• The virtual forum has reached about 3,000 views per session last year across nine sessions
• Upcoming sessions on ‘News in the Digital Age’ and ‘International Photography Day’ will be live on July 14th and August 18th respectively.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, 27 June 2021 – Canon Middle East successfully marks a year since the launching of the virtual edition of ‘Frontiers of Innovation’, an initiative the company started to unite industry experts to discuss insights, innovations, share expertise and generate solutions to address trends and concerns across all industries in the region.

Following the overwhelming success of last year’s in-depth and relevant discussions, viewers can look forward to these coming months for the fifth and sixth sessions of the Frontiers of Innovation’s second online edition. The ‘News in the Digital Age’ session will go on air on July 14th, 2021, while the sixth session about the International Photography Day will be live on August 18th ,2021.

With over 2000 per cent recorded increase of virtual events in April 2020, virtual presence has become one of the key trends brought about the by COVID-19 pandemic. This also reshaped the format of Canon’s ‘Frontiers of Innovation.’ First launched in 2016 as a live forum, ‘Frontiers of Innovation 2020’ was the first online edition of this project, committed to aid and contribute to economic recovery by bringing the insightful discussions and innovative solutions to a broader audience. Uniting leaders and experts from different sectors and industries such as Ernst & Young, Dukkan Media, Dubai Cares, GEMS, IBM, World Energy Council and Facebook, the online platform reached up to 3000 views per session last year across nine sessions.

Mai Youssef, Corporate Communications and Marketing Services Director, Canon Middle East, said: “Frontiers of Innovation has united experts under one online platform and fostered industry learning, while underpinning Canon’s philosophy and complementing with its focus on environmental and economic sustainability. This initiative is a testament on how the brand has always been keen on driving innovations and generating solutions to support businesses across the region and keeping with Canon’s commitment to support regional initiatives.”

Each session of ‘Frontiers of Innovation 2020’ featured industry leaders addressing crucial topics such as: ‘Effect of COVID-19 on Digital Transformation’, wherein speakers discussed how digital transformation accelerated across different industries and their strategies on embracing the changes. During the session, Edwardo Aspillaga, Digital Transformation Strategy Lead, IBM, said that the changes that occurred in the first months of the pandemic are the culmination of four years of transformation. He stressed that digitization is about ‘people first’ and not just technology, hence empowered workforce, increased collaboration, and greater virtual engagements with customers are some of the keys in embracing digital transformation.

Meanwhile, as the risks of cybersecurity increased over the past year, simple measures on how to protect employees and families with cyber risks when working remotely were addressed and discussed through the ‘Cyber Security at Home’ session. Quentyn Taylor, Director of Information Security for Canon EMEA, said during the session: “I would definitely have a separate machine for work and home, and treat your home printer like any other computer – if it’s connected to the internet, it's vulnerable to a cyber-attack.” The UAE experienced more than 15.8 million brute force attacks (where trial-and-error is used to guess login info) on Remote Desktop Protocols (RDP) in 2020, according to a report by global cybersecurity company, Kaspersky.

In another session themed ‘Future of Education’, renowned leaders from the sector discussed today's merits of online learning. One of the speakers, Michael Gernon, Chief Education Innovation Officer of GEMS Education, stated that the sector’s emphasis should be on creating pathways and to have a clear vision on what the learner should look like in the future.

This year’s edition was launched in March with the topic ‘Empowering Women in the Creative Industry’, taking place in honor of the women in the Middle East region as they celebrated International Women’s Day. The discussion was led by inspiring and empowered women in the region’s creative industry as they tackled the roles women play in the society and what it meant to be a woman entrepreneur in the creative sector. Additionally, ‘Smart Cities and Inclusive Growth for the Middle East’, Innovation in Health Sector’, and ‘Circular Economy’ were also covered and discussed in the previous months.

What has been made clear through this pandemic is the importance of disseminating information and collaborations to ensure business continuity. Canon’s ‘Frontiers of Innovation’ 2021 remains committed in providing a platform for industry leaders to support every sector and industry as they recover from the impacts of COVID-19.

“As the world deals with the uncertain times, the ‘Frontiers of Innovation’ series will continue to operate virtually providing more opportunities to facilitate recovery in various sectors and industries.  With industries entering the second phase and opening more to business, the forum complements GCC governments’ strategies to develop cultures of innovation,” concluded Mai Youssef.

Canon ME, through this platform and alongside industry leaders, will further explore sustainable and innovative approaches and solutions to address key evolving trends.