The Fifth Middle Eastern Social Media Summit for the Business Sector Will Be Held in Dubai in December

The fifth Middle East’s Social Media Summit (SMS) in the Business Sector will be held on the fifth and sixth of December in Dubai. This year’s two-day summit, which takes place in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, will be highly versatile in terms of topics, speakers, and concomitant presentations. The event will be concluded with a segment of exceptional awards recognizing successful social media experiences within the commercial and marketing field and distinguished initiatives implemented on social media platforms for nonprofit charity work.

This year’s summit comes under the strategic sponsorship of the Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and of the media-strategic sponsorship of Al-Khaleejiah Advertising & Public Relation Co, the media concessionaire for the publications of the Saudi Research and Publishing Company that also publishes several pioneering Arabic publications digitally such as Asharq Al-Awsat, Arab News, Sayyidati, Sayyidati.net, Al Eqtisadiah, and Arriyadiyah.

Nasser Bin Saleh Alsarami, the CEO of the Middle East’s SMS, explained that this year’s sessions and dialogues will be held under the title “Social Media Networks and Their Leading Role in Digital Transformation.” There will be diverse speakers from the U.S., Europe, and the region. The closing ceremony of the two-day summit will include awards handed to businesses or individuals who had exceptional experiences with social media platforms through distinguished commercial or charitable uses. Al-Sarami added, “This year’s summit has diverse topics that cover the media sector. The renowned media personality, Mr Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, will talk about moving from the silver screen to small screen in a session moderated by Zaina Yazigi. Journalist Sultan Qahtani will also discuss the future of media institutions in the Arab World in light of these spectacular advancements in the media industry. The sessions will also feature a discussion about exploring social media and trademarks as a high-quality product and content and using artificial intelligence to build easy marketing campaigns through these platforms. The features of social media platforms in the upcoming phase will be determined, along with the development of electronic sports via these applications. Furthermore, there will be deep discussions about influential factors and marketing over social media.”

There will be other speakers in the summit such as Ramzi Al-Halaby, founder and CEO of The Online Project, which is one of the oldest consulting companies in the field of social media; and British journalist Oliver Bluefield, a significant participant who will talk about best practices in designing promotional videos and posting them on social media. The list of speakers also includes Mustafa Hamawi, an international speaker and entrepreneurship coach; Mohanad Alwadiya, the CEO of Harbor Real Estate; and Muna Al-Habsi, the HR manager at Jumeirah Zabeel Saray Hotel and winner of “Best Inspirational Leader” title at the 2018 International Business Excellence (IBX) awards.

The second day of the event will include a research session on the use of social media in charitable and humanitarian work. The session, which will be run by Mouna Elhaimoud, features both a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Badih Younes, a media personality from Al Arabiya TV channel. There will also be a session looking into the power of users and the trademarks’ storytelling strategies that feature Kareem Farid, a social media expert; and another session that features the marketing director at Almentor.com, Aya Al-Rashdan, in which the idea of integrating social media into schools’ curricula will be explored. Artificial intelligence is another topic that will be addressed in the summit, with a focus on its role in customer service, sales, and marketing. Moreover, the growth of both virtual reality and augmented reality in public life will be addressed by Karim Saad, founder of Giga Works and virtual reality movie maker, along with many other speakers and international experts.