The International Bodyshop Industry Symposium (IBIS) has announced that Dr Jassim Haji, President of International Group of Artificial Intelligence and Executive Advisor to HH Sheikh Nasser AI Research & Development Centre in Bahrain, and Dr Akbar Jaffari, Chief Executive of JAFCON Consultants, will join the 2023 edition of IBIS Middle East as keynote speakers.
Haji is an international expert, strategist, and researcher in artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation, participating as keynote speaker and chairman in more than 300 technology conferences in the Middle East and Europe. These discussions covered the latest technologies such as AI, cloud computing, big data, cyber-security, and digital transformation.
IBIS organisers say he will provide a “vision of the future”, highlighting how AI will play a major role and become a standard feature in collision repair, in other sectors, and in private life.
Haji will then be joined on stage by a cross industry panel to discuss where AI sits within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) collision industry and how industry participants can progress toward the future.
Akbar is a renowned and respected efficiency expert and the Chief Executive of JAFCON Consultants. Since 1990, Akbar has provided consultation to more than 700 companies on productivity and performance measurement, KPIs, organisational excellence assessment, human resources management and development, R&D, and strategic planning. He is a visiting speaker on economics and management at Cambridge University in the UK, an assessor with the Performance Excellence Programme (Dubai government), an arbitrator and expert with the Gulf Cooperation Council Commercial Arbitration Centre, and a visiting lecturer on Engineering Economics and Human Resources Management at the University of Bahrain.
He will discuss the concept of productivity before being joined on stage by a cross industry panel to discuss where the GCC collision industry is with productivity today, and how industry participants can implement ideas to improve the repair process for all stakeholders.
“We are delighted to have such luminaries taking to the IBIS stage in 2023,” said Jason Moseley, Chief Executive Officer of IBIS. “The collision repair industry grapples with the adoption of digitisation [against] a backdrop of continuing to find marginal productivity gains. These keynotes will provide essential thought leadership know-how for IBIS Middle East attendees and the wider IBIS global family that will be tuning in live via HD video link. A truly exciting start to our 2023 campaign.”
IBIS conference moderator Robert Snook said: “Dr Jassim and Dr Akbar delivered powerful and thought-provoking keynote sessions at the recent IBIS Bahrain National Forum. At IBIS Middle East we will be taking the conversations up to a regional level to see how the GCC region is managing these two critical strategies for ensuring the sustainable success of our industry stakeholders.”
As the first IBIS event under the 2023 theme of Sustainable Strategies for Success, IBIS Middle East will be held from 7 to 8 February 2023 at Le Meridien Dubai Hotel and Conference Centre. It will seek answers to questions about the present and future of the automotive collision repair industry, placing emphasis on approaches that can secure sustainable solutions to challenges encountered along the way.