One of the world's top three trade exhibitions, organised by Dubai World Trade Centre, opened to packed crowds eager to experience the latest products and solutions at first-hand from many of the biggest brands in the ICT industry.

"We are honoured to have His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE vice president, prime minister and ruler of Dubai, open Gitex Technology week this year," said Helal Saeed Almarri, director general, Dubai World Trade Centre. "The presence of His Highness highlights the importance of the ICT industry to Dubai and the region, as companies look to build long-lasting relationships within the UAE and wider Middle East."

One of the biggest highlights on the first day was the keynote address at the Gitex Global Conference from the chairman and co-founder of Sun Microsystems, Scott McNealy. Speaking in front of several hundred senior delegates, McNealy addressed current issues affecting the global economy and about the important role open source technology will play in driving economic growth.

"Gitex Technology week spotlights technology innovations and trends in one of the most important markets in the world, the Middle East. With the volatility in the financial markets today, companies of all shapes and sizes are coming together to discuss the benefits of open standards and open source technology, which give companies more security and control over their own data, as well as lower licensing costs," said McNealy.

"We also are seeing a tremendous amount of interest in the cost, efficiency and performance benefits of products like multi-threaded processors, mobile data centre's, thin clients and virtualisation."

The Gitex Technology week Global Conference has been expanded this year to also include an impressive 35 tracks of interactive discussion, featuring some of the region's leading industry experts on new generation technology. Sessions include a SMB Clinics, CxO Lunches and Tutorials as well as a series of developer workshops with specific emphasis on supporting the development of original Arabic games and software.

Taking place simultaneously at the Gitex Shopper & Consumer Electronics Expo, the inaugural Gitex Digital Game World will welcome regional teams as they battle it out in a series of organised games and online tournaments to win the opportunity to compete with the visiting world's best gamers in the 'Intel Extreme Masters' competition. Gitex Shopper & Consumer Electronics Expo is taking place at Airport Expo, Dubai, until 24 October, 2008.

Other show highlights include new product launches and announcements from major international companies including Blackberry, Dell, du, Etisalat, Google, HP, Microsoft, Oracle, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sun MicroSystems and Symantec.

This year there is also an emphasis on using new Park and Ride service as well as the shuttle bus services in and out of Gitex Technolog week. There are double the amount of shuttle buses from main points such as hotels, malls, City Centre and Dubai Internet City.