EmTechMENA to feature 31 prominent regional and international speakers AI and future of work among five main themes to be discussed at event DUBAI: The second edition of EmTech MENA, a conference dedicated to exploring emerging and future trends in technology, will be held at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers in Dubai on Nov. 4 and 5. Over 500 professionals from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region will be attending the tech event, which is being organized by MIT Technology Review Arabia in cooperation with Dubai Future Foundation and Haykal Media. The conference will feature a list of 31 prominent regional and international speakers including government officials, researchers and entrepreneurs. With the aim of understanding technological developments that will drive the new global economy, the event will focus on five key themes: artificial intelligence (AI) and the future of work; computer created reality; the future of digital health, future cities; and the future of energy and sustainability. Speakers from the region will include Noura bint Mohammed Al-Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development in the UAE; Dr. Thani Ahmed Al-Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment in the UAE; Abdulla Bin Touq, Secretary General of the UAE Cabinet; and Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al-Nahyan, Founder and CEO of Alliances for Global Sustainability. Among the other speakers are Solomon Assefa, Vice President, IBM Research - Africa & Emerging Market Solutions; Emmanuel Fombu, Director, Digital Medicine & Innovation, Johnson & Johnson; Vishal Chatrath CEO & Co-Founder, Prowler.io; Kevin Hu, Co-Founder & CEO, Quantifai; and Ramzi Jaber, Partner, eConstruct. The conference will also feature a number of speakers from MIT including David Rose, Spatial Computing Expert, MIT School of Architecture; Howard Herzog, Senior Research Engineer, MIT Energy Initiative; Carlo Ratti, Director, MIT Senseable City Lab; and Donald Sadoway, John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry, MIT. For its second edition of “Innovators Under 35” MENA, EmTech has selected 20 innovators from the region, who will present a three-minute elevator pitch during the conference. The innovators – technologists and scientists – will put forward their work in a wide range of fields, notably biomedicine, computing, communications, energy, materials, software, transportation and the internet. The winners will be announced at the end of the conference. Organized by “MIT Technology Review” since 1999, the “Innovators Under 35” competition has honored such brilliant minds as Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg; Tesla’s JB Straubel; Spotify’s Daniel Ek; and Broad Institute’s Feng Zhang. The competition’s first edition in 2018 picked 10 winners from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Syria.