Rabat – This week, just under 200,000 entrepreneurs, investors, innovators and tech enthusiasts are gathering in Dubai for GITEX Global 2025, the 45th edition of the world’s largest tech expo.
In over 40 halls of event spaces, spread out between Dubai World Trade Center and Dubai Harbor, participants have access to a plethora of conferences, summits, speakers, and workshops that will act as incubators for future solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges surrounding AI, sustainable tech, cybersecurity, and more.
Yet, in addition to enriching their expertise, projects, or businesses, many of GITEX participants are in Dubai for one major reason: networking.
Startup founders have been researching potential investors or industry giants will attend the event. Innovators have their pitches prepared; business owners have created their roadmap for partnership-building; tech enthusiasts are using the GITEX app to map out where the cutting-edge products will be on display. Amid the bustle, all of them face one crucial problem: how to possibly schedule-in all of these crucial connections over the span of just five days.
This is where UBQT comes in – an innovative social networking platform that uses AI to enable person-to-person networking. UBQT is GITEX Global’s official community and ecosystem partner this year. The app has its own unique community specifically for GITEX Global 2025 participants, providing a space where users can quickly schedule in-person meet-ups, and stay connected after the event.
In an exclusive interview with Morocco World News (MWN), Lara Varjabedian, Co-Founder and CEO of UBQT, reveals why the app’s AI tech focus on in-person connections is unique. In an age where tech can sometimes push us farther apart instead of closer together, Lara argues that this is needed more than ever.
“UBQT is about all fortuitous chances and making it so that we don’t miss important connections,” Lara tells MWN.
Unlike LinkedIn, UBQT does not have an online chat function, and because users can only connect when they geolocated in close proximity, it prioritizes in-person networking.
This means no waiting around for an un-answered email, or being left on-read for weeks after a conference. At its core, UBQT gets rid of all of the typical logistical details that delay a genuine connection.
“We’re using AI to streamline those connections at scale,” Lara explains. “So, we suggest or recommend the right person to meet, schedule the catchups in calendars, and also adapt to location preferences.” This, she says, is what sets UBQT apart from other social media apps on the market.
A desire for community
In an age where professional networking can feel like anything other than genuine, Lara tells the story about how UBQT started with the humble roots of a desire for a wholesome community with no strings attached.
Lara has Armenian roots, but was born in Beirut, Lebanon and grew up in Algeria. She’s a true global citizen – having lived in many places across the globe, including Brussels, Hong Kong, a bit in the US, in London, among others. This globetrotting shaped the way that Lara sees community and how she continually desires to find it.
“Back in 2014, I had this idea when I was very much lonely during a business trip…thinking… I’m here alone and there must be someone around me that I know – either someone from my professional network or someone from my personal network – but I have no idea.”
After pondering this feeling, Lara returned to Dubai, where she is currently based, only to find out – by complete chance – that a close friend of hers had also been living in the same place for the past year and they had no idea. That friend was Jonathan L. Hasson, who, turns out, had desired the same need for a community-based networking app. The two would later become co-founders of UBQT.
AI-powered ‘magic’
The software behind UBQT is in itself a testament to how quickly technology has evolved. When Lara and Jonathan first started out in 2024, they did not have the AI technology that the community is powered by today. Like many startup founders, they started small with an idea, hope that it stuck, and received much-needed support from family, friends, and professional network.
“We’re evolving a lot,” Lara says, adding that their AI engine is constantly learning from UBQT users to adapt to their needs. The tech not only uses geo-locaters but also curates smart recommendations for possible connections to meet-up in certain places based on their preferences or frequently-visited places.
That means, instead of taking the time to pick the perfect cafe, UBQT’s AI picks one out for you and lists contacts already there.
“There are a lot of misconnections that could eventually create amazing business opportunities and create magic,” Lara says. “So what we’re doing is that we’re using AI to create that magic.”
Of course with any social media app – especially with a location feature – safety is a concern.
“We take data security and privacy very seriously,” Lara assures. “We are a very closed and private network,” she adds, detailing that users can only connect if they choose to turn on the geo-locator and be part of certain communities.
In terms of cybersecurity, Lara says UBQT is constantly learning how to prevent online attacks, and they plan to use GITEX Global 2025 as a platform to grow.
“We are lucky to be part of Microsoft for Startups AI for Impact and we’re also using this opportunity to get them to review our standards,” the CEO says.
“The app is in constant evolution,” she explains, adding that she plans on using expertise from experts in the field this week to make UBQT better.
Key connections at GITEX Global 2025
“To use a platform like GITEX as a way to connect and reconnect people in real life for us is a great opportunity because this is really our ethos. It’s our purpose,” Lara says, when asked about what it means to partner with the world’s largest tech expo.
“We are about human connections in a very overwhelmed digital world… that is going to be disconnecting us further,” she says. This drives their slogan “Catch me when you can.”
UBQT has been working with GITEX for quite some time, but this year, Lara is most excited for their official ties to GITEX Global. As a community and ecosystem partner with GITEX, UBQT’s mission of social cohesion is aligned with UAE’s 2025 “Year of Community.” In addition to showcasing their app directly on the GITEX floor, UBQT is sharing its unique QR code for GITEX Global’s community, with the aim of facilitating sustainable connections – not only throughout the week – but also, as Lara emphasizes, far after the trade show closes in Dubai.
This, is what the founder says, is their most prized factor for the app – its ability to continue those connections long after the event.
Lara talks about a touching story when UBQT was displaying their community at GITEX Europe, and some participants came up to their booth on the final day. Lara offered them a chance to download the app and join the community, to which they replied that there is no point, as GITEX is closing. They were delighted to find out that the UBQT community remains, allowing users to keep connected – and meet new people – post GITEX.
This facilitated serendipity, as Lara describes it, allows for ubiquity of sustainable connections, where chance meetings can turn into partnerships, or even friendships, that last a lifetime.
