With over 6,500 exhibitors and 1,800 speakers from around the world, GITEX 2024 wrapped up last Friday – and wow, it was bigger, bolder, and more immersive than ever! It really showed off the UAE’s determination not just to watch the tech revolution unfold, but to help shape it. 

Here are my top 5 takeaways from clocking over 50,000+ steps around DWTC last week:

1. Ethical AI and inclusive tech

   A big focus was the ‘Intelligence Grid’, all about making sure AI and tech are accessible to everyone. As AI becomes a bigger part of our lives, there’s a real risk of widening global gaps, but initiatives like this aim to make sure the benefits are shared fairly. The UAE is once again leading the way, prioritising responsible AI development that works for everyone, regardless of background.

2.  AI powered holograms

   AI was everywhere, with countless panels on how GenAI is changing everything, from content creation to marketing strategies and decision-making. Yet, what caught my eye was e&’s human-digital advisors – holograms powered by AI. After walking around for miles, I stumbled across a live demo of one, and seeing a digital advisor chat with a journalist felt like a glimpse into the future. This tech isn’t just futuristic – it’s already here!

3. Smart cities are getting smarter

   If you’ve ever been stuck in traffic in Dubai on the way to or back from DWTC, you know the struggle. But that could change soon. Dubai’s push to become a top smart city was clear at GITEX, with cool initiatives including Presight’s AI-powered traffic management system. It analyses real-time data to reduce congestion and improve traffic flow. And these aren’t just ideas – they’re set to make a real difference into our everyday lives!

4. Sustainable tech is leading the agenda 

   AI and robotics may have stolen the spotlight this year, but climate tech was also front and center. From more efficient datacentres to smart water management and carbon capture, there were some game-changing solutions aimed at helping industries reach their sustainability goals. With climate change continuing to dominate global conversations, it was great to see tech companies stepping up with solutions that could make a real impact.

5. The quiet revolution: quantum computing 

   The Technology Innovation Institute, for example, announced a partnership with the UAE Space Agency to build cutting-edge quantum communication infrastructure. Quantum isn’t just some futuristic concept anymore – it’s becoming a reality with the power to shake up entire industries. From cryptography to space communication, quantum is advancing faster than we may realise and could disrupt tech in ways we’re only starting to grasp. 
   
   But GITEX isn’t just about showing the latest gadgets. With a 40% increase in international exhibitors, it’s clear the UAE isn’t just watching the digital revolution – it’s shaping the future of innovation and AI. From smarter, greener cities to quantum breakthroughs, GITEX made it clear that the future of tech isn’t just about innovation – it’s about responsibility. And as we step into this new era. The UAE is ready to lead the charge.

I had Rosh Hashanah dinner last night at my sister’s apartment with Ellen Mendel, 89, a former refugee from Nazi Germany who fled to the U.S. with her parents in 1940 just before darkness overtook Continental Europe. We met twenty-five years ago at Congregation Habonim, founded by German Jews in New York City in 1939. This is the story of the congregation’s founding as told in the 65th anniversary video, coordinated by Ellen, and prepared in part by my daughter Margot Edelman who conducted a few of the interviews. The first 10 minutes highlight the plight of Jews living in Nazi Germany who fled to the U.S. in search of a safe haven.

Here is Ellen’s story, which I heard for the first time last night. She was born in Essen, Germany in September 1935 a week after the Nuremberg Laws were enacted, which took away all civil rights of the Jews. Ellen was the only child of a prominent physician and his wife. Her father’s practice was gradually shrinking in the late 1930s as he was allowed to treat only non-Aryan patients, even though he had served in the German Army in World War I. In July 1938, a new law restricted all Jews from practicing medicine. Her father said, “If I can no longer take care of my family, we have to leave.”

She had a distinct memory of riding the trolley car with her father and seeing Nazis in uniform with swastikas on their sleeves. “Daddy, what are those? Why can’t you wear those things on your shirt?” she blurted out. Her father silenced her and bolted off the trolley car with her before trouble could arise.

Ellen’s parents attended the large Essen Synagogue for Shabbat services. On Kristallnacht, Nov. 9-10, 1938, the Synagogue was burned, Jewish establishments were smashed, and Jewish males ages 16 to 60 were arrested. Her father gathered the family and said it was time to move to America. There were very few slots allocated to Jewish refugees by the U.S. State Department, so the Mendel family relocated to Brussels, taking only 10 marks in cash, which was all they were allowed, and sending all their belongings in large crates on freighters to New York City. Ellen recalls Brussels as a very pleasant time, including outings to the beach and learning French in a parochial pre-school, while they were waiting for their quota number to come up.

The Mendel family received an affidavit from a relative who would sponsor them and visa for the U.S. in December 1939. They went to Amsterdam for two weeks to say good-bye to their closest family members—grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, who had fled Germany. At the last moment, her grandmother offered to keep little Ellen in Holland until her parents were on firm financial footing. Her father said, “where we go, Ellen will go,” a critical decision that saved Ellen’s life. They sailed in February 1940 from Rotterdam to New York City. The Low Countries were overrun by the Nazis three months later; twenty-five family members perished in concentration camps in the next two years.

It was not an easy transition to the U.S. Dr. Mendel had to retake his medical board exams in English and suffered a heart attack during the exam. He recovered, retook the exam, and passed. He tried in time for a faculty position at Columbia University only to be informed that there were no positions for Jews. Congregation Habonim was a refuge for the displaced German Jews, with Rabbi Hugo Hahn, formerly of the Essen Synagogue, presiding. Ellen continues her successful career as an Adlerian psychoanalyst and has appeared in dozens of schools throughout Germany and across the U.S. to tell her story.

The Ellen Mendel story must live on because people must know the truth about the Holocaust. Sasha Havlicek, CEO, Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), shared with me reports of neo-Nazis working to reanimate Hitler and openly deny the Holocaust. Schools and political commentators are giving platforms to Holocaust deniers to share their perspectives. I find this revolting and deeply concerning. There is no room in this world for disinformation, especially disinformation about hate in all its forms, including antisemitism, as well as anti-Muslim hate.

I conclude with a poem written by Rachel Goldberg-Polin, titled “One Tiny Seed.” It is a tribute to her late son Hersh, an American living in Israel, who was one of the 240 hostages taken on Oct. 7.

“There is a lullaby that says your mother will cry a thousand tears before you grow to be a man. I have cried a million tears in the last 67 days. We all have. And I know that way over there there’s another woman who looks just like me because we are all so very similar and she has also been crying. All those tears, a sea of tears, they all taste the same.

Can we take them, gather them up, remove the salt and pour them over our desert of despair and plant one tiny seed. A seed wrapped in fear, trauma, pain, war, and hope, and see what grows? Could it be that this woman so very like me, that she and I could be sitting together in 50 years, laughing without teeth because we have drunk so much sweet tea together and now we are so very old and our faces are creased like worn out brown paper bags.

And our sons have their own grandchildren, and our sons have long lives, one of them without an arm, but who needs two arms anyway? Is it all a dream, a fantasy, a prophecy? One tiny seed.”

Here is to a better year in 5785.

Richard Edelman is CEO.

It has been eleven years since the passing of my parents, Dan and Ruth Edelman. It is fitting that they passed in the same year, 2013. They were inseparable in life, complementary in their skills, aligned in their goals of family, business and community. For this dynamic duo, there was no separation of the three facets of life.

My father was hard driving, demanding, well-informed and resilient. A paradigm Type-A personality, Dan was determined to get ahead. He was as competitive on the tennis court as he was in business. He loved sports, especially the Chicago Cubs and the Bears (his fraternity pal was Sid Luckman, legendary quarterback for the Bears, a lifetime friend). He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Columbia University; his success in school was due to both brains and supreme effort, taking notes on his notes to prepare for exams. He loved his country and was proud of his four years of military service during World War II in psychological warfare and military intelligence.

Dan started Daniel J. Edelman, Inc. with four people in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. He invented the media tour while at the Toni Home Permanent Company in 1948, sending six sets of identical twins around the U.S. to be interviewed by local media. He understood the power of celebrities in media relations, using Vincent Price for California Wines, George Hamilton for the Sole Leather Council and Phyllis George for Toni. He also recognized the possibility of entrepreneurs telling their own stories, including Orville Redenbacher of popcorn fame, Colonel Harland Sanders for KFC and Charles Lubin, founder of Sara Lee. Dan was proud of the case study on the Toni media tour written by Harvard Business School Professor and marketing guru Theodore Levitt.

Dan was an inveterate dreamer, believing that Edelman could become a global force in public relations. He established the first overseas office in the UK in 1965, followed by operations in Germany and France. Then came Asia, Dan’s true obsession, beginning in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, then Hong Kong in the mid-80s. The acquisition of Interasia in 1993 propelled Edelman to the top rank in China. Korea, India, Australia and a start-up in Japan followed soon thereafter. Canada and Latin America joined the Edelman roster via acquisition in the 1990s. When we rose to the top of the PR ranking in 2011, his admonition to the Edelman team, “It is great to be the largest firm, but we must always strive to be the best firm.”

Ruth was my father’s partner in building the company. She was out with him five nights a week, entertaining clients, going to charity events and building the brand. She was an astute judge of talent, spending quality time with senior Edelman team members, listening and advising them on family matters or business issues. She was a social force, walking boldly up to important figures, winning them over in five minutes, then introducing them to my father, whom she described as “the most brilliant man.” She ran her household as a tight ship, up early calling around to her friends on the events of the prior night, making sure the kids were fed and on the way to school, going on to do the charity work, supervising homework then preparing for the evening. It was a busy life of friendships with CEOs, influential politicians, sports stars and journalists. My mother courageously battled manic depression for 40 years. She lobbied in the U.S. Congress to raise funds for mental-health research and shared her condition with the public to end the stigma associated with mental illness and increase access to care.

My parents connected on the pursuit of excellence and in service to the community. The three kids (Renée, John and I) were expected to do well in school. We were also to excel in sports. I had a weightlifting coach at age 10 because my mother said that she could "blow me over." She rousted me out of bed promptly at 7 a.m. during the summer to oversee the circuit training for football, replete with a whistle and stopwatch. Competition among the siblings was encouraged and high achievement demanded. Touch football games on the lawn at our summer house in Charlevoix, along with morning sessions with neighborhood kids on the SRA learning plans are examples of life at the Edelmans. My parents devoted hours to charities in Chicago, including the Art Institute, Operation PUSH, Chicago Lyric Opera, Immigrant Service League and Rush Hospital.

Renée, John and I have done our best to keep the ethos of Edelman and Zeno as special institutions that partner with clients to grow their businesses while having a positive impact on society. We do this to maintain the tradition of excellence in creativity and performance. My three daughters, Margot, Tory and Amanda, understand the responsibility of being an Edelman, to put the interests of the company, its people and its communities, ahead of personal needs. But the Edelman legacy spans beyond our family and to the 6000+ employees across DJE– each and every one of them have made our history, achievements and all that we have yet to accomplish, possible. To the DJE team, I’m deeply proud and grateful.

I found this quote from George Bernard Shaw that is a fitting tribute to my parents. I have a copy now sitting on my father’s desk in the Edelman Museum in Chicago as a North Star for the people of DJE Inc.

“This is true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

Richard Edelman is CEO.