GITEX is an event in Dubai aimed at the ICT sector and has two parts: GITEX Shopper and GITEX Technology week. GITEX Shopper is a headline-grabbing public relations push for the event and Emirate of Dubai as a whole. Retailers offer bundle deals and discounts on consumer electronics, not only at the event itself but throughout stores and malls in town. GITEX Technology week follows and is more of a B2B trade show.
GITEX started in 1981 and has become one of, if not the, IT event for the Middle East region. In 2013 50 UK companies exhibited technologies with the support of UKTI, also, the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General the RT Hon Francis Maude, to both first time and repeat exhibitors.
Earlier this year Chinook Sciences secured a contract in the UAE worth a reported £300m; last month a delegation of 26 Vince Cable’s visit to Abu Dhabi in January 2014, MASDAR and BP signed a Technology Innovation Collaboration Agreement.
Add to this Dubai’s desire to become a Smart City by 2016, and we see a wealth of opportunity for British technology firms in the UAE.