THOUGHT

The Assembly is a community collaborative which brings stakeholders of smart communities together, to foster introduction and assimilation of research and leading edge technology in real life.

It aims to combine the efforts of industries, educational institutions, governments and community innovators to create and provide real solutions to important challenges faced by residents.

The assembly actively builds and supports interaction and association to help talent connect to expensive resources, for unbiased collaboration in order to execute life changing ideas with a defined focus on localization, improving quality of experience and quality of life by the use of right smart technologies.

 

The Assembly is hosted in Dubai, with the specific aim of :

  • Building a strategic group of partners amongst the diverse group of stakeholders – Government, Educational Institutions, Influencers & Community Innovators and Industry.

  • Influence and Create smart collaborative platforms for Education, Training and Commercialization of new technology, collaborative creation and learning.

  • Build a calendar of events, forums, online interaction and technology familiarization through real life and online interaction with technology thought leaders and innovators.

  • Create a real life Smart Lab with emphasis on real life uses and creating access to intelligent technologies and smart innovations for social impact on the community at large and great economic impact to the City and Nation.

FOUNDING MEMBERS

Founding Members are the pioneering group of institutions and individuals, who got together to support the idea of creating an ideal location for the Smart Lab of innovation and start this movement of interdisciplinary creativity.

They participate actively in giving direction to The Assembly

 
About Us
About Us
About Us

TEAM

The Assembly is managed and run on a day to day basis by a team of enthusiastic and, mostly, voluntary team of community stakeholders and professionals. They work tirelessly to present a continuous series of interesting interaction, events and workshops to the community. The Lab is also open to members for certain projects and the team provides interactive assistance to these users. 

FRIENDS OF 
ASSEMBLY

The most important contribution of The Assembly is the creation and bringing together of the Community of innovators and makers, those who not only share and contribute, but also teach and advise the budding crop of learners, students and entrepreneurs. These outstanding individuals are not just outliers but are active givers to the community and we call them Friends of The Assembly. We gratefully acknowledge their support and active engagement with our cause and are proud to have them with us.

 
Dr. Noah Raford is a scenario planner, strategist and policy adviser. He designs, develops and manages projects on the future of industries and countries for governments and corporations around the world. Previously, Noah was a strategy consultant with GBN / Monitor, co-founder of the strategy facilitation boutique Sensitive Dynamics, the former North American Director of the design studio/think-tank Space Syntax Limited and the Senior Research Advisor to Prince Charles’ Foundation for the Built Environment. He is currently a Lecturer at the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy at the University College London, a Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Economics Complexity Programme, a fellow at the Bartlett School of Architecture, an adviser to the Scenarios Lab at the USC Annenberg School of Communications, and a fellow of the International Futures Forum. Noah completed his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on new approaches to thinking about the future using the web, and was a co-founder of the UAE 3D Printing Industry Association (UAE 3DPIA). He blogs and writes at news.noahraford.com
Dr. Noah Raford
Innovation Advisor, 3DPIO
@nraford
Samer Geissah Vice President, Innovation, Commercial, EITC (du) With over 20 years of experience on both Operator and Vendor sides Samer brings hands-on experience to the areas of planning, engineering, project and product management. He is responsible for establishing the Innovation team under Commercial. Prior to that Samer led Core and VAS Engineering teams responsible for the Fixed, Mobile, International, IPTV and IP Telephony Core and VAS networks in du. He was responsible for the planning, deployment and operations of the du Mobile Network as the Executive Director of the Mobile Network. Prior to that Samer worked with Siemens Communications He held several telecommunication software development assignments in Vancouver, Canada and Raleigh, North Carolina. Samer Graduated from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, with a double major in Computer Engineering and Computer Science.
Samer Geissah
Vice President, Innovation, Commercial, EITC (du)
@samergeissah
Yousuf is the Chief Strategy Officer of Dubai Holding, which is a global investment company. He is also a member of the investment committees in all companies under the holding and the Executive Committee of the Holding. Previously, he was involved in the setup of The Consulting Office, which was an initiative by the Government of Dubai; where later he became the CEO of the company. In 2006, he joined The Executive Office of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and the Ruler of Dubai. While at the H.H.’s office, Yousuf was involved and led number of strategic projects. Yousuf is passionate on turning new business ideas into reality. Yousuf graduated from INSEAD with Global Executive MBA. He also holds a Master of Public Administration from National University of Singapore (Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy) and a BA in Corporate Finance from Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.
Yousuf Al Mulla
Chief Strategy Officer at Dubai Holding Group
@YousufMulla
 
Ashish Panjabi is the COO of UAE’s Jacky’s Group and runs the retail interests Under Panjabi’s leadership, Jacky’s has won various accolades such as the Superbands award, the Dubai Service Excellence Award, as well as retailer awards for major malls. He started www.jackys.com, the Middle East’s first e-commerce website specializing in consumer electronics, IT, mobile phones, home appliances and photographic products sales and has also been established Jacky’s on various social media platforms.
Ashish Panjabi
Chief Operating Officer, Jacky’s Group
@apanjabi
Jad is the Founder and CEO of Netizency He studied business at the Lebanese American University and has executive education courses in Digital Marketing from Harvard Business School – Boston, USA His previous roles include: Regional Director of Digital Strategy and Innovation at Leo Burnett Head of Content and Media Marketing at Qatar Telecom Head of Brand and Innovation at Virgin Mobile Qatar VP of Marcomms at du (Emirates Integrated Telecom Company Managing Director at Leo Burnett Kuwait (previously MD of Riyadh) He worked on digital and social media strategies for du, Qtel, Twestival MENA and Virgin Mobile Qatar Jad helped organize the Dubai Twestival 2010 and Doha Twestival 2011 in addition to setting up the digital strategy for Twestival MENA for 2011 that ended up being the biggest region in terms of donation worldwide Awarded the Digital Marketing Leadership Award by World Brand Congress in 2011.
Jad Hindy
Founder – CEO, Netizency
@jadhindy
Nina Curley is the Managing Director of Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi, a startup accelerator designed to support early stage companies with a focus on media and content. Prior to that, she served as the former Editor-in-Chief of Wamda, the largest entrepreneurship news site in the Middle East, covering business and technology trends in 14 markets. She also launched Wamda for Women, an initiative to support female founders, and is a founding member of WAIN, the first women’s angel investment network in Dubai. She has written for Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, and The Economist’s A Look Ahead portal, and spoken at the World Policy Institute as well as several events in the MENA region about entrepreneurship, technology trends and the role of women in the Middle East. She holds a BA with honors from Stanford University and an MA in Cognitive Neuroscience from NYU.
Nina Curley
Managing Director – Flat6Labs
@9a
 
With over 10 years in new products and services development and deployment in the telecommunication industry, Gilles is focusing on the development of novel services and ecosystems for mobile networks at Qualcomm regional offices in Dubai. Prior to that, he held senior management positions in technology, marketing and business development in Europe and North America at companies such as Nortel, Conexant, and Texas Instruments.
Gilles Fayad
Director, Business Development, Qualcomm
Al Janahi has become renowned for his support of young and aspiring entrepreneurs in the UAE, and developing the Eco systems of SME’s in Dubai. Today under his leadership, more than 13,000 entrepreneurs have been assisted, of which about 1200 are active members of the Establishment. Al Janahi has held a number of senior managerial positions. He was a founding member of Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF), wherein in co-ordination with various departments he added new and exciting dimensions to the global event. As a founding member of Dubai Internet City (DIC) he formulated a business model that is now regarded as one of the most successful ICT hubs internationally. DIC’s Commercial Department was also set up with his support. Al Janahi was selected to join a taskforce for setting up the Dubai Development and Investment Authority (DDIA), later renamed as Tatweer. The formation of Mohammed bin Rashid Establishment for SME’s development (MBRE) was a significant milestone for Dubai under the leadership of Al Janahi in DDIA. In 2005, Al Janahi was appointed as a board member and CEO of ASWAQ, a public joint stock company under foundation. In MBRE, Al Janahi pioneered the entrepreneurial development process from scratch which enabled the development of entrepreneurs. This covered the core pillars of Development Advisory, Incubation, Funding, Capability Development, Market Access and Access to government contracts for SME’s. This initiative not only succeeded in helping start-ups and SMEs secure their first business contracts, but also raised the community
Abdul Baset Al Janahi
Chief Executive Officer, Mohammed Bin Rashid Establishment for SME Development
Ahmad founded Infinitec in 2008 in Dubai, becoming the first hardware tech company in the region. He developed and brought to market several video streaming products and in 2012 Infinitec ran the largest technology crowdfunding campaign in the world outside the USA. Later he relocated Infinitec to San Francisco the company flourished. Prior to founding Infinitec Ahmad worked in the Hi-Tech and Telecom industry with Fortune 500 companies such as Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei. He holds a M.Sc. in Systems
Ahmad Zahran
CEO and Founder, Infinitec
@ahmadzahran