There’s not too many events that cater to those with diverse interests in the technology and media industry here in the U.A.E and that’s when STEP decided to change that. They hosted their annual conference this year at Al Serkal Avenue in Al Quoz Dubai and after attending their last event, STEP 4K. I was curious to see what they would bring this year.
Step Conference 2014 this year was on a much larger scale catering to startups, incubators and Media agencies where talk sessions were held in parallel to workshops and networking sessions. Buzzwords like disrupt, sharing, crowdsourcing were all the rage and wearable tech was a factor in conversations during the day. Fellow colleagues in the business agreed that this was a good initiative that isn’t purely just about tech but also about the people behind them and the eventual correlation between the two areas and the panel discussions featured some big names in the business and topics regarding brand management and the online world were the point of conversation throughout the day.
The conference also indicated at the rise of startups in the tech world here in the Middle East with the likes of Careem, Nabbesh and many more ventures that aim to disrupt people’s routines in the offline space. Personally, having used both services that I just mentioned, I’d say they’re doing an impressive run so far.
Atheer Labs ended the show showcasing their wearable tech and how they are trying to provide some form of competition to Google Glass. Their work with an immersive 3D display aims to bring the android interface to your face, literally. Working with what seems like hologram tech that’s coupled with motion gestures, Atheer Labs has achieved the first hurdle of putting a controllable interface on screen, and they are now faced with the challenge of making that interface more ergonomic and scaled down to a practical level, one which consumers would be interested in buying.
STEP conference is one of the few events that you should look out for, especially if you’re heavily involved in the world of digital marketing and technology. They are slowly but surely making waves and given enough time they could be the next Middle Eastern SXSW.
