IDC will host its Middle East CIO Summit in Dubai in 2008.

The summit will bring together CIOs, thought leaders, technology gurus, economists, and business strategists to examine how best to merge business and IT objectives as they co-evolve.

To be held on March 16 and 17, 2008 at the Grand Hyatt in Dubai, the Middle East CIO Summit will also feature in-depth studies and international benchmarking to shed light on the future role of the CIO, said a IDC official.

Information technology now drives business development and innovation as much as it serves the daily needs of workers. According to various IDC surveys, IT is also increasingly factored into the bottom line, with CFOs scrutinising everything from cost-per-user to power consumption to the ROI of back-end and customer facing systems.

This is also true in the Middle East, where CEOs are demanding that CIOs not only cover the basics of hardware and support but also help the firm leverage IT to achieve business objectives and enhance the innovation of new products and services.

"The days when CIOs simply supervised networks and made sure PCs and servers didn't crash are long gone," says vice-president and regional managing director of IDC MEA Jyoti Lalchandani.

IDC surveys have indicated that strategic thinking is an important skill for the new CIO. IDC's Middle East CIO Summit will therefore hold sessions that detail how best to apply business strategies to IT acquisition and how to use IT to further business development.

The summit will feature sessions on the following: Mapping Out A Vision To Create A Business-Oriented Infrastructure; IT Governance: Driving Business Adaptability; Customer Outsourcing Directions; Unified Communications Strategy; Enterprise Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) and Building Blocks for a Seamless Experience. - TradeArabia News Service