The fifth instalment of the CEO forum brought together important players involved in transforming the city of Medini into an international Central Business District.
On a warm Thursday morning, the City of Medini welcomed top business leaders and industry visionaries, all of whom have had a major part in building the city to be part of an exciting discussion in building an international Central Business District within an integrated urban township. This year, the fifth instalment of the Medini CEO Forum that took place on the 25 January 2018, at Afiniti Auditorium Medini City was themed ‘Smart & Green Medini: Building a Sustainable Future’.
The event began with a mingling session over breakfast where business leaders were given the chance to discuss the day’s topic and peruse some of the exhibition booths by Panaboy (AI Robot), Focus Malaysia, iProperty and Grab for Business. Once ushered into the auditorium, the delegates were then welcomed by an opening remark by Dr James Tee, MD/CEO of Medini Iskandar Malaysia.
In his speech, Tee shared his vision of Medini, “As part of the master developer it is our responsibility to create jobs and increase the population, and it’s an effort we’d like to continue working on with our investors, business partners, tenants and so on. We believe in green sustainable smart development. So far there are numerous catalytic projects that have been put into place by players such as IRDA.”
Tee also announced that the first smart, green and sustainable high-rise project in Medini City called Medini 9 will be completed and handed over in April 2018. “This is definitely a milestone for us… In city building and branding point of view there is a lot to be done still. This is where we need your input and experience to make Medini City a truly distinctive city of the future.”
Icing on the cake
Among the speakers that graced the stage were Hazmi Yusof, Managing Director Malaysia and Emerging Markets of Frost & Sullivan who painted a vivid picture of the future of Medini with the topic “Medini in 2023.” The second speaker of the morning was Georg Chmiel, Chairman iCArAsia who spoke on the topic of “Smart Mobility”.
Dato Wei Chuan Beng, Founder of Digital Way Ventures presented on “The liberating culture of smart community in smart cities.” In his talk, Wei suggests that those involved in moulding Medini into a smart city should learn from the example Silicon Valley has set.
“Learn from the Silicon Valley where they celebrate talent and over a period of time it formed the culture of Silicon Valley. In the case of Medini, we should learn from this and find our own formula in terms of building and moulding our smart culture.”
This was followed by Dr Mazlan Abbas’ – Co-founder, CEO, FAVORIOT Sdn Bhd – presentation on the topic of building smart cities and smart communities. The last speaker of the day was Michael Golebiewski, Chief Marketing & operations Officer of Microsoft Malaysia with the topic of Microsoft City Next: Enabling real impact for better cities with a people-first approach.
The speaker portion of the day wrapped up with an interesting panel discussion titled “Smart & Green Medini: Building a Sustainable Future. The day ended with an al-fresco style networking lunch.