News

Web Summit Expands With New Middle East Event In Qatar

Thousands of attendees from around the world will gather at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in March 2024.

Published

2 years ago

April 6, 2023

web summit expands with new middle east event in qatar

Today, the world’s largest technology conference, Web Summit, announced the launch of a new event in the Middle East, titled Web Summit Qatar, to be held at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC) in March 2024.

The tech expo will be the first of its kind in Qatar, and will bring together thousands of entrepreneurs and investors from around the globe, as well as the next generation of startups disrupting the tech landscape.

The Middle Eastern event is part of Web Summit’s ongoing strategy to widen its reach into new regions and economies, and will provide a wealth of opportunities to connect the global tech community.

After receiving bids from several regional cities, Web Summit chose Doha as the new event’s host. Web Summit plans to deepen existing relationships in the region through Web Summit Qatar, which will run for at least five years.

Also Read: A Guide To Digital Payment Methods In The Middle East

“Web Summit in Lisbon has become the world’s largest technology conference, and our ambition is to make Web Summit ever more global. Establishing a new event in the Middle East is part of that broader plan for Web Summit,” says CEO of Web Summit Paddy Cosgrave.

Qatar’s technology sector is evolving rapidly, with a thriving start-up scene supported by both the government and the private sector. The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2021 ranks Qatar 28th globally for its capacity for innovation, ahead of other countries in the region. Qatar is a heavy investor in its technology infrastructure, with projects focusing on emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cybersecurity.

News

Google Releases Veo 2 AI Video Tool To MENA Users

The state-of-the-art video generation model is now available in Gemini, offering realistic AI-generated videos with better physics, motion, and detail.

Published

2 days ago

April 16, 2025

Nour Nasir

Google

Starting today, users of Gemini Advanced in the MENA region — and globally — can tap into Veo 2, Google’s next-generation video model.

Originally unveiled in 2024, Veo 2 has now been fully integrated into Gemini, supporting multiple languages including Arabic and English. The rollout now brings Google’s most advanced video AI directly into the hands of everyday users.

Veo 2 builds on the foundations of its predecessor with a more sophisticated understanding of the physical world. It’s designed to produce high-fidelity video content with cinematic detail, realistic motion, and greater visual consistency across a wide range of subjects and styles. Whether recreating natural landscapes, human interactions, or stylized environments, the model is capable of interpreting and translating written prompts into eight-second 720p videos that feel almost handcrafted.

Users can generate content directly through the Gemini platform — either via the web or mobile apps. The experience is pretty straightforward: users enter a text-based prompt, and Veo 2 returns a video in 16:9 landscape format, delivered as an MP4 file. These aren’t just generic clips — they can reflect creative, abstract, or highly specific scenarios, making the tool especially useful for content creators, marketers, or anyone experimenting with visual storytelling.

Also Read: Getting Started With Google Gemini: A Beginner’s Guide

To ensure transparency, each video is embedded with SynthID — a digital watermark developed by Google’s DeepMind. The watermark is invisible to the human eye but persists across editing, compression, and sharing. It identifies the video as AI-generated, addressing concerns around misinformation and media authenticity.

While Veo 2 is still in its early phases of public rollout, the technology is part of a broader push by Google to democratize advanced AI tools. With text-to-image, code generation, and now video creation integrated into Gemini, Google is positioning the platform as a full-spectrum creative assistant.

Access to Veo 2 starts today and will continue expanding in the coming weeks. Interested users can try it out at gemini.google.com or through the Gemini app on Android and iOS.