More than 520 senior executives from 175 regional and global media and telecom companies are taking part in the 11th annual convergence summit which opened today (June 2) in Amman.

Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, the president of the Royal Scientific Society and chairman of Board of Trustees, inaugurated the event being organized by the Arab Advisors Group at the Four Seasons Hotel.

The two-day summit brings together top regional and global media and telecoms industry executives who will deliberate over the two days the market trends and growth strategies in the TMT space in the Arab World.

Prof Issa Batarseh, the president of the Princess Sumaya University for Technology said: "It seems there is no consensus on what makes a person an inventor, or defines the act of invention, or how it springs into being. It is all about training the mind to see beyond the obvious, and be able to connect several loosely linked clues."

"Many agree that invention is just as often the result of mere stubborn hard work, sweat and resilience in pursuit of a problem until it finally yields. For example, Thomas Edison used to work an average of 18 hours per day!," he stated.

Jawad Jalal Abbassi, Arab Advisors founder and general manager said: "Convergence Summit 2014 marks the 11th anniversary of this regional landmark event. With all that has changed in the TMT space over the past 11 years in the Arab World, quite a few countries the region are now ripe for a boom in convergence-based entrepreneurship in content, commerce and e-services."

The summit discussion panels will focus on; the state of the industry globally and regionally, the future of telecom services and media consumption in the region, startups role, cloud computing trends, and strategies for broadcast, online & social media in addition to the status of M2M, Internet-of-Things in the Arab World, he stated.

In addition, the summit speakers will address important topics governing the industry. These include the policies required to insure timely and sufficient investments in infrastructure, the role of mobile and innovative e-payment schemes in encouraging the growth of e-commerce and m-commerce in the region, Satellite platforms and systems and their role in the convergence eco system and in broadcast and online media strategies, as well as Insights from Arab Advisors ongoing primary research of Arab TMT markets.-TradeArabia News Service