MECOM 2008

MECOM 2008 – 2nd edition of the Middle East Communications exhibition and conference held during 26-28 May at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre
Abu Dhabi is trying hard to establish this as a meeting point for operators and vendors interested in the MENA region. As usual there was an exhibition and a number of conference streams. They covered several topics ranging from "hard issues" Transport Network, WiMAX, Billing&Fraud, and Managed Services to "softer ones" like Mobile Internet, Mobile Broadband, and Web 2.0.

One of the most interesting developments (from our side) was the launch of Gitmo, a venture between Bertelsmann and the Abu DHabi Media Company (ADMC). Gitmo offers a subscription model for music download that is targeted more towards companies interested in using music as a promotional tool. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

mmChannel activities were centered in the Web2.0 conference track, where we addressed the issue of monetizing the opportunity. Given the topic it was lucky that ours was the last conference as a number of speakers (especially Maktoob's General Manager Mr Ahmed Nassef had warmed up the audience).

The meeting proved fruitful and we are following a number of leads generated during our two days in Abu Dhabi.