To borrow a political slogan, it’s time to build back better. And thanks to the UAE’s incredible vaccine roll-out, my life in the MENA event industry is set to return to something approaching normal. Which means, after 18 months of time spent on pause, it’s time to look toward the future and to start planning what our new future will look like in the MENA entertainment and event industry.
The last 18 months have changed a lot: It’s changed how we see the world, it’s changed how we run an events business and on a day-to-day level, it’s changed how we interact with people.
The easy thing would be to ignore the lessons painfully learned from the past year-and-a-half and go back to business as normal. But instead we should rebuild and reimagine.
And those lessons should start from the ground up with a series of questions: Why do we put on events? What experiences do we want to create? Where previously events were sometimes done for the sake of doing an event, now we have two issues: The economic cost of putting on an event when budgets have never been tighter and whether people want to attend live events.
And those limits and questions will make the industry more progressive in terms of the approach of why we are doing the events, what is the purpose, and what is the outcome of each one?
The events and entertainment industry should start thinking about the experience, making sure people are engaged and want to go to these types of events. There is a massive appetite once things reopen, so to stand out from the crowd and to make it attractive for people to take part, then it has to be different.
A lot of that will come down to confidence. Confidence that the events industry is safe and confidence that there is an audience out there to enjoy these events.
Dubai is leading the charge in the MENA region in terms of reopening and getting the industry back together again. The city and wider region has done a great job in showing that we can reopen safely especially with Expo 2020 Dubai happening in less than 100 days. There are lots of international contacts – stage management, talent managers, production companies and international contractorss that are coming here now thanks to the Expo. Factor in the Qatar World Cup in November 2022, the megaprojects being built in Saudi and the growing ambitions of Egypt, where they’re building a brand new multi-billion-dollar city, and you have a booming region. And that success will bleed into the entertainment and events industry.
Dubai is leading the charge in the MENA region in terms of reopening and getting the industry back together again.
So much so that one of the biggest challenges the entertainment and events industry will have is staffing and resources. There is a finite amount of creative talent in the region and with so many big events in such a short space of time, it will be a challenge to recruit and produce these post-pandemic events.
Bringing in talent from overseas is always an option, but it’s far better to keep the creative talent here and let them grow in the MENA region. Which could lead to more interesting and creative government solutions like the international freelance visa brought in last year.
Looking beyond the MENA region, you can see that confidence is returning. America has enjoyed full stadiums this summer for sport and music, while sporting events including the Euro 2020 football tournament were played to a backdrop of fans cheering (and booing the referee – some things really never do change!).
Globally, you can see the release as crowds return to venues and the events industry slowly opens up again.
There is a massive appetite and demand to start experiencing life again. People are confident because of the vaccine and the measures that have been taken. But ultimately I think the majority want to get to some sort of normality and back to doing everything that was done before.
It’s down to the MENA entertainment and event industry to rebuild back better and with more imagination.
Dan Bolton, founder and CEO, Dan Bolton Creative Management Agency and BE Experiential.
By ITP
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It’s time to rebuild and reimagine the MENA entertainment and event industry
The easy thing would be to ignore the lessons painfully learned from the past year-and-a-half and go back to business as normal. But instead we should rebuild and reimagine
Dan Bolton, founder and CEO, Dan Bolton Creative Management Agency and BE Experiential.
To borrow a political slogan, it’s time to build back better. And thanks to the UAE’s incredible vaccine roll-out, my life in the MENA event industry is set to return to something approaching normal. Which means, after 18 months of time spent on pause, it’s time to look toward the future and to start planning what our new future will look like in the MENA entertainment and event industry.
The last 18 months have changed a lot: It’s changed how we see the world, it’s changed how we run an events business and on a day-to-day level, it’s changed how we interact with people.
The easy thing would be to ignore the lessons painfully learned from the past year-and-a-half and go back to business as normal. But instead we should rebuild and reimagine.
And those lessons should start from the ground up with a series of questions: Why do we put on events? What experiences do we want to create? Where previously events were sometimes done for the sake of doing an event, now we have two issues: The economic cost of putting on an event when budgets have never been tighter and whether people want to attend live events.
And those limits and questions will make the industry more progressive in terms of the approach of why we are doing the events, what is the purpose, and what is the outcome of each one?
The events and entertainment industry should start thinking about the experience, making sure people are engaged and want to go to these types of events. There is a massive appetite once things reopen, so to stand out from the crowd and to make it attractive for people to take part, then it has to be different.
A lot of that will come down to confidence. Confidence that the events industry is safe and confidence that there is an audience out there to enjoy these events.
Dubai is leading the charge in the MENA region in terms of reopening and getting the industry back together again. The city and wider region has done a great job in showing that we can reopen safely especially with Expo 2020 Dubai happening in less than 100 days. There are lots of international contacts – stage management, talent managers, production companies and international contractorss that are coming here now thanks to the Expo. Factor in the Qatar World Cup in November 2022, the megaprojects being built in Saudi and the growing ambitions of Egypt, where they’re building a brand new multi-billion-dollar city, and you have a booming region. And that success will bleed into the entertainment and events industry.
So much so that one of the biggest challenges the entertainment and events industry will have is staffing and resources. There is a finite amount of creative talent in the region and with so many big events in such a short space of time, it will be a challenge to recruit and produce these post-pandemic events.
Bringing in talent from overseas is always an option, but it’s far better to keep the creative talent here and let them grow in the MENA region. Which could lead to more interesting and creative government solutions like the international freelance visa brought in last year.
Looking beyond the MENA region, you can see that confidence is returning. America has enjoyed full stadiums this summer for sport and music, while sporting events including the Euro 2020 football tournament were played to a backdrop of fans cheering (and booing the referee – some things really never do change!).
Globally, you can see the release as crowds return to venues and the events industry slowly opens up again.
There is a massive appetite and demand to start experiencing life again. People are confident because of the vaccine and the measures that have been taken. But ultimately I think the majority want to get to some sort of normality and back to doing everything that was done before.
It’s down to the MENA entertainment and event industry to rebuild back better and with more imagination.
Dan Bolton, founder and CEO, Dan Bolton Creative Management Agency and BE Experiential.
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