During a recent event held at Honeywell’s high-tech office complex in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, industry leaders convened to discuss the transformative impact of digital transformation, how it is shaping the future of the region’s smart buildings and cities, and the importance of implementing robust cybersecurity strategies to protect operational technologies across industries.

The Honeywell Abu Dhabi Technology Day 2019 was attended by smart building and city decision-makers from the UAE’s public and private sectors. The discussion focused on how smart building technology solutions can support the UAE government’s objectives, such as UAE Vision 2021 and Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, and how business leaders can adopt and incorporate these technologies more actively.

Earlier this year, Honeywell research highlighted that more than 70% of medium-to-large organizations in the buildings and cities sector in the UAE and Saudi Arabia expect to increase spending on digitalization and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) technologies in the next five years. The research also revealed a growing appetite for investments in cybersecurity solutions in the next five years in both the UAE (75%) and Saudi Arabia (68%).

The event follows the launch in April of the Honeywell Masdar Innovation Center, an innovation and knowledge-exchange hub advancing digital transformation across the oil, gas, petrochemical and infrastructure sectors. Honeywell has been serving customers in the Middle East for more than 60 years, and has been operating in Abu Dhabi for over three decades. The company’s solutions blend physical products with advanced software to create value for industries while supporting long-term national development visions and economic diversification across the region.