I am fortunate to have the opportunity to attend theCourts Excellence in a Changing Worldconference inDubai, UAEthis week.  Hosted by the International Association for Court Administration (IACA)in association with theDubai Courtsand theDIFC Courtsas host judiciary.

This event in Dubai is the first of its kind in the Middle East region and the sixth International Conference to be held by IACA and the largest so far with representation from over 50 countries around the world.

The agenda's theme is  "Court Excellence in a Changing World" with leaders from judicial organizations from the Middle East and all over the world attending to share, and gain knowledge about best practices, latest strategies for change and successful examples of court efficiency.

The agenda for the first day includes:

Key note address,Court Excellence in a Complex World: The Malaysian Experience, TunDato' Seri Zaki, former Chief, Justice of Malaysia. The courts were converted from paper-based manual processes to digital leading to reduction in backlog from 44,873 in 2009 to 2611 in 2012.

Panel:What is Court Excellence?The International Court Excellence Framework was presented providing a framework of universal core values, seven areas of court excellence aligned with those values, self-evaluation process using the Court Excellence Self-Assessment Questionnaire that evaluates a court's performance against seven areas of excellence, and provides guidance for courts to improve their performance, and Global Measures of Court Performance.

• Moderator:Robert Keay, Co-founder, The International Customer Service Institute (TICSI)with best practices from:
• Tan Siong Thye, Judicial Commissioner, Supreme Court of Singapore
• Justice Robert John Torres, Jr., Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Guam
• Sir Charles Michael Dennis Byron, President of the Caribbean Court of Justice
• Ms. Branka Tomasevic, Deputy Secretary General of Serbian High Court Council

Panel:Leadership and Change Management: The Roles and Challenges in Change and Transformation Management in Courts. The prominent role of leadership and pivotal skills needed in the Courts to manage change successfully with discussion on the complexity and sensitivity of the work of the Courts and sharing of best practices, experiences and leadership success stories in Courts.

• Moderator: TunDato' Seri Zaki, Former Chief Justice of Malaysia with best practices from:
• Dr. Luis Palma, Dean of the School of the Graduate Studies of the University of Belgrano
• Judge Jean Fahed,  President of the Supreme Judicial Council in Lebanon
• Ale? Zalar, Former Judge and Slovenia Ministry of Justice
• Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Former Judge Supreme Court of Pakistan
• Roger Bilodeau, Registrar Supreme Court of Canada

Panel:Role of Strategic Planning and Performance Management in Raising the Efficiency of Courts.  The pace of 21st century life and complexities imposed on the Courts is increasing the need to raise their efficiency through the implementation of strategic planning and  management performance management  while maintaining high levels of transparency and equal access to justice to all folds of society.

• Moderator: Dr. Yousuf Al Suwaidi, Senior Consultant -Planning and Organisational Performance at Dubai Courts with best practices from:
• Wallace Jefferson, Chief Justice of Texas
• David Slayton, President of the National Association for Court Management, USA
• Jeffrey Apperson Jeff Apperson, CEO of IACA
• Wiwiek Awiati, Judicial Reform Team of the Supreme Court of Indonesia
• HE Medhat Al-Mahmoud, Chief Justice, Iraq

It's been a full day and I'm looking forward to sharing the second day of best practices including the role of technology to support court transformation tomorrow.