years: 2024

Sherpa Communications is happy to help GreatList.ae, the renowned international dining guide, expanding its footprint within Dubai, cementing its position as a trusted source for dining recommendations in one of the world’s most dynamic gastronomic hubs. The guide is known for curating top-tier dining experiences, offering expert insights into a wide variety of restaurants and cafes, from fine dining to casual eateries.

Great List’s expansion reinforces Dubai’s growing status as a global dining destination. The guide features over 100 of the best places in categories such as fine dining, smart casual, urban cafes, coffee shops, and bars meticulously selected restaurants based on food quality, service, atmosphere, and design. Since its soft launch earlier this year, GreatList.ae has seen significant traction in the UAE, with over 1.5 million visits to its website, above 90% of which are locals/tourists, reflecting the growing demand for a reliable dining guide that serves both the international and local communities. 

Each establishment selected by Great List undergoes a thorough evaluation. The guide not only highlights existing restaurants but also keeps a close watch on new openings, offering diners up-to-date recommendations. Users can find in-depth chef profiles and insider tips on the best dishes to order. This approach ensures that every visitor has access to an exceptional dining experience, whether they are discovering well-established favorites or exploring the newest additions to the city’s culinary landscape.Dubai’s top establishments, handpicked by experts, proudly display a unique metal GreatList sign at their entrances, allowing guests to easily identify the best dining experiences in the city.

Great List’s expansion into Dubai is pivotal for the UAE’s foodservice market, projected to reach USD 19.98 billion in 2024, making the region a key destination for F&B entrepreneurs, investors, and culinary professionals. Restaurants interested in being considered for a review and potential inclusion in the guide can expect a visit from Great List’s team of anonymous experts. The team conducts daily visits to restaurants, whether they are well-established venues or new openings. While it may take time to reach every establishment, Great List is committed to ensuring thorough and fair evaluations. Great List’s future plans include a significant push to enhance the local dining experience in Dubai and beyond, with an upcoming Chinese-language version of the guide to cater to the increasing number of Chinese tourists expected to visit the region. Currently, the guide is available in Arabic, English and Russian offering localized content to a wide audience.

Sherpa Communications is proud to support the international ride-hailing service Yango, part of the global tech company Yango Group, in sharing the news of an exclusive event hosted at Manarat Al Saadiyat. This event celebrated the launch of Yango’s new city taxi service, now available through the Yango app in Abu Dhabi. Developed in partnership with the Integrated Transport Centre (ITC) under the Department of Municipalities and Transport’s ‘Abu Dhabi Mobility’ initiative, this service marks a significant step forward in enhancing the Emirate’s transportation landscape.

Visitors got an inside look at how the app is tailored to offer tourists and residents a smarter, more sustainable way to navigate Abu Dhabi. The innovative service allows users to experience effortless travel throughout the city, connecting them with public taxis and licensed private vehicles at the touch of a button. This launch also coincides with Yango’s sixth anniversary, marking its journey from a ride-hailing service, launched in October 2018, into a global tech company with a diverse ecosystem of services. Now operating in over 25 countries, Yango Ride has registered over 1 million drivers and facilitated 630 million rides globally, with a 60% increase in ride volume in H1 2024 compared to H1 2023. Today, Yango’s focus extends beyond ride-hailing, offering a range of cutting-edge global technologies across multiple sectors.

During the event, guests had an exclusive preview of the latest innovations in Yango Group’s expansive range of services including the video & audio streaming app Yango Play; technology providers for e-commerce retailers by Yango Tech; bilingual human-like AI assistant, Yasmina; and smart navigation app Yango Maps, among others. These services reinforce Yango’s broader vision of empowering communities by integrating smart solutions into the UAE’s growing digital infrastructure.

During the event, Islam Abdul-Karim, Regional Head of Yango Middle East, delivered a keynote presentation, emphasising Yango’s collaboration with ITC and its potential to transform transportation and enhance connectivity in the capital and beyond. During its five-month trial run, the service has already proven successful, with more than 1,500 registered taxis completing over 8,000 trips. 

The event, attended by over 200 industry experts, government officials, social media influencers and media representatives, provided an exclusive look into Yango’s ongoing efforts to support the country’s vision of an efficient transportation network.

Ahead of GITEX 2024, Sherpa Communications is supporting Mappable, a global provider of powerful and highly customizable mapping solutions tailored to local markets, in announcing their participation at the event. Mappable will reveal its latest innovations and intelligent geospatial technologies for businesses across multiple sectors, with its flagship Neurogeocoder API and a range of other advanced solutions taking center stage.

Capitalizing on the GCC’s projected 15.1% CAGR for Geographic Information Systems until 2028, the Neurogeocoder API, recently launched by Mappable in the UAE, is gaining traction across industries such as e-commerce, real estate, logistics, food tech and ride-tech. Powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), it goes beyond conventional geocoding tools by adapting to local  terminology for districts, towers, and roads, as well as colloquial expressions, ensuring that businesses can process unstructured or error-filled location requests with accuracy. Neurogeocoder’s capabilities to convert raw map points into precise addresses and seamlessly display user-entered locations queries on maps offer businesses a much-needed edge in improving customer experience and operational efficiency.

Mappable will also unveil key advancements in its navigation products, including enhanced route optimization features that are designed to streamline complex routing scenarios and ensure safety for heavy-vehicle fleets, offering valuable efficiency gains for logistics and transportation companies. The ‘Avoid Custom Zones’ feature empowers businesses to designate areas to avoid when planning routes; the ‘Waypoints Optimization’ ensures the most efficient travel paths between multiple stops, and the ‘Left Turns Deprioritization’ eliminates high-risk turns, improving both safety and time metrics. These features are integrated into Mappable’s Distance Matrix, Retrieving Route Details and NaviKit SDK products. 

Mappable’s participation at GITEX 2024 marks a significant milestone, with the company preparing to announce several strategic agreements, further reinforcing its position as a key player in the Middle East’s geospatial solutions market.

To experience Mappable’s latest solutions, including live demos of the Neurogeocoder and advanced routing APIs, visit their stand B20 in Hall 4 at GITEX 2024.

Sherpa Communications is delighted to assist Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), the AI Data Cloud company, in announcing its participation at GITEX Technology Week 2024, the premier technology event held at the Dubai World Trade Centre. This year, Snowflake is set to demonstrate its cutting-edge solutions in Generative AI and data management, underlining its commitment to empowering businesses in the UAE and beyond.

At GITEX 2024, Snowflake will unveil its latest advancements, including Native Apps, Cortex, and the innovative Snowflake Gen AI & LLM feature, designed to revolutionize how businesses leverage data for strategic advantage. Attendees will have the opportunity to experience live demonstrations and engaging presentations at Booth H8-B30 in Hall 8 by Snowflake’s technical team and industry partners.

This year’s theme, “Empowering the Future with Data and AI in the UAE,” reflects Snowflake’s dedication to supporting the UAE’s vision of becoming a global hub for AI and data-driven innovation. In line with this, Snowflake is proud to announce its DESC Certification, further solidifying its position as a leader in secure data solutions.

Visitors to Snowflake’s stand can expect a dynamic and interactive experience, featuring tech talks, a thought leadership keynote, and one-on-one meetings with technical experts. These sessions are designed to provide deep insights into Snowflake’s capabilities in addressing current trends and challenges in cloud-based data management.

Highlighting real-world applications, Snowflake will showcase success stories from key partners, demonstrating the tangible impacts of its solutions across diverse industries. These case studies will illustrate the robustness of Snowflake’s platform in enhancing operational efficiency and driving innovation.

Joining Snowflake at Booth H8-B30 are esteemed partners Fivetran, Microstrategy, and Insight, each contributing to a comprehensive showcase of integrated solutions that enhance and extend the capabilities of Snowflake’s platform. Visit Snowflake at GITEX 2024 and experience the cutting-edge solutions that power the Data Cloud and AI-driven insights.

• Egypt has been the country chosen by MENATech to host GAMERGY for the first time in the MENA region.
• The event will take place from January 30 to February 1, 2025 at the Al Burouj project, developed by IMKAN Misr in Cairo, where it expects to have more than 40,000 attendees.

Sherpa Communications is proud to help spread the word that GAMERGY, the fastest growing global esports, gaming, leisure and entertainment event, is now extending its presence to the MENA region. After exciting editions in Europe and Latin America, the festival arrives in Egypt, which will become for three days (January 30 to February 1) the global meeting point for esports fans and international players competing for the best prizes.

For this new edition of GAMERGY, MENATech, a company of the GGTech Entertainment group, will have the collaboration and support of ievents, eProjects LLC, and Influence Communications, leaders in event management, communication and experience creation.

The venue chosen for the celebration of this new edition of GAMERGY is Al Burouj, developed by IMKAN Misr in Cairo. Attendees will have access to a wide range of games for PC, mobile and consoles, with exciting tournaments, live performances by top artists, meet & greets with influencers and the best esports teams in the region.

GAMERGY is a pioneering event designed for video game enthusiasts of all ages and backgrounds. The next edition in Egypt will create an immersive environment where the physical and virtual worlds will merge, allowing participants to connect and engage in unforgettable experiences. 

GAMERGY has organized more than 20 successful editions in Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Miami, and Panama, consolidating its status as a dominant force in the e-sports, leisure and entertainment scene for the whole family.

GAMERGY combines entertainment and innovative technology, offering a unique experience where fun and creativity come together, as well as a disruptive experience for visitors and gamers alike. It will offer top-notch content in all aspects of the gaming world and showcase the latest technological advances in esports.

Snowflake enables the travel and hospitality industry to harness the power of the AI Data Cloud to transform operations and deliver exceptional customer experiences

Sherpa Communications helped Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), the AI Data Cloud company, announce the launch of the AI Data Cloud for Travel and Hospitality, uniting Snowflake’s data platform, AI capabilities, and industry-specific solutions to deliver best-in-class data insights for the travel and hospitality industry. Snowflake empowers airlines, hotels, cruise lines, and travel technology providers to harness data and artificial intelligence to improve operations and power five-star customer experiences across the sector.

As the travel and hospitality industry transitions from recovery to stable growth, businesses face new challenges and opportunities. Snowflake is uniquely positioned to support this growth, offering a unified platform that streamlines AI and ML development, providing top-tier security and governance capabilities, and democratizing data access. With robust data collaboration capabilities and effortless scalability, Snowflake enables organizations to harness their data’s full potential.

The AI Data Cloud for Travel and Hospitality addresses key industry trends and use cases, including dynamic pricing and sustainability tracking, developer efficiencies, reputation management, and performance advertising to help organizations across the industry both streamline operations and unlock new business value.

With Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud for Travel and Hospitality, businesses can build and optimize outcomes like:

• Hyper-Personalized Marketing: Personalized, privacy-focused marketing campaigns resulting in accelerated customer acquisition and reduced acquisition costs 

• Improved Customer Experience: Optimized bot and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) performance plus preemptive messaging to reduce churn

• Loyalty & Co-Branded Experiences: Modernized customer data management, streamlined alliance point management, optimized hotel and partner coordination, and customer vs. member 360 personalization to enhance customer retention and engagement

• Reliable and Efficient Operations: Optimized routes and networks, simplified irregular operations (IROP) management, increased turn efficiencies, and improved crew coordination 

• Maximized Revenue Management: Optimized maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) workstreams, fine-tuned scenario forecasting, optimized dynamic pricing, and focused ancillary revenue streams to drive profitability 

Snowflake’s vast partner ecosystem also facilitates seamless data enrichment via Snowflake Marketplace, allowing businesses to easily integrate and analyze third-party data sources such as weather patterns, economic indicators, and global events alongside their own data, enabling more comprehensive and better-informed decision-making in industries where external factors significantly impact operations and customer behavior.

Some of the largest travel and hospitality businesses around the world are already using Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud for Travel & Hospitality to democratize data access and drive collaboration.

To learn more about how Snowflake is empowering the travel and hospitality industry:

• Read more about Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud for Travel and Hospitality here.
• Register for the upcoming Snowflake Travel & Hospitality webinar here. 

Learn more about what this launch means for the travel and hospitality industries here.

An AI-powered, cloud-native solution composed on eMACH.ai to deliver hyper-personalised wealth management services to the region’s top financial institutions

Sherpa Communications is excited to support Intellect in sharing the news of their latest development. IntellectAI, the AI-focused business unit of Intellect Design Arena, announced the launch of its cutting-edge wealth platform, WealthForce.AI, for the Middle East market. Composed on eMACH.ai, this transformative platform is designed to empower Relationship Managers (RMs) by leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and advanced data analytics to achieve hyper-personalisation and hyper-automation, ultimately delivering unparalleled customer experiences.

Leveraging the booming AI market, expected to inject US$320 billion into the Middle East economy by 2030, WealthForce.AI is built on eMACH.ai standards—Event-driven, Microservices-enabled, API-led, Cloud-native, and Headless—delivering a scalable and future-ready solution for the region. By embedding AI at its core, the platform automates routine tasks and enhances decision-making, allowing RMs to deliver hyper-personalised, data-driven advice resonating with each customer’s unique financial goals. The solution also integrates Generative AI tools, which take RM-client conversations to the next level by providing intelligent, context-rich insights during advisory interactions.

Intellect’s award-winning WealthForce.AI platform is designed to streamline wealth management by minimising manual touchpoints and offering a contextualised, omnichannel customer experience at every stage. With features like personalised recommendations, real-time portfolio alerts, financial dashboards, and comprehensive reports, the platform enables both RMs and end customers to make smarter, more informed decisions. WealthForce.AI is positioned to act as a catalyst for AI growth in the Middle East and Africa’s financial sector, which is expected to contribute 13.6% of GDP, (US$38 billion) by 2030.

With the help of Sherpa Communications, Yango Tech, one of the leading providers of proprietary e-commerce technologies and part of the global tech company Yango Group, has announced its strategic partnership with Al Sadhan and SPAR at the GAIN (Global AI Now, Next, Never) Summit in Saudi Arabia. This collaboration marks a pivotal moment in advancing retail technology and enhancing digital capabilities in the MENA region for both brands. By introducing cutting-edge solutions, this partnership aims to streamline everyday shopping experiences, making them more efficient and accessible for consumers across the region.

The Partnership Agreement was officially signed at the King Abdulaziz International Convention Centre in Riyadh during the ongoing GAIN Summit, a leading event that convenes global AI leaders to explore the future of artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity. The signing ceremony saw Badr Al Sadhan, CEO & Vice Chairman of the Board, and Evgeny Chernikov, COO, Yango Tech, endorse the agreement. Muneer V. Abdurahman, Group CIO, and Houssam M. Joumaa, Commercial Consultant at Al Sadhan, were also in attendance.

Yango Tech will deploy innovative technology to enhance the retail experience for Al Sadhan and SPAR customers. This includes activating a custom-branded mobile app and newly designed websites that reflect the distinct identity of Al Sadhan and SPAR. These digital solutions are enhanced with AI-driven features, offering smooth browsing, personalised shopping experiences, integrated loyalty programs, seamless e-wallets, and other functionalities. 

Yango Tech’s proprietary Product Information Management (PIM) system will centralise and ensure the accuracy of product data across all digital platforms. This reliable data supports the integration of smart offers, which are automatically tailored to specific customer segments on Al Sadhan and SPAR’s website and mobile app. These targeted offers will play a key role in boosting customer retention and enhancing the shopping experience. 

Al Sadhan Group, with over 72 years of heritage as a prominent family-owned retail business, manages more than 30 stores under the Al Sadhan and SPAR brands. Ranked among Saudi Arabia’s top 10 retailers, the company processes thousands of online orders daily and is set to achieve more than seven-fold growth in its online operations within the next few months. Beyond retail, Al Sadhan’s interests include real estate, investment, engineering, construction, and education.

The custom-branded website and mobile apps, available on iOS and Android, will support various cashless payment methods to offer a secure and convenient shopping experience. Users will have access to flexible delivery services, such as on-demand delivery within 60 minutes, 3-hour delivery windows, instant pickup, and scheduled pickup, so the end consumer can receive their purchases quickly. To further optimise operations, advanced administrative systems will be introduced to streamline customer support, internal tech support, and promotional campaign management.

The GAIN Summit provides an ideal platform to unveil this groundbreaking partnership. With Yango Tech’s advanced technology and Al Sadhan’s established market presence, both companies are poised to reshape the retail landscape in Saudi Arabia. The collaboration not only highlights their commitment to driving innovation but also sets a new standard for digital excellence in the industry.

Sherpa Communications is proud to support Yango, the international ride-hailing service and part of the global Yango Group, in announcing the launch of its new business-to-business (B2B) service, Yango Rides for Business, at the ITS World Congress 2024—the premier global event for smart mobility and transport innovation in Dubai. This new service is designed to streamline and elevate corporate transportation management.

Yango Rides for Business offers companies a seamless way to manage all employee transportation needs through a single, centralised platform. With the service, businesses can consolidate their ride-hailing expenses, eliminating the need for prepayments or employee reimbursements. All rides are billed monthly to a corporate account, with expenses being fully tax-deductible and easily trackable.

Key feature of the service is advanced customisation that allows organisations to control ride access and set spending limits for employees or clients according to their specific needs. This flexibility enables departments and teams to tailor transportation solutions for daily commutes or specialised travel. Through a dedicated account management system, businesses can effectively monitor ride access, usage limits, and expenses, ensuring efficient budget management and cost reduction.

The service offers three distinct service classes—Business, Premier, and Elite—each designed to cater to different business needs. Companies can select the appropriate tier for various roles or levels within their organisation. Additionally, Yango Rides for Business includes round-the-clock support from a dedicated team, with each company receiving a personal manager to address issues promptly and provide customised assistance.

Sherpa Communications assisted Yango, the globally renowned ride-hailing service and part of Yango Group, in announcing its partnership with the Integrated Transport Centre ‘Abu Dhabi Mobility’ of the Department of Municipalities and Transport. This exciting collaboration brings the city’s taxis right to your fingertips. With Yango’s smart app, users can now easily connect with Abu Dhabi’s public and private taxis, as well as licensed private vehicles, offering seamless, efficient, and hassle-free transportation for both residents and visitors.

Now, you can navigate Abu Dhabi faster and easier than ever before. The Yango app is designed to make your journey as smooth as possible, whether you’re heading to a business meeting, exploring the city’s vibrant cultural scene, or simply commuting. The app’s advanced geolocation technology ensures that the nearest available city taxi is just moments away, ready to whisk you to your destination.

Since the trial phase of Yango’s partnership, the service has already proven its effectiveness, with over 300 taxis operating across the Emirate and more than 8,000 trips completed in the last five months. Now, with over 1,500 taxis already registered and operational, you can be confident that a safe, secure, and convenient ride is always within reach.

Yango’s city taxi initiative in Abu Dhabi is part of a broader vision to enhance the capital city’s transport infrastructure, promoting sustainability and digital connectivity. By integrating with the existing public taxi network, the ride-hailing company improves operational efficiency and supports the Emirate’s goals of reducing its carbon footprint and offering world-class urban mobility solutions.

The Yango app’s sleek design and intuitive interface, available in English and Arabic, make scheduling rides hassle-free. Whether you’re a local resident or a visitor to this dynamic city, download the Yango app, book your taxi, and discover why Yango is becoming the preferred choice for smart, stylish, and sustainable transportation in over 20 countries worldwide.