The fifth Middle East’s Social Media Summit (SMSummit) in the Business Sector was launched on Wednesday for 2 days on the fifth and sixth of December in Dubai. This year’s two-day summit will be highly versatile in terms of topics, speakers, and concomitant presentations; where a key session will be held and moderated by Zaina Yazigi and the Journalist Sultan Qahtani.
This year’s summit has diverse topics that cover the media sector. The prominent media personality, Mr. Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, will talk about moving from the big screen to the small screen; it will also discuss the future of media institutions in the Arab World in light of these spectacular advancements in the media industry ; this session will be moderated by the journalist Ali Al Alyani with the participation of Dr. Fahad Al-Orabi Al-Harthi, President at Asbar Center for Studies and Research and communications, Sami Al Reyami, Editor in Chief “Emarat Al Youm” Newspaper, Jameel Al-Thiyabi, Editor in chief of Okaz newspaper, Mohammed Fahad Al-Harthi, Editor-in-chief of Sayidaty, Arrajol, Â Aljamila magazines and other publications.
The event will be concluded with a segment of exceptional awards recognizing successful social media experiences within the commercial and marketing field and distinguished initiatives implemented on social media platforms for nonprofit charity work.
This year’s summit comes under the strategic sponsorship of the Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and of the media-strategic sponsorship of Al-Khaleejiah Advertising & Public Relation Co, the media concessionaire for the publications of the Saudi Research and Publishing Company that also publishes several pioneering Arabic publications digitally such as Asharq Al-Awsat, Arab News, Sayyidati, Sayyidati.net, Al Eqtisadiah, and Arriyadiyah, digital & media sponsorship of Zee Alwan and Zee Alwan tv channels, along with  Z5 Weyyak mobile application, tv sponsorship of Al Hurra Tv channel which will provide live coverage of the event all day long with addition to Al Aan tv that will prepare daily reports.
Nasser Bin Saleh Alsarami, the CEO of the Middle East’s SMS, explained that this year’s sessions and dialogues will be held under the title “Social Media Networks and Their Leading Role in the Digital Transformation.” There will be diverse speakers from the U.S., Europe, and the region. The closing ceremony of the two-day summit will include awards handed to businesses or individuals who had exceptional experiences with social media platforms through distinguished commercial or charitable uses. Al-Sarami added, ”
The sessions will also feature discussion about exploring social media and trademarks as a high-quality product and content and using artificial intelligence to build easy marketing campaigns through these platforms. The features of social media platforms in the upcoming phase will be determined, along with the development of electronic sports via these applications. Furthermore, there will be deep discussions about the influential factors and marketing over social media.”
There will be other speakers in the summit such as the British journalist Oliver Bluefield, a significant participant who will talk about best practices in designing promotional videos and posting them on social media. The list of speakers also includes Mustafa Hamawi, an international speaker and entrepreneurship coach; Mohanad Alwadiya, the CEO of Harbor Real Estate; and Muna Al-Habsi, the HR manager at Jumeirah Zabeel Saray Hotel and winner of “Best Inspirational Leader” title at the 2018 International Business Excellence (IBX) awards.
The second day of the event will include a research session on the use of social media in charitable and humanitarian work. The session, which will be run by Mouna Elhaimoud, features both a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Badih Younes, a media personality from Al Arabiya TV channel. There will also be a session looking into the power of users and the trademarks’ storytelling strategies that features Kareem Farid, a social media expert; and another session that features the marketing director at Almentor.com, Aya Al-Rashdan, in which the idea of integrating social media into schools’ curricula will be explored. Artificial intelligence is another topic that will be addressed in the summit, with a focus on its role in customer service, sales, and marketing. Moreover, the growth of both virtual reality and augmented reality in public life will be addressed by Karim Saad, founder of Giga Works and virtual reality movie maker, along with many other speakers and international experts.
