Just under 500 finance and treasury professionals gathered at the Conrad Dubai Hotel on 24-25 October for the ACT Middle East Annual Summit – the largest event of its kind in the region. From technology to strategic treasury and leadership issues, what an insightful debate it was. Coupled with the fantastic support of all our sponsors, speakers and delegates, it was undoubtedly our best Middle East event to date. We had over 260 companies present from A to Z, including Almoayyed International Group, Aramex, Chalhoub Group, Du, elseco, Etihad Airways, Government of Sharjah, Gulf Energy, Landmark Group, Oman Trading International, R.A.K. Ceramics, Sephora, Webcor Group, Xerox, YBA Kanoo and Zain Group... to name just a few. Highlights included:
- Dr. Florence Eid-Oakden, Chief Economist at Arabia Monitor opened the conference with an enlightened view of the Middle East today – a fascinating insight on the exceptional trends across the region!
- Our Tech Forum provided plenty of discussion on the hottest questions for Middle East treasurers, including how technologies are changing business operations and how FinTech is driving automation.
- There were lots of live demos of the latest treasury technology and plenty of networking amongst our delegates in our busy exhibition.
- We took the opportunity once again to congratulate our student prizewinners in the region on their many successes in the ACT qualifications with an informal awards ceremony at the evening networking reception.
- Our Question Time panel, featuring our keynote speaker Dr. Florence and hosted by Lara Habib of Al Arabiya News Channel, alongside other top finance and business leaders deliberated on topical issues, including what the outcome of the US elections and Brexit means for the Gulf.
- The ACT Learning team was present in full force to answer your career and team development questions at the ACT stand. Vanessa Harwood-Whitcher, ACT’s Director of Professional Standards and Learning also ran workshops on leadership and women in finance, which were very well received.
Blogs Read more from our conference chair, Peter Matza, here: Day one blog Day two blog Social media Follow all the conference coverage on Twitter using #meas16 here Event photos A selection of photos captured at the event can also be viewed on our Facebook album here.
