On 20 November, Gulf Business hosted an exclusive roundtable at the Motivate Media Group boardroom in Dubai Media City, bringing together senior technology, HR and AV specialists
On 20 November, Gulf Business hosted an exclusive roundtable at the Motivate Media Group boardroom in Dubai Media City, bringing together senior technology, HR and AV specialists to examine a rapidly evolving question: How is modern collaboration reshaping meeting spaces?
The conversation centred on five key themes shaping the region’s workplaces: how IT decision makers are planning and implementing technology in larger rooms and auditoriums; the merging roles of AV and IT — with audio quality emerging as a true game-changer; the benefits and challenges of end-to-end solutions versus multi-brand setups; the barriers to adoption, from budgets to user knowledge; and what the “ideal collaboration space” now looks like for organisations.
Opening the session, Yassine Mannai, associate director – sales and marketing, Shure MEA, said companies across the GCC are redesigning their meeting rooms to match new expectations.
“Spaces today need to be more dynamic and adaptable,” he explained. “Companies want areas that can shift from corporate events to trainings and wellness sessions — all while ensuring every participant, in the room or online, enjoys the same clarity and engagement.”
For Shure, audio has become central to that shift.
“Our goal is not just to sell hardware,” Mannai said. “It’s about creating inclusive, engaging spaces where collaboration works seamlessly. Previously you needed an audio engineer to configure everything. Now we’re building systems that guarantee high-quality audio while simplifying deployment for IT and facilities teams.”
He added that microphones, sensors and other capture devices now define the quality of modern collaboration.
“If you’re deploying AI or any advanced collaboration tools, you need high-quality input first. The hardware drives the experience that follows.”
Around the table, the broader transformation was equally clear. Anuja Shah, head of strategy and IT at Zurich Middle East, stressed that the best technology “stays in the background”, allowing people to focus on content rather than tools.
From the HR perspective, Clarise Morris, HR manager – MEA & APAC, Leviton Middle East, pointed to the challenge of uniting different generations and levels of digital fluency: “We talk about culture, engagement and inclusivity. If we don’t connect people properly, none of that works.”
For organisations with distributed teams, simplicity has become non-negotiable.
“When the experience fails, the impact fails,” said Shivani Saxena, chief of staff at RemotePass. “Remote employees need to feel as present as those in the room.”
Participants also debated the merits of end-to-end solutions versus multi-brand setups, a topic increasingly relevant as meeting spaces grow in size and complexity. Mannai noted that unified systems can reduce deployment challenges and create a more consistent user experience, while multi-brand configurations continue to serve specialised needs.
“People want systems that work the moment you walk into the room,” he said. “Plug-and-play has become a real expectation. When the setup is seamless, people collaborate better — and the technology stays where it should be: in the background.”
Across the session, one message emerged clearly: the modern workplace is no longer defined by desks or even buildings, but by the quality of connection between people.
That connection depends on meeting spaces that feel natural, intuitive and equitable — whether someone is speaking from a boardroom table or joining from a laptop thousands of kilometres away.
As this Gulf Business Roundtable showed, the future of collaboration will not be shaped by more technology, but by smarter, simpler, plug-and-play experiences that give teams the freedom to focus fully on the work — not the tools behind it.
Thank you to all our roundtable speakers:
- Yassine Mannai, associate director – sales and marketing, Shure MEA
- Shivani Saxena, chief of staff, RemotePass
- Anuja Shah, head of strategy and IT, Zurich Middle East
- Jannat Singh, founder and CEO, Talent Shark
- Faisal Zaidi, president, Exscape
- Algert Beollari, head of compliance and MLRO, Astero Falcon
- Rishi Chahal, co-founder and CCO, IDCUBE
- Clarise Morris, HR manager – MEA & APAC, Leviton Middle East
- Reena Simon Roy, HR leader – Middle East, Cognizant
- George Simon, co-founder and CEO, Cornerstone Technology Solutions Global
