The inaugural Smart Cities Global Technology & Investment Summit 2018 will take place in Algiers this month, to assess global Smart City growth strategies and partnership opportunities with a special focus on Africa and Global Growth markets. Blue Mena Group, the Customer-Service-Elevation™ company, will participate at the event together with its sister company Altitude Software.
Speaker at the summit, judge and mentor at the related Hackathon and startup challenge, Riadh Boukhris, Blue Mena Group Founder & CEO and Altitude MENA President, commented: ”Smart city initiatives are no longer only about sorting out parking issues, improve lighting or public works. As most thought leaders pinpoint, improvement in citizen engagement is now a major objective for leading smart cities.’’
The next era of public service
This Summit, which is under the Patronage of His Excellency, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the President of the Algerian People’s Democratic Republic will feature over 4000 Delegates including International City Mayors, Government Ministers, Smart City Investment Heads and Industry CEOs and CIOs from Telecoms, Tech, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Finance, Energy, Security and other sectors. Government’s role in stimulating new technology and Smart cities investment will be a key focus of the event agenda. Along with the event, a global smart city hackathon and a global smart city startup challenge will take place. They will be primarily hosted at the newly launched Algiers City Tech Innovation Hub and Large Scale Live Open Sky Experimental Lab.
‘’Advances in digital technology and innovative participative models are opening up new ways to get the service right. Enabled by innovations in robotics, AI, digital engagement and big data, the next era of public service delivery is proactive and includes the citizen in all the steps of the service design,’’ commented Izhar Mahjoub, Blue Mena Group Head of the Healthcare Practice, and speaker at the summit.
At the same time, the MENA region is geared up for a profound transformation with the United Arab Emirates Vision 2021, Saudi Vision 2030, Kuwait Vision 2030, Oman Vision 2020 and Bahrain Vision 2030. In that respect, Dubai Expo 2020 is going to be an amazing platform to share the same with the world. ‘’Blue Mena’s vision is all about this quantum leap with development at its heart,’’ said Boukhris. ‘’Our participation at the Smart City Global Technology and Investment Summit is in line with our commitment to make our MENA region a world-leader in Customer Service. Our privilege collaboration with the leading companies across various sectors from banking, retail, insurance, healthcare, telco as well as government, gives us a special role and responsibility in the contribution to the great MENA vision,’’ he added.
Citizen Engagement: A Game Changer for Development
According to a recent World Bank report, investment into digital transformation in the major Cities of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region can unlock huge potential for the service economy to drive growth and job creation across the region. Boukhris concluded with a call for action: ‘’a strong collaboration between local policy makers, tech entrepreneurs – the rising stars – and international technology players is an urgent matter to act on. This summit in Algiers is going to be an exciting place to identify and commit on initiatives’’.
Smart City Gobal Technology and Investment Summit, is organised by global news and events business TMT Finance, and hosted by Smart City Algiers in Algiers from June 27-28 at the CIC Alger Conference Centre. Visit the website for more information www.smartcityalgiers.com