I would like to extend a warm welcome to all our supporters: intellectuals, leaders, professionals, experts, visionaries and well wishers, who have supported and encouraged us for the past 17 years.

It was on the 13th of May 1989, when we made a humble and very modest beginning in Dubai. Since then 17 years have passed and Datamatix has emerged as a leading global knowledge provider and creator, an information dynamo and a major shaper of opinion in this region.

Our foremost aim has been and still is to develop multinational partnerships, create valuable dialogue with people around the world and nurture friendships. We have constantly striven to tear down regional and global barriers and build new networks and bridges between people, cultures and organizations. Although we started as a regional knowledge provider, today our scope has turned global. Our events are designed to cater to the training and development needs of senior executives, decision makers and the young leaders of tomorrow, in an era of massive globalization.

Our commitment at Datamatix is essentially to bring new practices, fresh thoughts, and innovative developments that can make global leadership competent enough to keep pace with the latest changes. Our initiatives support regional governments and regional businesses, facilitating relationships with international entities across our globe. Our aim is to foster continuous growth and innovation to catapult this region to the forefront of the global commercial scene. Our events aim to be dynamic and interactive, and with our growing capabilities, increasingly customer-tailored.

From a small and simple beginning to today, Datamatix has come a long way. We have managed to evolve into a virtual powerhouse with multiple competencies and services, all with the intention of keeping our audience engaged, informed and inspired.

OUR NEXT 17 YEARS

The world around us is changing at an unprecedented rate; fueled by the new media and the shrinking distances between nations, we face a barrage of information everyday. We are living a new reality and I am profoundly grateful that when Datamatix completes 17 years in May 2006, it will be in the spirit of embracing the future. I have enjoyed immensely the progress of the last 17 years It is our commitment and our determination that has brought Datamatix into the forefront and in touch today with global leaders in business, economy, technology and politics.

We at Datamatix firmly believe that we all have the ability and the responsibility to make a great deal of difference - by promoting development and economic empowerment, by providing the knowledge needed to face challenges, by achieving sustainable development, breaking the barriers to economic growth, and by closing the digital divide. As borders disappear, the freedom of movement of people, information and ideas grows too, at a spectacular pace. In today’s open society, Datamatix and counterpart organizations can play the crucial role of developing and providing the latest updated knowledge.
With the new changes in open markets, public investments by wealthy nations in education, health care and the environment in developing countries, and improved governance in those countries themselves, the Middle East region can develop a future in which prosperity is shared more widely and potential realized more fully than before.

Competition provides an impetus for growth; it increases innovation and creates livelihoods for working families throughout the Middle East region. But we must do more to improve education and job-training so that more people have the skills to compete in a world that is changing very rapidly. The region’s countries must be less resistant to needed changes, so that spirited economic competition does not become a race to the bottom, but a race to the top. It’s important that we acknowledge that trade alone cannot lift nations from poverty, while innovation and reinvention can. And it is the aim of Datamatix to encourage and inspire this innovation amongst regional people and organizations through our varied events, awards and services.

The digital divide is real even in growing economies. An important question of our age is: are computers really an answer for people who are starving or can't yet read? Is e-Commerce, e-Business and e-Government an answer for villages that don't even have electricity? Other vital infrastructures have to be built in tandem and at the same pace as ICT to guarantee basic essentials for people who live at poverty level. We at Datamatix are committed to do everything possible to bridge this digital divide and play a role in creating a connected world and socially inclusive information society.

As Victor Hugo said, "There's nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come." The reverse is also true: There's no bigger curse than a big idea that hangs on after its time has gone. And so, I hope all of us will think about that. No generation has ever had the opportunity that all of us now have to build a regional and global economy that leaves no one behind and, in the process, to create a new century of peace and prosperity for the Middle East and the world. It is a wonderful opportunity. It is also a profound responsibility. For 17 years, we at Datamatix have done what we could to bring the latest knowledge to lead our region towards the best in ICT, leadership, economy and women empowerment, and we hope to continue doing so for many more decades.

We at Datamatix believe that knowledge is the single most important catalyst that will shape the lives of young people and spur true economic development in this region. Everybody must work to bring the latest knowledge, to share the best practices and build the best infrastructure to make the region successful and create hope for the future.

Datamatix is dedicated to the task of preparing the Middle East for the new global economy. We all know that globalization is clearly tearing down barriers and building new networks and bridges among nations, peoples, cultures and organizations at an astonishing and historically unprecedented rate. It has been fueled by an explosion of ICT that enables information, ideas and money, people, products and services to move within and across the national borders at increasingly greater speeds and volumes. In such a world it becomes very important for us to be continuously updated about the latest trends and developments, so that we can grab hold of the opportunities presented by the global economy.

Now as we look forward to our 17th anniversary, we hope to see you at the celebrations and to share our vision for the region's future together. I thank you all for your patronage, your support and your friendship.

Ali Al Kamali
Managing Director
Datamatix Group