Business & Money | Wednesday 2 November, 2016 1:26 am |

Expotrade Middle East today announced the dates of its flagship summit, Arab Future Cities Summit Qatar - the largest smart cities event in Doha. The sixth edition of the summit will witness over 400 delegates from across the GCC and all over the world converge on April 10th and 11th 2017 at The Ritz-Carlton, Doha. Bringing together world-class experts devoted to the smart city ecosystem, the summit will address the challenges and underlying opportunities in Qatar and highlight Qatar’s smart city development initiatives and progress.

Held under the theme ‘Advanced Technology Transforming Qatar’s Future’, the summit will lay emphasis on the key aspects such as connected transport, smart stadiums, cyber security, airport technology, security, government technology and smart economic zones, amongst many others.

The upcoming edition of the summit will broadly focus on topics such as digital citizen engagement; role of master system integrators in making the city smarter; smart metering and smart water management for the future cities of Qatar; vulnerable future cities & the importance of cyber security and smarter cities enabled through ICT, to name a few.

Across two days, the summit will host senior policy makers, engineers, architects, designers, urban planners, project advisers and developers, tech experts and innovators, sustainability, energy efficiency and green building consultants from across the GCC and the world to gain fresh perspectives to existing challenges ,engage in knowledge-sharing, and network with leading solution providers from across the globe.

Announcing the dates of the summit, Mr. Brad Hariharan, Regional Director, Expotrade Middle East, said, “Supporting Qatar’s vison 2030, the summit will outline the success and the progress of the integrated smart city programs designed for the country The Arab Future Cities Summit Qatar is by far the largest and longest running smart cities event in Qatar that serves as a platform for myriad stakeholders to share their ideas on implementing smart city initiatives across the State of Qatar. Over the last five years, the event has made a significant impact and we are confident of reaching greater heights.”

The 2016 edition of the summit was very well received with a welcome address by H.E. Jassim Saif Ahmed Al Sulaiti, Minister of Transport & Communications in the presence of H. E. Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi, Minister of Municipality and Environment and many other dignitaries. With over 450 senior delegates in attendance, the summit saw a number of leading regional and international speakers including Qatar Post Chairman and Managing Director, Faleh Al Naemi; Reem Al Mansoori, Assistant Undersecretary for Digital Society Sector Development, Ministry of Transport & Communications; Dr. Eng. Ahmed Salman Al-Sulaiti, Chief Executive Officer, Qatar National Broadband Network (Qnbn); Jonny Voon, Lead Technologist - Internet Technology, Innovate UK; Andy Taylor, Chief of Service Delivery, Qatar Rail; Dr. Adnan Abu-Dayya, Executive Director (CEO) QMIC presenting on industry relevant trends and topics.

Sharing positive feedback at the close of the summit last year, Edgar I. Boyano, Senior Mechanical Engineer, Al Aqsa Engineering Consultancy (QEC) said, “This summit has brought the audience new and relevant information in regards to how a smart city should work. It has been very informative in terms of new technologies available for future smart cities. Overall, the experience on the first day of the summit is very good.”

Ramanujam Anbazhagan, Senior Design Engineer, Ashghal, said, “Very interesting topics. Presentations were enjoyable. Panel discussion on strategies for boosting efficiency in the water services of the GCC countries was lively and good discussion.”

More information on the 6th Annual Arab Future Cities Summit Qatar is available now at http://www.arabfuturecities.com/. Follow the Summit on social media with the hashtag #AFCS2017.