MENA Newswire: Canon Middle East and Turkey (CMET), successfully hosted its annual regional Partners’ Conference for the Middle East and Turkey region at the iconic Museum of the Future in Dubai on 10th November 2022. The 2023 event theme reiterated, strengthened, and further built upon the ‘New Customers, New World’ theme, with an approach to “RETHINK, REVIVE and REACH” which takes the company a step closer to the ‘Customer of Tomorrow’.
The conference provided a framework for discussing the changing industry trends and addressed the new customer behaviors that are reflective of the “new normal” – a new reality that is also being fueled by additional factors like hybrid working models and shifting consumer shopping patterns, underscored by the need for long-term sustainable solutions.
To get closer to this new world reality and understand it better together with its partners, CMET hosted a Frontiers of Innovation session to deep dive into the Metaverse ecosystem titled: “A Glimpse of what’s possible – the evolution of new business into the new world”. The session included a distinguished panel of experts including Amrita Sethi – the UAE’s first NFT (SoundBYTE) artist, Dr. Jane Thomason – Futurist, and Baha Hamadi of the Deep Knowledge Group, where they shared their knowledge and discussed the influence and impact of the Metaverse on the evolution of customers and businesses in the future.
Additionally, as the creator of her art genre “SoundBYTEs” Amrita Sethi created an art piece specific for Canon’s conference combining sound, storytelling, tech and art into a bespoke Augmented Reality artwork. By scanning a QR code on the physical artwork it comes to life so people can both “see” and “hear” the art. Using the words “Rethink Revive Reach – Inspiring a world of change” spoken by the CMET Managing Director, as the foundation for her artwork, Amrita first captured a computer-generated image of the sound wave of the word “Rethink”, then she hand drew each of the individual lines to create a unique work of physical art titled “Rethink” Canon AR SoundBYTE. Amrita has been using Canon’s printers like a digital paintbrush to create her Augmented Reality “SoundBYTEs” and this piece was printed on the Arizona 1380 XT printer and displayed during the conference.
The event was also a celebration of CMET’s partners from across the region and offered an opportunity for dialogue, discourse and appreciation of the resilience and determination of the partners, in facing and overcoming the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic period. Complemented by a focus on streamlining organizational and operational efficiencies and solid governance, CMET’s 2023 roadmap is also underscored by the mindset of living “Our Purpose” which is a strong reflection of Canon’s philosophy of KYOSEI – Living and working together for the common good. The partner conference drew to a close with an awards ceremony and the conferring of awards to key partners.
Venkatasubramanian (Subbu) Hariharan, Managing Director of CMET commented: “Through our Partners’ Conference, we want to establish a common understanding with our partners on how the future world will look like and pay attention to the new changing behaviors of the customer of tomorrow. We want our partners to really embrace the future and what it holds in terms of technology and social change, and we are here to support them every step of the way. I want to thank all our partners for their patience, resilience, and persistence in forging ahead, in spite of the challenges of a global pandemic and as we emerge in a new era, Canon remains committed to implementing initiatives that welcome a prosperous future and sustain and strengthen its relationships with its partners, customers and employees.”