The Fintech Surge and Future Blockchain Summit charts the future for digital economies

By Leandra Monteiro

The 4^th edition of Future Blockchain Summit and the inaugural Fintech Surge, held from 17th to 20th October 2021, proved their importance in charting the future for fast-moving digital economies with local, regional and international sector players lauding the events’ capabilities to connect communities for invaluable face-to-face networking and business potential.

The co-located events, which formed part of GITEX Global x Ai Everything, the world’s largest technology showcase this year at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), brought together sector pioneers and innovators for an immersive four days of talks, workshops and boundless business opportunities. Cedar IBSi FinTech lab was pleased to be an eco system partner at the event.

Arturas Svirskis, a serial entrepreneur identifying the first Fintech Surge as an important business opportunity, chose Dubai and its new fintech platform to assist multiple businesses in Lithuania in showcasing their capabilities, and also to meet potential business partners with a view to licensing MENA products in Europe.

He said, “Fintech Surge has made it clear that this is a very fast-growing market, and I was surprised, in a positive way, at the advanced and open mind of the regulators in the UAE and other countries in the MENA region. I’m seriously considering bringing a few businesses to the Middle East – blockchain, payment and lending for example – and I now have a few hundred leads and contacts, and potentially 30 clients I could enable after some excellent networking over four days.”

UAE software company Rasan Software House used the first Fintech Surge to secure a number of important leads across four days of crucial face-to-face networking. Operations manager, Islam Fakhr said, “We came to Fintech Surge to showcase the brand and build recognition in Dubai and the MENA region. The event was a great opportunity to do that. We have some substantial leads both from prospective clients who we can build platforms for, and also from vendors who offered their products as a solution to improve our efficiencies. We were excited to see our brand recognised by peers in Saudi Arabia and by other international brands.”

Dr Tamer Mitwally, chief strategy officer of Digital Finance Exchange, the world’s first fully insured cross-asset trading platform, hailed the Future Blockchain Summit for its networking and business opportunities. He said, “We generated some incredible leads, we had interest from a lot of different companies from around the world looking for a tech company in the UAE providing blockchain solutions and that is what we offer. We provide technology in relation to blockchain and smart contracts. This technology is being incorporated by a wide number of industries. We are servicing a niche market in that sense.”

Collaboration came to the fore as Future Blockchain Summit also hosted a Blockchain Business Hackathon with TDeFi, a crypto startup accelerator. TDeFi CEO and Founder Gaurav Dubey said: “The Bizthon shared the ethos of the Future Blockchain Summit, bringing together the entire business ecosystem to share knowledge on new ideas and developments, network and further promote blockchain as a business solution in our fast-evolving world. We look at Bizthon as a custom vehicle that enables visionaries to share ideas and take that vital first step in our transforming business ecosystem.”

Fintech Surge and Future Blockchain Summit formed part of GITEX GLOBAL, the world’s most complete, experiential technology event at Dubai World Trade Centre, uniting international innovators in artificial intelligence, 5G, cloud, big data, cybersecurity, Blockchain, quantum computing, fintech and immersive marketing across six events – GITEX GLOBAL, Ai Everything, GITEX Future Stars, the Future Blockchain Summit, Fintech Surge and Marketing Mania.