Smart Dubai, IBM organise Chief Data Officer Summit 2019

Smart Dubai and IBM organised a Chief Data Officer, CDO, Summit yesterday at the W Hotel, Palm Dubai. The summit brought together CDOs, data scientists, and influential figures from various industries, offering an opportunity to explore how the fast-developing field of data science can support the region’s businesses.

For its part, Smart Dubai highlighted the role of advanced data regulations in the growth of the data economy and how a platform such as the CDO Summit firmly positions Dubai as the epicentre of the region-wide data development.

During the event, Smart Dubai also announced the launch of a Data Science Lab in Dubai. The Data Science Lab acknowledges that there are pre-requisites to investing in data science when planning a city’s data strategy. It is more important to identify pain points and opportunities for cities and businesses, through a 3-stage ‘data challenge process’ which builds initial ideas into properly defined use cases through design thinking processes, which are then filtered and taken into the final data science stage.

The aim of the lab is to develop data science skills in Dubai and foster collaboration among the data science community in the emirate to identify and explore opportunities that will boost the creation of a data ecosystem. It will also help provide skills and expertise on data science, artificial intelligence, AI, and data analytics.

Younus Al Nasser, Assistant Director-General of Smart Dubai and CEO of Smart Dubai Data, delivered a keynote presentation titled "From the Practical to the Ambitious – How Smart Dubai is Powering the Data Science Revolution in MEA", while Seth Dobrin, IBM’s Vice President and Chief Data Officer for Analytics, gave another keynote presentation titled "AI is Not Magic & IBM’s AI Ladder".

"As Dubai becomes more adamant in its vision to embrace advanced technologies and develop their applications to establish an unprecedented, seamless, and interconnected city experience, we, at Smart Dubai, have been multiplying our efforts to harness the power of data, build the smart city of the future, and ensure the happiness and wellbeing of the emirate’s citizens, residents, and visitors," said Younus Al Nasser, Assistant Director-General of Smart Dubai and CEO of Smart Dubai Data.

"We value our collaboration with IBM, which allows us to benefit from each other’s expertise and know-how in big data and other Fourth-Industrial-Revolution breakthroughs and explore the massive potential these technologies carry. The much-anticipated Chief Data Officer Summit we are organising together presents a significant opportunity for leading figures in data to come together and outline a roadmap for the future of the sector and, by extension, for the entire smart city project," Al Nasser concluded.

For his part, Takreem El-Tohamy, General Manager of IBM Middle East and Africa, said, "With data being the driving force behind digital reinvention and transformation across all industries and organisations, initiatives like the CDO Summit and the Data Science Lab with Smart Dubai, can continue to build a strong community across the Middle East and Africa."

The CDO Summit is an exclusive, annual gathering for data executives, providing a meeting point for Chief Data Officers, Chief Analytics Officers, Chief Data Scientists, Chief Information Officers, Chief Digital Officers, Chief AI Officers, and other C-suite and VP-Level data leaders to learn, develop, and network.

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