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Amman and Kuwait City: Zain Group, a leading mobile telecom innovator in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, is set to host its sixth annual Zain Technology Conference (ZTC), December 5 to 7, 2016 at Le Royale Hotel in Amman, Jordan. The theme of this year's Conference is 'Moving Forward', and will focus on Zain's strategy execution as it continues its transformation to becoming a digital lifestyle provider in a highly competitive environment.

This year's ZTC will be held under the patronage of His Excellency the Prime Minister of Jordan, Dr. Hani al-Mulki; and attended by the Her Excellency Jordan Minister of Information and Communication Technology, and Minister of Public Sector Development, Mrs Majd Shweikeh plus several Ministers; President of the Jordan Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, Dr. Ghazi Jbour; Zain Group CEO, Scott Gegenheimer; Zain Jordan CEO, Ahmad Al Hanandeh; Zain Group CTO, Hisham Allam, together with Zain Group and Operations teams. There will also be participation of about 60 technology partners who will showcase their latest technologies, hold technical sessions and functional panels, throughout the three-day program, identifying how they are of benefit to Zain's transformation aspirations.

In addition to keynote speeches from Zain's main technology partners, Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia who will be sharing their  strategic direction with Zain, there will be keynotes by several guest speakers from renowned consulting firms Detecon and Strategy& focusing on experiences of Global operators in their digital transformation journey. There will also be roundtable panels discussions by a set of diverse experts and Zain Chief Technology Officers discussing on how Zain can thrive as a digital lifestyle provider.

One of the many highlights of ZTC's agenda will be the keynote address set to be given by Fadi Ghandour, the Co-Founder of courier company Aramex and Executive Chairman of WAMDA Capital, a platform of programs and networks that aims to accelerate the entrepreneurship ecosystems across the MENA. A Jordanian national, Mr. Ghandour has risen to the heights of international business and entrepreneurship and will be sharing some of his perspectives on business success and innovation with the audience.

Commenting on the preparation for ZTC 2016, Zain Group CEO, Scott Gegenheimer said, "We are fully aware of the requirement to be innovative at all times and thus we have embedded innovation in the culture of the organization and throughout our entire ecosystem. Being able to consistently host an event like ZTC where there is an exchange of valuable information between Zain and its primary technology partners is invaluable, and we are enthusiastic to be holding it for the sixth time. Together with our partners, digital innovation and its implementation to enhance our customer's digital lifestyle experience lies at the heart of Zain's vision."

On his part Hisham Allam, Chief Technology Officer of Zain Group said, "Our agenda over the three days reflects the breadth and depth of our endeavors with respect to maximizing digital innovation in order to drive the delivery of the best products and solutions for our customers in the most efficient manner possible. We appreciate the time and effort made by our technology partners to participate in this year's conference in Jordan, the country operation that epitomizes our innovation outlook perfectly."

Jordan is an appropriate backdrop in which to host ZTC 2016, given the emphasis on innovation that is driven from the Zain operation there, notably its Zain Innovation Campus (ZINC), and from which digital ideas are being utilized by the Group in order to deliver unique digital mobile experiences for customers. Zain Jordan is also synonymous for championing youth development and college students and their professors from the Kingdom have been invited to attend ZTC keynotes, breakout sessions and technology demos and exhibitions by the partners. In addition Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia will be showcasing their latest digital technologies during the conference for university students at ZINC.

ZTC 2016 will comprise of seven streams, which extend to; Smart Networks, Core Evolution, BSS and OSS Digital Future, IT Evolution, Quality of Experience, Service Innovation and Energy Efficiency and Site Optimization. Relevant technology and business topics that will be discussed over the three days of high-level interactions include: Network Evolution to 5G and Use Cases, Cloud and Virtualization opportunities, Telecom Data Analytics, IoT use cases, VoLTE and Video services.

Zain is utilizing the latest technologies in the development of tailored solutions in the areas of Machine to Machine (M2M) communications, Enterprise (B2B) offerings, and Smart City connectivity, in attracting and offering its customers unique and business enhancing mobile services.

ZTC 2016 will attract over 700 participants made up of Zain technology, innovation and product development personnel from across its eight operations as well as representatives from the 60 technology partners. A live stream of the opening and major presentations of the event will be provided to staff across all Zain Group country operations as well as to the personnel of the technology partners present. The conference will also be comprehensively covered live on Zain's social media channels covering many aspects of the event and a dedicated website https://event.zain.com has been set up to cover the major happenings from ZTC 2016.