The OPEN Chicago Annual Conference 2026 brought technology leaders, entrepreneurs, and members of the Pakistani diaspora together on October 24, and the Pakistan Software Export Board took a leading role. Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, attended, which underscored the weight of the dialogue between the two countries. The board’s Chief Executive Officer, Faisal Jeddy, moderated the Pakistan-US Tech Connect panel, which put Pakistan’s technology capabilities and its opportunities in the American market at the center of the discussion.
He was joined on the panel by Kewan Khawaja, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Techlogix, Dr. Faisal Kamiran, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Addo AI, Muhammad Bilal Abbasi, Chief Executive Officer of Ignite National Technology Fund, and Ahmed Muzmmal, Vice President for artificial intelligence at Byonyks. Together they brought views from enterprise technology, artificial intelligence, and innovation funding, covering the kinds of companies that Pakistan hopes to place in front of American buyers and the support that exists to help them grow.
The conversations continued at the board’s booth, where its team met attendees and members of the diaspora, shared opportunities to work with Pakistani companies, and explained its mandate to grow the country’s information technology exports. The booth gave the board a direct way to turn a panel discussion into individual contacts, and it linked the national export goal with the people and businesses who can help reach it.
The panel formed part of the wider Pakistan-US Tech Connect 2026 series, which has also stopped in Silicon Valley, Dallas, and Washington, and which aims to turn Pakistan’s growing information technology exports into lasting commercial relationships with American companies. The diaspora’s role is central to that effort. Pakistani Americans understand the American market and often hold the contacts that open doors to customers and investors, while those building businesses in Pakistan hold the technical capacity. The board said strengthening these relationships is part of helping Pakistani companies reach their next opportunity, and it thanked OPEN Chicago for bringing the community together.
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