AMAZON CONCLUDES THIRD EDITION OF MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA TECH CONFERENCE

 Amazon in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has concluded yet another edition of its annual tech conference, AMTECH 2021. The two-day virtual tech event brought together regional and global Amazon leaders with participants from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, and Egypt’s thriving local landscapes, to showcase innovation, best practices, share knowledge, and recognize top experts in their respective fields. 

On its third edition which took place on December 8th and 9th, AMTECH 2021 focused on opportunities in the region covering topics such as machine learning, emerging technologies, industry trends, new payment methods, and customer behaviours. Ronaldo Mouchawar, Vice President of Amazon MENA, inaugurated the event alongside Faisal Rafi, Director of Technology of Amazon MENA, with a joint keynote speech on how the company maintains a strong focus on ‘Invent and Simplify’, one of Amazon’s leadership principles and the overarching theme of this year’s event, touching upon the need to stay ahead of fast-changing business environments and customer needs. 

Mouchawar said: “We were very excited to once again connect with some of the brightest minds and vibrant talent across the MENA region, as they came together with Amazon leaders from across the world for a packed AMTECH 2021 event. Following a series of successful events in past years, this year’s conference perfectly demonstrated the synergy that exists between innovation and customer-centric thinking. We are very proud and thankful of the exchange that took place as our teams at Amazon engaged once again with incredible talent from the region. AMTECH 2021 has given us another opportunity to relook at our passion for invention and the various ways we can continue to serve customers better.”  

In addition to a series of talks, AMTECH 2021 comprised of engaging Q&A sessions and fireside chats for participants to engage directly with Amazon employees during the conference. Samir Kumar, Vice President of International Retail at Amazon, gave a presentation titled “How Exciting is it to be an Amazonian?’ as he deep-dived into the company culture and best practices. Abdo Chlala, Director of Other Hardlines GCC, at Amazon MENA, also gave a presentation titled “How Customers Shop Online? Key Trends” which discussed key trends in online shopping behavior. 

The conference included various presentations covering the following topics, and highlighting Amazon’s culture of innovation and customer-centricity: 

• Using Machine Learning to enhance MENA customers experience presented by Jalal Eddin Omari, Software Development Manager, Amazon MENA
• Emerging Technologies - Future-proof your skills presented by Sohan Maheshwar, Sr. Developer Advocate, Amazon Web Services Netherlands 
• Foundations of Neural Networks and Modern AI presented by Alok Govil, Principal Software Engineer, Amazon India
• What Makes a Payments Ecosystem Successful? presented by Gajendran Rathinasamy, Principal Software Engineer, Amazon MENA
• Cutting Edge machine Learning in Media presented by Adam Sutherland, Head WW Media & Entertainment Data Science, USA