Amid the hustle and bustle of the 34th Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (Gitex) taking place this week at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), numerous companies are vying for the attention of the 140,000 or so delegates setting foot inside the centre.
Much of the focus this year is on smart cities, with greater participation from government entities across the region, but there are many smaller companies occupying space at Gitex and intent on gaining attraction to their stands.
3Doodler, the maker of a 3D pen that prints plastic, is showcasing a 2.5-metre replica of Burj Khalifa made entirely with the pen. It is the largest 3Doodler structure in the world and took two weeks to make. The company is hoping to grab the interest of retailers to help it expand.
Another company using visual tactics is Tint, a social media platform from San Francisco. The company has partnered with more than 20 companies at Gitex that have large screen displays to provide them with their social media feeds.
“Instead of buying the biggest booth, we have approached the ones with large screens and said we can do the social media campaign for them,” said Brandon Ancier, who holds the title of director of happiness at Tint.
For the less-glamorous companies, linking their stands with the conferences that take place at Gitex is a key strategy.
“We are giving visual tours of our data centres,” said Yasmin Khaliq, the marketing director for the Middle East and North Africa at Equinix. “There is fatigue with Gitex, it is so big so we are trying to give visitors focus by linking our offering with the conferences and industry trends.”
This year is the biggest Gitex to date, according to Trixie LohMirmand, the senior vice president at DWTC.
“We are coming to a sold-out situation – we have companies coming from more than 60 countries,” she said. “This year in the government sector, the representation from the UAE is over 120 government entities at both the local and the federal levels.”
More than 3,700 of the exhibitors are global companies, which demonstrates the international appeal of Gitex, added Ms LohMirmand. The number of exhibitors has grown 5 per cent since last year, and the exhibition is now running at maximum capacity.
The growth at Gitex is in line with the growth of IT spending in the region, which is set to reach $15bn this year and is expected to rise to $20bn by 2020, according to International Data Corporation.
“Technology is becoming mainstream in business,” said Henrik Mulvad, the managing director at the consultancy Accenture. “A lot of innovation has come from start-up companies in the past 10 years. In the past five years we have seen a lot of government organisations and corporations investing and trying to experiment with technology.”
thamid@thenational.ae