On February 25, GAVS Technologies in association with Global CIO Forum held its annual client event, enGAge 2021, the Middle East edition. The VirtualSummit was a platform for clients to come together to discuss trends, technologies and discover rich insights.
enGAge 2021 for Middle East lined up speakers and sessions to make it more impactful and relevant based on the theme, From Crisis To Opportunity The Way Forward. enGAge 2021 had an engaging mix of keynote sessions by global thought leaders and panel discussions with CXOs.
Jeremy Grigg, President and Founder, Council Vision and Sumit Ganguli, CEO, GAVS Technologies introduced the session.
Rhea Seddon, Astronaut, Author and Surgeon delivered a keynote on Creating Opportunities During Crisis And Moving Ahead. Another keynote on Technology As An Enabler For Getting Growth Back was delivered Rajeev Kakar, Board Member, Eurobank; GIB, CIB Bank; UTI AMC; Global Founder Fullerton Financial; Founder Dunia Finance; Ex-CEO-Citi TMEA.
Seddon shared reflections on her life’s experiences. She spoke about instances of gender bias in the history and cited that only 5% of women were in a medical university in 1965. She stressed that when you are going to blaze a trail you are going to face opposition and discrimination exists in all types of places for which you need to have a plan B. Seddon highlighted that they produced the first astro-tot.
Seddon also spoke about the need for every organisation to have a process for managing failure. Most intelligent people will listen to data if presented properly and adapt data for audiences, Seddon shared.
Kakar spoke about how to think big, think fast and think diverse. He shared that it is a good time to make investments and pivot for change and how he hates the term new normal as we are always in a new normal.
Kakar said that regulation always helps innovation, not over regulation. He highlighted that cryptocurrency would benefit with regulation, the Chinese are ahead over there.
enGAge 2021 also hosted an expert panel on Leveraging Technology To Drive Growth In The New Normal. It was moderated by Jeremy Grigg. The panel included:
- Abdullah Al Barwani, General Manager for Corporate Security, Omantel
- George Eapen, Group CIO, Petrofac
- Vishal Govil, Head-Planning, Business Demand Management, IAM and Controls-Enterprise Services, Bank Muscat
- Dr Nandan Sudarsanam, Associate Professor, IIT Madras
Chandrasekar G, Managing Director and Head-MEA, GAVS Technologies delivered closing note.
