Dubai’s Event Calendar Is Crowded. Which Events Are Worth It?

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

This is the Morning Drive. Dubai's event calendar is packed with conferences and exhibitions and networking events.

Loads just recently, we have seen, and ongoing as well, but it leaves businesses with more choices. But there is also a big question here. Where is the real value? How do you pick which event to go to, when to go and how long to spend there, et cetera? Julie Hanse is a business developer for the MENA region at Le Book. They are a, essentially a creative community, I think, really.

Julie Hanse (0:29)

A global creative network.

SPEAKER_1 (0:31)

Global creative network? Yes, officially. I probably should have looked that up.

But she's here to discuss how companies can choose the right events, make meaningful connections and get better returns from their participation. Nice to see you.

Julie Hanse (0:43)

Nice to see you.

SPEAKER_1 (0:44)

Good to have you here. So we've got hundreds of events that compete for attention, business attention, it's kind of packed all year round, really. We've seen a lot recently.

Big question to start with, what should companies and businesses look for when they're trying to decide which ones are worth their time and investment? Is there a checklist?

Julie Hanse (1:05)

Yes, that is a loaded, loaded question, especially with everything that's going on and this fall season being just so packed and like double packed, because a lot of the events that were supposed to happen in the spring got delayed.

SPEAKER_1 (1:21)

The postponement is, yeah, that's right.

Julie Hanse (1:22)

Yeah, exactly, so now it's like double, double the fun, double the event season.

So yeah, it's really difficult if you're a business and you want to be seen at all these events. How do you go about choosing where to go? So I kind of narrowed it down to like the three P's, right? So the purpose, why are you going? What are you trying to accomplish? The people, who do you want to meet there? What types of people do you want to meet there? Can you target like a list of people that will be attending that you want to talk to? And then the payoff, you know? Can you accomplish what you are trying to accomplish by going to this event? Is it awareness? Is it building new connections? What is your ROI? So it's kind of, you know, narrowing it down and being really realistic about what you're trying to accomplish and who you can actually meet.

I think that's a good starting point.

SPEAKER_1 (2:16)

It seems to be. I mean, it's not as though you're going to, I mean, I think there are people who are like, I've got to go to an event next week.

I need some time off. And, you know, they just go and they're kind of aimless. But if you're going to do this properly and attend the right functions and try and make the right contacts, there has to be a thought process that you have to be able to filter, don't you?

Julie Hanse (2:36)

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, going to all these events can be so overwhelming. Like there's a lot of pressure around, like, making sure you're seen at all these events, that you're going to every single event. But I mean, like, you know, I think we're kind of at a point where it's quality over quantity, and there's going to be over, like, 400 events this fall season in Dubai.

And, you know, they're expecting hundreds of thousands of attendees and thousands of exhibitors. And, you know, it's like, you cannot humanly possibly go to all these events. So you have to narrow down, you know, by industry, what industry are you targeting?

What types of people are you trying to meet? Who can really, you know, who can you benefit from meeting? What types of people, if you're, you know, like, I use this silly example, but my friend told me about this event. I mean, this is how insane the events are this year. There's a curly haired girl convention, okay? If you are selling straight hair products, do not go to the curly girl hair convention, right? Well, it's dumbed down, but it's like, there's some people that are showing up to events that have nothing to do with their industry just to be there, and it's really just a waste of time and energy and resources. So I do think, yeah, there's a huge filtering process to do up front.

SPEAKER_1 (4:02)

I would suggest though, just as a counter to that, very often in my experience, curly haired people wish they had short hair. So maybe counter intuitively, you could be a hair straightener business at a curly haired girl event.