Anyone immersed in the world of tech and gadgets will likely be familiar with GITEX Global, the annual extravaganza in Dubai (now with other events around the world, including Thailand). As a keen observer of all things shiny and new, I had to make my annual pilgrimage to this incredible event again this year.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Like Arab Health, it’s a monster show, sprawled over a horizontal rabbit hole of interconnected halls at Dubai World Trade Centre. Like navigating an open world video game, I crossed from Hall 1 to Hall 21 (or was it 20?), and through to another cavernous hall, passing household names and endless popup cafes supplying enough caffeine to fuel a startup for a decade.

Brands that caught my attention included G42, and their ‘Intelligent Grid’ and Presight, Space42, and Huawei and its robot ‘dog’ doing twisting backflips that looked more impressive than anything witnessed at the Olympics Breaking event recently.

Other than the bulky cars and flying gizmos that wouldn’t look out of place in the next Batman or Iron Man movie, the real highlight for me was reconnecting with familiar faces—like my good friend from Malaffi, who introduced me to their latest health app, Sahatna.

It has to be said, it’s the most impressive I seen, in particular because it offers recommendations based on genomic data —both scary and empowering at the same time. I recorded a quick demo, which you can watch here: