The conference began with presentations given by the IMT Marketing students on Gen-X consumer in the Gulf, branding trends and service industry trends. The research presentations summarized the patterns, insights and survey findings to reveal that the Gulf region is not as badly affected by the difficult market conditions as feared.

A panel of speakers from the Gulf business consulting firms such as KPMG, Cedar consulting and Market Vision Research & Consulting Services observed that the Gulf region has always been a strong consumer market and will continue to be so. They however, asked for several corrections and adjustments in the marketing strategy such as experience branding, intangible marketing and additional perseverance, creativity and consumer orientation in keeping the Gulf brands relevant. Mr Gautam Sen Gupta, Managing Partner/ Director, Market Vision Research & Consulting Services, Mr Hiram Joshi, Associate Director – Business Performance Services, KPMG, UAE and Mr Manish Kotwala, Director, Cedar Management Consulting International, Dubai critiqued these presentations and offered their own perspectives in Gen-X, brandings and service trends in the Gulf.