Dubai: When Dubai hosted the Expo those six months, the rest of the exhibitions and meetings organized in the city could take place. or the safety net and the springboard of a sector that recovered a gap in the post-Covid phase.
Now, 3 months after the Expo closes, what’s next for the events industry and Dubai’s prestige as one of the world’s event hubs?Geoff Dickinson CEO of dmg events and long-term president of UFI (Global Industry Events Association) For 2024, look deep into the crystal ball to take a long-term look.
Once cities reopen, almost each and every event comes back – we’ve seen it in Dubai as a city that has controlled this pandemic very well. At dmg events, we are again organising all our events this year in Dubai: and all other cities, which have reopened.
Some occasions have disappeared in which, unfortunately, the small organizers have not been able to continue operating due to the monetary tension of the pandemic. However, we have maintained our confidence in the strength of quality face-to-face occasions and introduced new occasions over the course of two years or more. Together with dubai police, we presented the World Police Summit at the Expo 2020 site in March and this occasion will grow and expand next year at DWTC.
We also created the World Public Services Congress in Abu Dhabi in May at ADNEC and a new hydrogen event in Canada. In 2022, we introduced six new industry fairs in 4 countries and are launching more by 2023.
If you’re travelling with Emirates lately, they’re full in Business Class and even First. The strength of face-to-face communication is now well understood, especially after those two years. Businesses are desperate to re-establish connections and relationships with consumers. through face-to-face meetings.
In addition to Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, are there other regional cities that have noticed MICE returning to pre-pandemic levels?
Many cities are now returning to pre-pandemic levels, cities with constant restrictions are not. We operate internationally with 10 international offices and events in 28 countries. Our recent events in the UNITED Arab Emirates (Dubai and Abu Dhabi), Saudi Arabia (Riyadh), Canada (Calgary), Egypt (Cairo), Nigeria (Abuja) and Italy (Rome) have recovered. Many, like our events in Riyadh, have noticed an increase in attendance due to subsidized demand.
This year, the Dubai World Trade Center registered Gulf Food’s stake.
We have not lowered the rates, nor have the other organizers. We have maintained respectful and friendly rates with our exhibitors who have suffered from the pandemic. Our exhibitors did not reduce their surface, nor their expenses in their stands.
We recently celebrated our Hotel and INDEX (interior design) occasions and there were some really amazing stalls. The only challenge left at this point is that exhibitors from some destinations, especially China, still have restrictions and therefore we are missing exhibitors from several countries. – however, those will come back.
Events are temporarily regaining their volume and our ADIPEC event in Abu Dhabi in November 2021 to 95% of their pre-pandemic volume, such as our EGYPS energy event in Cairo in February.
Any crisis tends to see an advance in the need, use, and progression of technology. For the event organizers, the ability to pass online/virtually has allowed us to pass on the presence of the event and continue our relationships with our customers. Progress in the quality and delivery of online events has been huge in recent years.
This will create a merit for the events as it means that other people who for some reason attend on the user can now attend and watch the conference sessions online. Online/virtual events will not update live events on the user, but will complement them and expand their reach.
For example, the ADIPEC oil and fuel event in Abu Dhabi attracts visitors from all over the world; however, some staff members, for example, say a young Exxon Mobil strategist in Houston might not be funded through his company to that extent. But they can now participate online. . .
The online/virtual events component of our live face-to-face events will load volumes of delegates and visitors, which in turn will likely increase the number of exhibitors and sponsors. So in the short term, the pandemic has been incredibly stressful financially for the event organizers. In the long run, you’ll see an increase in profits for hybrid events, either face-to-face and online.
The main obstacles are quite small, just wait for global travel to open up without restrictions, for example, China. The event industry is recovering and visitor demand is more potent than ever as other people miss face-to-face meetings.
As a board member of UFI, the global event industry agreement, I actively participate in the agreement to assist ongoing projects in order to ensure that the event industry is moving in the right direction. UFI signed up for COP 26 in November 2021 for: Net Zero Carbon Events: to unite the global event industry to the developing movement towards Net 0 until 2050.
The site will begin to transfer to green energy solutions, booth contractors will create reusable booth designs, water will be recycled at an event, and carbon credits will be used to offset travel. The industry will be carbon neutral.
I am that face-to-face occasions will rebound and grow at the speed of the coming years.
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