Thursday 19 January 2012

Blogging for ArabNet Digital Summit 2012

I haven't blogged in eight months. Not that I was a regular blogger anyway. I'm more of a Tweeter.

But then I spotted an opportunity to become an official blogger for the ArabNet ME Digital Summit in Beirut in March 2012. And to apply, they ask you to reference your blog. So I thought I don't want them to see a dead page that hasn't been updated since May 2011. I rushed to "new post" and here I am. Blogging.

Hmmmm....

I've been busy. Busy living the Egyptian revolution. Busy setting up a company. Busy trying to get business in the middle of a revolution.

But anyway - back to ArabNet. I attended ArabNet Cairo last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Not only was the content interesting and challenging, but the profile of people attending was really impressive. Having been in the PR field for over eight years, I was getting sick and tired of going to technology conferences where the only people you meet are the big shot C-level execs. Because technology has been, for the past I dunno four years at least, been driven by the young talent. Developers, designers and supergeeks. And those were the guys at ArabNet Cairo.

And now back to Beirut for the third year, over five days, with some bloggers too. I'm no supergeek and certainly no developer. In fact, there are some technologies out there that scare me . But let's face it, our lives depend on them. Not just our personal lives, but professionally as well. Our careers will not move forward if we don't keep up with how the web and mobile technologies are changing the world.

Businesses that are ignoring these trends or leaving them up to the IT department will loose significantly. Just like entering the world of social media was not just a 'marketing tool', adopting new web & mobile technologies for any business is not just an "IT tool". These are cultural shifts that need to take effect across the entire organisation. One day, I pray, CEOs will understand this.

So Omar Christidis, if you're reading this, make me an ArabNet blogger.

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