IDC CIO Excellence Awards & Symposium

20 Nov 2025

JW Marriott Hotel Marina, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

IDC CIO Excellence Awards & Symposium

Overview

As new-age IT projects continue to proliferate, CIOs, CTOs, and their teams are embracing cutting-edge strategies to add intelligence to the ever-growing volume of data, foster a culture of innovation, and accelerate their digital infrastructure road maps. The innovation train is moving fast. To stay ahead, organizations must elevate their skill sets and tackle pressing challenges to fully leverage transformative technologies like AI and zero trust.

The IDC CIO Excellence Awards & Symposium in the UAE celebrates the country’s visionary IT leaders. The 2025 award-winners will share how they’re leveraging technologies like generative AI, automation, and quantum computing to drive innovation and transformation across their organizations.

This comes at a time when enterprise IT decision makers are navigating an increasingly complex tech buying landscape. According to IDC’s 2024 Role and Influence of the Technology Decision Maker study, major disruptions since 2023 have pushed organizations to monetize innovation and build distributed, cloud-native systems designed for scale and resilience, powered by AI and GenAI.

The IDC CIO Excellence Awards & Symposium is more than a recognition platform. It is a strategic gathering of the UAE’s top tech minds, offering inspiration, collaboration, and a glimpse into the future of enterprise technology.

Why Attend?

Learn from Award-Winning IT Leaders
Gain exclusive insights from top-performing CIOs who have led transformative projects—discover practical strategies that you can apply within your own organization.

Experience Real-World Innovation
Explore award-winning case studies across industries showcasing cutting-edge technologies and impactful solutions that delivered tangible business outcomes.

Network with Peer CIOs and Tech Influencers
Connect with fellow IT leaders, exchange ideas, and build relationships with peers who are driving change and shaping the future of enterprise technology.

Be Inspired to Lead the Next Wave of Transformation
Walk away energized with fresh ideas, new contacts, and a clearer vision of how to accelerate digital innovation and lead with confidence in a rapidly evolving landscape.

CIO Excellence Awards

Through the IDC CIO Excellence Awards 2025, IDC intends to honor those organizations and IT leaders that have conceptualized and successfully delivered digital transformation initiatives that brought about tangible results.

The Power 100:  Recognizing Excellence in IT Leadership in UAE

Important Dates:

The final deadline to submit nominations – October 31, 2025

CIO Excellence winners to be individually notified by email from November 05, 2025 onwards

Agenda

IDC CIO Excellence Awards & Symposium

One day event

8:30 am

Registration & Tea/Coffee

9:30 am

Welcome Note

Speaker

Ronita Bhattacharjee

Ronita Bhattacharjee

Group Vice President, Events, META, India & APAC, IDC

9:35 am

IDC Keynote : Emerging Trends in IT Innovation

IDC Keynote : Emerging Trends in IT Innovation
This session will explore the latest advancements and shifts in the field of information technology, highlighting how these innovations are reshaping industries in everyday life. The session will provide a comprehensive overview of how businesses and individuals can leverage technology to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Speaker

Ranjit Rajan

Ranjit Rajan

Vice President, Research (META), IDC

9:55 am

Navigating Complexity: Simplifying the Tech Buying Process

This session aims to empower decision-makers with actionable insights for navigating the complexities of tech purchasing effectively.

10:15 am

Scaling for Success: Building Distributed Systems

Delves into strategies and best practices for designing and implementing distributed systems that can grow seamlessly with organizational needs. Focus on leveraging scalable architectures to enhance performance, resilience, and flexibility in modern computing environments, ensuring sustainable growth and operational excellence.

10:30 am

Generative AI: Shaping the Future of Innovation

Generative AI (GenAI) is reshaping application development the way we know it. It empowers developers to create apps using natural language inputs, accelerating innovation and improving efficiency. This paradigm shift allows for more personalized, adaptive, and intelligent applications, transforming the future of app developments.

10:45 am

Zero Trust Security: Transforming Cybersecurity in the Modern Enterprise

How Zero Trust principles redefine security strategies by eliminating implicit trust assumptions and enforcing strict access controls. This session highlights the benefits of adopting Zero Trust frameworks to mitigate cyber risks, enhance data protection, and safeguard organizational assets in today’s interconnected and evolving threat landscape.

11:00 am

Tea/ Coffee & Networking Break

11:25 am

Panel Discussion: Unlocking Business Value: CIO Perspectives on AI Success

In this panel, CIOs discuss why organizations struggle to demonstrate AI’s business value, ways to improve business outcomes and RoI, and the importance of measuring both direct and indirect benefits. The panel explores aligning AI with business goals, robust measurement frameworks, and strategies to maximize tangible and intangible gains from AI investments.

11:50 am

Platinum Tracks (Parallel Sessions)

Platinum Track A

11:50 am – 11:55 am

Start of Session Raffle

11:55 am – 12:05 pm

Unleashing the Power of Generative AI for Cybersecurity

12:05 pm – 12:10 pm

Q&A (Ask Questions & Stand a Chance to Win a Raffle)

12:10 pm – 12:20 pm

Shattering the Perimeter: The Zero Trust Paradigm Shift

12:20 pm – 12:25 pm

Q&A (Ask Questions & Stand a Chance to Win a Raffle)

Platinum Track B

11:50 am – 11:55 am

Start of Session Raffle

11:55 am – 12:05 pm

Securing the Digital Transformation Journey: A Cybersecurity Roadmap

12:05 pm – 12:10 pm

Q&A (Ask Questions & Stand a Chance to Win a Raffle)

12:10 pm – 12:20 pm

The Human Factor in Cybersecurity: Building a Culture of Security Awareness

12:10 pm – 12:20 pm

Q&A (Ask Questions & Stand a Chance to Win a Raffle)

12:25 pm

Gold Tracks (Parallel Sessions)

Gold Track A

12:25 pm – 12:30 pm

Start of Session Raffle

12:30 pm – 12:40 pm

AI-Powered Cybersecurity: A New Era of Threat Detection and Response

12:40 pm – 12:50 pm

AI-Powered Zero Trust: A New Paradigm for Secure Digital Transformation

12:50 pm – 1:00 pm

Cybersecurity in the Age of Cloud Computing

Gold Track B

12:25 pm – 12:30 pm

Start of Session Raffle

12:30 pm – 12:40 pm

The Zero Trust Advantage: A Strategic Approach to Cybersecurity

12:40 pm – 12:50 pm

Transforming Cybersecurity for the Modern Enterprise with Zero Trust

12:50 pm – 1:00 pm

AI in IT Innovation: Harnessing New Technologies for Business Growth

1:00 pm

End User Panel Discussion: Leading the Charge: CIO Strategies for the Agentic AI Era

Synopsis: In this panel CIOs explore how AI agents will disrupt business and organizational models, accelerate automation, and transform applications into agents. The discussion covers technology architecture changes, data and infrastructure needs, and the rising importance of AI governance. Panelists share strategies CIOs should adopt to prepare for the agentic AI era.

1:30 pm

CIO Excellence Awards, UAE- Winners Announcement

2:30 pm

Lunch, Networking & Close

Event Gallery

Our Partners

Platinum Partners

Gold Partners

Exhibit Partners

Venue

JW Marriott Hotel Marina

JW Marriott Hotel Marina

66 Al Marsa St – Marsa Dubai – Dubai Marina – Dubai

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