NEWS
Blackboard hosts first-ever
executive roundtable for
clients in Saudi Arabia
Saudi tech
talents
compete in
Huawei ICT
Competition
international
final in China
H
uawei International and the Ministry
of Communications and Information
Technology in KSA have announced the
recent winners of the Saudi Arabia edition
of the Huawei Middle East ICT Competition
2019. The competition aims to nurture
local talent in the ICT field with a vision
to sharpen their ICT skills and prepare
them for the future of technology in line
with the visions and goals of the Ministry
of Communications and Information
Technology in relation to human capital.
B
lackboard, a leading education
technology company for teaching,
learning and student engagement, has
hosted its first-ever executive roundtable
in Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with
Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The focus of the event was to highlight
the educational benefits and security
of cloud and the growth of cloud-
deployment across the region.
“We were honoured to be joined by some
of our most distinguished clients in Saudi
Arabia for an open discussion on how
we are optimising cloud adoption paths
that will ultimately benefit the region’s
learners through increased dependability
and flexibility,” said Robert Speed, Vice
President for the Middle East and Africa
at Blackboard.
“We are proud of our collaboration with
AWS and anticipate it will have a far-
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reaching and enduring impact on the
region’s education sector.”
The theme of the invitation-only
roundtable, which took place at the
Hilton Hotel Riyadh, brought together
top dignitaries from 20 higher education
institutions and executives from
Blackboard and AWS.
These officials discussed the importance
of cloud to the growth and future of
eLearning, and the ways they can
benefit from AWS to lower costs, scale
applications and meet the changing
needs of students.
Blackboard has strengthened its
commitment and investment in the
Middle East, recently announcing that
several of its clients in the region have
transitioned to the company’s cloud-
deployment of its learning management
system (LMS).
Six finalists were chosen from a field of
20 students, who competed following the
preliminary round involving entries from
several universities across the country.
The top winners will be invited back to
China to take part in the final round of the
competition against the finalists from the
other Middle Eastern countries.
This year marked the third edition of the ICT
Competition in KSA, with more than 3,500
student registrations – double those received
in the previous editions. At the Huawei
Middle East ICT Competition 2018, a team
from KSA won third place in the final round
of the competition in China.
The competition promotes innovation
and creativity while serving as a bridge
between the classroom and the workplace.
By nurturing university students’ talent in
KSA, it also contributes to increasing national
ICT competitiveness while supporting the
country’s digital development strategy and its
contributions to the overall national income.
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