Gitex Global 2023: The Year to Imagine AI in Everything

October 25th, 2023 by Adam Sandman

GITEX GLOBAL brings together the world’s most innovative enterprises and best minds to elevate business, economy, society and culture. GITEX GLOBAL 2023 marks The Year to Imagine AI in Everything, supercharging the epic global race for AI supremacy by revealing unmissable prophecies and expert perspectives about its impact. Inflectra was honored to attend this years conference and present its range of AI-enabled tools for quality and agile program management to world stage. Learn more about the event and the connections we made.

What is GITEX?

GITEX, short for Gulf Information Technology Exhibition, is an annual technology trade show and exhibition held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is one of the largest and most significant technology events in the Middle East, attracting a wide range of exhibitors and visitors from around the world. GITEX serves as a platform for showcasing the latest innovations and developments in the fields of information technology, electronics, telecommunications, and related industries.

The event typically features exhibitions, product launches, demonstrations, workshops, and seminars related to various aspects of the technology sector, including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, cybersecurity, robotics, and more. It provides a networking opportunity for technology professionals, businesses, and investors to connect, collaborate, and stay updated on industry trends.

GITEX has grown to encompass various specialized segments, including GITEX Technology Week, GITEX Future Stars (focused on startups and entrepreneurs), GITEX Shopper (for consumer electronics and gadgets), and GITEX Global (international participation). It plays a crucial role in promoting technological advancements and business opportunities in the Middle East and beyond.

As you can see from the video above and panoramic photo below, the main GITEX expo consisted of 30 giant halls of technology companies exhibiting their products and services. They came from all over the world, including many countries that cannot share knowledge and expertise any other way.

The marquee exhibits included large, multi-level booths from industry heavyweights such as Intel, Salesforce, Microsoft, Software AG, Intel, Dell, Amazon Web Services, CISCO, Huawei, HPE, and Google/Alphabet.

In addition, there were many smaller companies exhibiting, with a whole separate pavilion called the "North Star" that consisted solely of startups and early stage ventures/companies.

Companies choose to exhibit at GITEX for various reasons, including:

Market Expansion: Companies often exhibit at GITEX to expand their market presence and tap into new regions, particularly the Middle East and North Africa. These events can attract a diverse international audience, including potential clients and partners.
Product Launch and Promotion: GITEX provides an ideal platform for launching new products or showcasing existing ones. Exhibiting companies can present their latest innovations and technologies to a broad and tech-savvy audience.
Networking: Technology exhibitions like GITEX are excellent opportunities for networking. Companies can connect with other businesses, potential customers, industry experts, and investors, fostering collaborations and partnerships.
Lead Generation: Many companies participate in GITEX to generate leads and build a potential customer base. They often collect contact information and have discussions with attendees who show interest in their products and services.
Brand Awareness: Exhibiting at major events like GITEX can help increase brand visibility and recognition. It allows companies to make a significant impact on a global stage.
Competitor Analysis: Companies can use events like GITEX to observe their competitors, understand market trends, and gain insights into what others in the industry are doing.
Education and Knowledge Sharing: GITEX features seminars, workshops, and keynote speakers. Companies may participate to gain insights into the latest industry trends and to share their own knowledge through presentations.

Inflectra at GITEX

This was Inflectra's first time exhibiting at GITEX. We had previously sent team members as attendees to learn more about the show and understand its demographics. Based on the scale of the event (over 50,000 attendees) and the types of customer (medium-large enterprises, focused on solving complex technology challenges in heavily regulated industries), it was a natural fit for Inflectra.

So we were excited to host the Inflectra booth in Hall 10-1, an area that was dedicated towards the subjects of cloud computing and artificial intelligence. With our recent announcement of generative AI capabilities coming to Spira, it made a lot of sense to be present in that hall.

Team Inflectra included our CEO, Adam Sandman, who had traveled to the event from Testing Talks in Melbourne, Australia as well as key members of our EMEA team based in Ireland, the UK and Germany.

As always, we had our legendary swag and stickers available as well as live versions of our products running on the booth iPads so attendees could see our Spira quality management platform in action.

In addition to meeting the attendees from different countries around the world who were attending, it was a great opportunity for the Inflectra team members to reconnect and have face to face time. With our globally distributed workforce, not all of us have met face to face, so it was wonderful to have time team building and knowledge sharing.

We were excited to have conversations with companies from different industries and countries. Even though the event was held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the attendees came from all parts of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), and in fact many attendees and exhibitors come from as far away as the Americas and Asia Pacific regions.

Meeting Customers in the Region

One of the great highlights was being able to discuss common challenges and opportunities with prospective customers. We were the only software product company at the event that focused on Quality Engineering, Agile Development, Project Management, Risk Management or Test Automation. So for many attendees, they were excited to be able to understand the latest trends in the industry and also learn about how AI and cloud computing is changing the demands on quality and software development practices.

In addition to learning more about our products and services, we also had time for fun with the popular "corn hole" bean bag toss game. Those playing the game could win some of our legendary swag, including the "James Bond" pen, USB-C hubs, zoom ring lights, and wireless phone chargers.

Forging Global Connections & Partnerships

It was a truly family affair, with many of our partners attending the event as exhibitors or attendees. For example, it was great to meet our partner Infiwave at the event, thanks so much for coming by the Inflectra booth:

We'd also like to thank our partner mVerve from attending the event and assisting at our booth. It was a real pleasure to connect with Harsha from mVerge and discuss opportunities in the EMEA region.

Great to connect with our amazing partner LambdaTest at #GITEX Samy El Hassani Saif Rizvi

We also had the change to meet other prospective partners that are excited about joining the Inflectra partner program:

Nice to meet you Adeel Baig at #GITEX today, looking forward to partnering with you.

As you can see, we met lots of different technologists and entrepreneurs

Here is Samy from our EMEA business development team, giving a demonstration of the TaraVault source code management system.

We had representatives of many local companies approach us to learn more about our solutions and partner network:

Based on our experiences, we are looking to expand our footprint in the region, in particular to service customers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Finally, we made connections with representatives from Acentrik who are providing data management tools for automotive platforms such as Mercedes-Benz.

If you are interested in learning more about how Inflectra's Spira platform can be used to manage automotive development projects, please check out our recent ASPICE whitepaper.

What's Next?

After wrapping up GITEX Global 2023, the team is already excited about the event next year in Dubai 2024, plus we're consider attendance at its spin-off event GITEX Africa in Marrakesh, Morocco.