Dubai Tech 2000 recently brought the latest technologies for design and manufacture of industrial products together for the first time in the Gulf.

The conference and intensive seminars, held at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel Convention Centre, attracted interest from some of the largest industrial corporations within the region.

Delegates from a diverse industry range were able to appreciate by means of technology transfer and implementation, how they could drastically reduce the time-to-market and increase product life cycle, while reducing design and manufacturing costs and optimising quality.

Companies in the Gulf are beginning to feel the pressure of competition and are actively seeking the means to maintain their competitive advantage and were interested to see the capabilities of the most advanced CAD/CAM solutions that in functionality bear no resemblance to the previous generation software.

Visitors to the live machinery demo room could see 3D scanning systems for object replication, by Faro and Renishaw, Rapid tooling using vacuum casting by MK Technology and Rapid Prototyping by Stratasys using "fused deposition modelling" to create complex, functional, durable and accurate prototypes in ABS plastic.

Some of the large industrial organisations represented in Dubai Tech were Cosmoplast, Interplast, Moulds Company, Everest Industrial Company, Alico, National Foundries, Arabian Factory for Electrical Products (AFEP) and Al Babtain Group. Participants in the conference hailed from the majority of Middle East countries and in particular Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Iran and following the success and interest expressed, the organisers, Infocad SA. will be holding an annual "Dubai Tech" event.

In addition, Infocad is looking at the possibility of holding a similar event with the assistance of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), towards the end of September 2000, in Riyadh.