This is a charming tale of toil and dream of a young graduate from Sultan Qaboos University breaking free from the spell of Shelley and Shakespeare to script enchanting plots helping transform urban centres of Oman into wired wonders where transactions and interactions between humans and technologies are smoother, making life smarter for the people and taking the Sultanate to the ivy league of nations that have made their mark on the digital world.

The bold journeys in the digital world has earned her applause and prestigious awards, as well as invitations to  deliver keynote speeches at events held within and outside Oman, and the avid traveller is eager as ever to pack her bag and add to her list of 50.

Such adventures could help her pick novel tips for her digital explorations “to showcase our Oman as the most beautiful, peaceful and happy country “.  And the twists she gathers on the trips could make the plots thicker for the books she might pen in the future.

Driven, passionate and perceptive, Laila Al Hadhrami is a changemaker. The Smart Cities Development Manager at the National Energy Centre, Laila has been instrumental in leading national projects in digital transformation and smart cities across Oman and globally. She was also a member of the national programme for AI and Advanced Technologies as well as a senior executive for digital transformation in the e-Transformation team in the Ministry of Transport, Communications and IT.

An English graduate from Sultan Qaboos University, Laila’s tryst with the digital world began when she decided to do her master’s in online education from the University of Southern Queensland.

“Following my post-graduation, during which I got acquainted with digital practices and the nuances of technology, I dreamt to be a part of the national project of eOman.

I was working as a coordinator in Sultan Qaboos University when I got my post-graduate degree. But now I felt the desire to be part of the national projects in Digital Oman.

After relentlessly pursuing my dream of a career in the digital arena, I finally got my chance to move to the Information Technology Authority,” said Laila.

Her passion to see Oman feature on the list of leading countries in digital government led her to pursue a career with Smart Cities.

“My journey in Smart Cities started during my work in digital transformation but started officially when I joined the Smart City Platform, a hub for knowledge sharing, solution enablement and capacity building, in 2017 as the director of Building Capacity and Awareness. This was followed by my appointment as the Smart Cities Development Manager at the National Energy Centre,”

Laila and her team is responsible for sustainable innovation and solutions that can be implemented in Oman to improve the quality of life and lead the Sultanate to be among the top countries in Smart Cities.

Explaining the concept of Smart Cities in Oman, Laila said: “Smart Cities is centered around improving the quality of life for city residents.”

Oman started the Smart Cities concept with a bottom-up approach in 2017 by establishing the Smart City Platform that has initiated several projects to support research and innovation in Smart Cities, such as implementing three city hackathons that resulted in more than 50 innovative solutions. The platform also funded six research projects conducted by university researchers.

A remarkable offshoot of the Smart Cities concept in Oman is the Smart City Ambassadors Initiative. Given Laila’s commitment to the project, it should come as no surprise that the initiative is her brainchild. 

“One of the key missions of the Smart Cities Platform in the Sultanate of Oman is to increase the awareness and engagement of its stakeholders towards adopting the concept of smart city in their corporate and social life. Smart City Ambassadors was one of these successful initiatives and its goal was to create a smart community of practice by building a community of volunteered and skilled champions who would conduct a series of monthly free lectures and workshops related to the concept of Smart Cities around Oman,” elucidated Laila.

“As this is a non-profit initiative, SCA has partnered with different institutions and organisations to host its workshops free of cost and SCA ambassadors have voluntarily conducted such workshops.”

In October 2020, the Smart City Ambassadors initiative won the award in the ‘Ecosystem Best Practice’ category in the 2020 ITU Innovation Challenges competition.

Laila herself is a recipient of several awards, including Business and Digital Transformation Leader 2021 from the IDC Woman Transforming Technology Summit; the World CIO 200 Award, Global CIO Forum 2021; Oman’s Woman Leader in 2021 by the World Woman Leadership Congress; the Oman Woman Award of the Year 2020 in Innovation & Technology and Al Mar’a Excellence Award in Technology.

She has also translated and published two books. An avid traveller, Laila has visited over 50 countries and is the founder of the Instagram travel account, @oman_traveler.

Laila is often invited to as a keynote speaker at events in Oman and globally.

“My dream is to see my country among the leading countries in digital government and to showcase our Oman as the most beautiful, peaceful and happy country,” she said.

Undoubtedly, Laila is well into making her dream come true.