Microsoft showcases CityNext approach at Arab Future Cities Summit

The 4th Annual Arab Future Cities Summit Qatar welcomes on board Microsoft as Gold Sponsor of the event, to be held at the Ritz-Carlton in Doha, Qatar, on 13-14 April, 2015.

Produced by global conference organizers, Expotrade, the summit will be held under the patronage of the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning, State of Qatar.

Smart city development across the world is becoming more the norm than the exception. Governments worldwide are including smart initiatives in their development plans, with the focus set firmly on sustainability. At the same time, they do not lose sight of the fact that an improved way of life and better citizen services are to be the end result of all efforts in this regard.

Among the topics discussed at the Arab Future Cities Summit will be citizen empowerment in the context of smart cities. This ties in perfectly with Microsoft’s corporate commitment to citizenship in terms of serving the needs of communities, and their mission to help people and businesses realize their full potential.

The summit, therefore, is the ideal platform for Microsoft to showcase their CityNext Solution, that brings their technology and partner solutions together to meet the needs of local and regional governments across today’s four major technology trends—big data, cloud, mobile, and social—in all four public sector industries (education, government, health, and public safety and national security). Ali Nimer, Regional Government Solutions Director, Microsoft Gulf will be speaking at the summit on ‘Doha Next: Enabling Real Impact for Better Tomorrow.’

A smart city can be termed intelligent only when it is citizen-focused. A citizen- focused city involves harnessing the ideas, energy and expertise of a city’s people as they create a healthier, safer and sustainable place to live.

The Microsoft CityNext approach to innovation puts people first, empowering governments, businesses and citizens to use collaborative technology to shape the future of their cities. Doha, with its growing prominence as a major Gulf city, is the ideal location to implement such an approach. Such an approach for the new and emerging Doha involves empowering leaders to do newer things using fewer resources by enabling them to leverage existing investments and incorporate new innovations at their own pace, thereby creating a workable innovation model.

The importance of helping cities in the region become more evolved and using a platform such as the Arab Future Cities Summit to bring forward these ideas is emphasized by Ali Nimer, Regional Government Solutions Director, Microsoft Gulf, who will be speaking at the summit.

He says, “We are fully committed to supporting governments in this region with their transition from resource-based to a knowledge-based economy. Our participation in the Arab Future Cities Summit last year facilitated valuable connections with key stakeholders from the Public and Commercial Sectors, and provided us with the proper platform to discuss Microsoft’s CityNext Initiative which offers cutting-edge technologies as well as innovative and holistic solutions that can make this transition happen. This year, we hope to take the conversation a step further by sharing success stories implemented by Microsoft and its valued partners which enabled the development and creation of Smart Cities of the future in various parts of the world.”

Brad Hariharan, Regional Director, Expotrade Middle East, organizers of the conference, welcomed the partnership, saying, “Microsoft, with its commitment towards fostering healthier and more vibrant communities, is an ideal partner for the Arab Future Cities Summit, which seeks to bring forth the most innovative advancements in smart city technology and solutions globally. It gives us great pleasure to offer the best platform to Microsoft to showcase their solutions. We look forward to a meaningful relationship with them.”

For more details on the summit, visit www.arabfuturecities.com

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ:’MSFT’) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Microsoft Qatar was founded in 2003 as part of the Dubai-based Microsoft Gulf. There are approximately 50 employees at Microsoft Qatar who serve the Qatar market’s technological needs with productivity solutions, cloud offerings, devices, services and much more spanning across all verticals and segments.

For more information, please visit www.microsoft.com

About Expotrade

Expotrade is a global conference and event organizer with its head office based in Melbourne, Australia and a regional office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Expotrade has delivered some of the largest, most successful B2B industry conferences and events. For almost 10 years, our unique blend of knowledge, experience and flexibility has accomplished an array of consistently top quality events. Today, Expotrade events enjoy such a distinctive edge, they are amongst the best patronized in the calendar.

For more information, visit www.expotradeglobal.com

Contact information:
Rukmini Sengupta Roy
Marketing and Communications Manager
Expotrade Middle East FZ-LLC
1002 Al Thuraya Tower 2
PO Box 500686 Dubai Media City
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Tel: +9714-4542135
Fax: +9714-4542136
Email: marketing@expotrade-me.com

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