Dubai Gitex 2021

From the disappointing experience in Nuremberg, I traveled straight to the next location: Dubai Gitex 2021.

What happened was slightly unexpected.

But first, I like Dubai. I do, and I enjoy each time coming here.

But I did pretty much all the touristy things – well, the Safari is still on my to-do-list, so for this time, I took my Playstation with me and started my second playthrough in this game:

The usual pre-event check comes with the expected result; nothing is ready the day before:

I’m unsure if the fellas are magicians or work through the night, but it was shiny the following morning. And look at this beauty of a booth!

To deal with the virus, the organizers came up with a solid hygiene concept that involved ongoing cleaning of high-touch surfaces, mandatory masks, higher air circulation and filtering, and a max number of people in a booth, depending on the size:

The last measure was merely a theoretical one. 
THIS SHOW WAS BUSY!

We probably had three times the allowed people in our booth at peak times. This is just a tiny part:

Our neighbor, UK Government agencies, were not so busy.
Also, I sense a lack of knowledge in the UK (yes, sorry, I show myself out).

Only three days before the exhibition started, a publisher of print and online magazines notified us that we were shortlisted to win an award, and they invited us to a gala dinner.
It was labeled as “strictly black tie,” so here’s me in a gala outfit. Oh my! In Dubai. In the heat.

The outcome; we took another excellent award home. Well, I took it, as I somehow managed to fit it into my luggage:

The following days we were busy bees.
Here’s me, talking to customers.
Look at my hand gestures. I learned that from Angela Merkel!

I was too tired for evening entertainment and didn’t join the others for dinner. So I ordered room service. It worked out fine, as I kept on playing Cyberpunk!

The last day was a bit quieter, fortunately.

I discovered that a print mag used an article of mine. I’m feeling so popular right now!

But seriously, we were tired:

I used the last day to take a walk for some impressions, and I found them!

Nice booth, Nutanix:

But two companies stood out.
First, I met Huawei. And it seems they have blown a good slice of their marketing budget here, as they had half of an expo hall for themselves:

And when you think “that’s impossible to top,” let me introduce you to Etisalat, one of – if not the – biggest telco providers in the region. 
They also had half of a hall, and it looked like a nightclub:

And while I don’t know if this car from the future is self-driving, I am sure it’s self-reflecting:

They wanted to show off big time and present what’s possible with tech. The following picture is an AI-driven robot doctor.
You could ask questions like “what to do with a sore throat” and got perfect responses:

Gitex 2021 was a phenomenal success, not just for us as SolarWinds.

The organizers reported around 100k people visited the expo. 
We felt alive again after 18 months of work from home, under lockdowns, and in isolation, and I guess that was why so many attendees showed up.

Last but not least, we had a great team on site to make it possible:

Until next time, Dubai!

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