leave little time for an in-depth review of technology markets and vendors, sourcing best practices, and specific IT investment opportunities and partnerships. This session addresses key sourcing challenges related to digital transformation and the evolving role of vendor management within the enterprise, combined with actionable intelligence on best practice for driving better deals and reducing costs without risking vendor relationships.
Digital Transformation Corporate Solutions Leader, Kuwait Oil Company
Dr. Mohammed Almulla
Acting Vice President of Academic Support Services, Kuwait University
Sameer Abduh
Head of IT Security Operations, Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait
Accelerate Digital Innovation with New-Age Technologies
11:45 - 11:50
Opening Raffle
11:50 - 12:00
Low Code: The Fast Track to Innovation
11:50 - 12:00
Low Code: The Fast Track to Innovation
Change has never been more of a constant than it is today, adding overwhelming pressure to differentiate and innovate. Given the immense lack of talent, a perfect storm for massive failure is brewing within IT and business if nothing is done. The good news is that there are technologies that allow for faster delivery and support mission-critical systems with high complexity of functionality and high loads of users — all without requiring talent with 'Silicon Valley-level' skills. Since fast innovation for the rest of us is now possible, are you ready to embrace it?
Rodrigo Castelo
Vice President (Middle East & Africa), OutSystems
12:00 - 12:05
Q&A (Ask questions and stand a chance to win an Exciting Gift)
12:05 - 12:15
Modern Data Protection
12:05 - 12:15
Modern Data Protection
Harsh Thakkar
Distribution Sales Manager (Middle East), Veeam
12:15 - 12:20
Q&A (Ask questions and stand a chance to win an Exciting Gift)
12:20 - 12:35
Transform Cost Center to Profit Center
12:20 - 12:35
Transform Cost Center to Profit Center
How we transferred the IT department at NAS from a cost center to a profit center with multi-million-dollar revenue stream delivering Aviation IT and online solutions to customers from Australian to America, a very unique achievement for a Kuwaiti Company in this sector.
Rami Al-Haddad
Group CIO, National Aviation Services (NAS).
12:35 - 13:10
Panel Discussion: Alignment, Collaboration, and Co-innovation with Line of Business
12:35 - 13:10
Panel Discussion: Alignment, Collaboration, and Co-innovation with Line of Business
CIOs need to acknowledge that technology initiatives will increasingly happen outside of the traditional IT organization as LOB executives gain digital savvy and cloud-based apps and services become more powerful and appealing. That means that traditional partnerships with LOB peers become more fragile and difficult to orchestrate. To maintain IT relevance and integration across functions, CIOs should adopt a strategy of building alliances with LOB organizations and ecosystem partners that transcend transactional project-focused efforts to build broad-based and programmatic support for the IT mission and goals.
Dr. Rania Azmi
Founder & CEO, Alexandrite Decisions
Ajai Thomas
CFO, Kuwait International Bank
13:1014:10
Lunch & Networking
14:1014:15
Close of Summit
Contact Us
Ronita Bhattacharjee
Vice President - Conferences, IDC Middle East, Africa, & Turkey
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,300 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading media, data and marketing services company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com.
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