An international gathering of thinkers, researchers and experts will take part in the Annual Congress 2011 being organised by the Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University (HBMeU) in Dubai.

The congress, from January 31 to February 3, 2011, will be held under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and the university president.

The congress will provide an international platform for three important conferences: the 5th Quality Conference in the Middle East – TQM and Excellence: A Framework for Managing Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility; the 4th Conference on e-Learning Excellence in the Middle East – In Search of New Paradigms for Re-engineering Education; and the 3rd e-Health Conference in the Middle East – Excellence in Healthcare: From Global Perspectives to Local Opportunities.

Organised under the theme 'Being at the Leading Edge – How to Give Quest for Excellence a New Meaning', the Annual Congress 2011 will feature novel ideas, demonstrate how original research is supported by evidence-based arguments, share new concepts and illustrate best practice applications in various sectors of the economy.

HBMeU has revealed that it has invited scholars, researchers and intellectuals in the Middle East and from other parts of the world to submit various research works concerning quality, e-Learning and e-Health.

The Annual Congress 2011 will also include special policy and strategy roundtables and the Annual Congress Exhibition, which will be a showcase of technologies being used by organisations to drive excellence and innovation in their respective fields.

Another key component of the event is the Congress Awards, which has been organised to encourage and recognise pioneering and original research work. The awards to be handed out are the Harrington Best TQM Thesis/Project Award, Parasuraman Service Excellence Prize, Kondo Research Prize: People and Organizational Culture Perspective, and the Masie e-Learning Research Grant.

The congress will open with a presentation from the main keynote speaker, Professor Farouk El Baz, research professor and director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University in the USA, and adjunct professor of geology at the Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University in Egypt.

Professor El Baz will speak on the topic 'Essence of Management: Lessons from the Apollo Program'.

Dr Mansoor Al Awar, chancellor of HBMeU, said: 'We expect lively debates and discussions as there will be hundreds of scientific research works that will be presented at the Congress. The focus on scientific research is a key factor that will help distinguish the Annual Congress 2011 as the definitive platform to cultivate fresh ideas, concepts and innovations from various schools of thought.” – TradeArabia News Service