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.
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
Registration & Tea/Coffee
Welcome Note
Speaker

Ronita Bhattacharjee
Group Vice President, Events, META, India & APAC, IDC
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
Vice President, Research (META), IDC
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tea/ Coffee & Networking Break
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.
Platinum Tracks (Parallel Sessions)
Platinum Track A
Start of Session Raffle
Unleashing the Power of Generative AI for Cybersecurity
Q&A (Ask Questions & Stand a Chance to Win a Raffle)
Shattering the Perimeter: The Zero Trust Paradigm Shift
Q&A (Ask Questions & Stand a Chance to Win a Raffle)
Platinum Track B
Start of Session Raffle
Securing the Digital Transformation Journey: A Cybersecurity Roadmap
Q&A (Ask Questions & Stand a Chance to Win a Raffle)
The Human Factor in Cybersecurity: Building a Culture of Security Awareness
Q&A (Ask Questions & Stand a Chance to Win a Raffle)
Gold Tracks (Parallel Sessions)
Gold Track A
Start of Session Raffle
AI-Powered Cybersecurity: A New Era of Threat Detection and Response
AI-Powered Zero Trust: A New Paradigm for Secure Digital Transformation
Cybersecurity in the Age of Cloud Computing
Gold Track B
Start of Session Raffle
The Zero Trust Advantage: A Strategic Approach to Cybersecurity
Transforming Cybersecurity for the Modern Enterprise with Zero Trust
AI in IT Innovation: Harnessing New Technologies for Business Growth
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.
CIO Excellence Awards, UAE- Winners Announcement
Lunch, Networking & Close




Our Partners
Platinum Partners
AWS | SAP
Gold Partners

Manage Engine
ManageEngine is a division of Zoho Corporation and a leading provider of IT management solutions for organizations across the world. With a powerful, flexible, and AI-powered digital enterprise management platform, we help businesses get their work done from anywhere and everywhere—better, safer, and faster. To learn more, visit www.manageengine.com
Exhibit Partners

SUDO
SUDO, a leading AWS partner, empowers organizations with seamless operations, cost optimization, and superior performance. The company provides 24/7 managed services as well as DevOps, migration, modernization, and AI/machine learning solutions. A trusted partner in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the USA, SUDO drives digital transformation and innovation around the world.
Venue

JW Marriott Hotel Marina
JW Marriott Hotel Marina
66 Al Marsa St – Marsa Dubai – Dubai Marina – Dubai