the dmg lowdown - Issue 7

Barth

CONTENTS

lowdownthe dmg Connecting People, Creating Communities,

Facilitating BusinessIssue 7, Winter 2012/3

MID

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New Year Issue

{Page 24}

Business Update:

VPs Visions 2013:

HR Update:

Charity Focus:

Dubai Marathon Update:

Event Reviews:

Launch Event Reviews:

C&T Update:

Just For Fun:

Sports & Social:

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A happy new year and welcome to the seventh edition of the dmg :: events Middle East newsletter.

Over the previous month the C&T team has worked hard to collect, research, investigate and report on activities and highlights of the company in 2012. With our biggest events, Big 5 and ADIPEC, having successfully taken place it proved to be a very busy year for all the departments. You will fi nd reviews of our major exhibitions and other events that have taken place.

As this is the fi rst edition of the newsletter in 2013 we will also give you an overview of what is scheduled for the year to come and will disclose some future initiatives we found out about. Geoff has provided a business update and Premila gave a detailed HR update including the numerous new joiners since the last newsletter of the Summer of 2012.

Aside from event previews and reviews there is a great range or articles for you to get stuck into, including a Dubai Marathon Update.

I would like to thank everyone that contributed to this edition, with special thanks to Eleanor Head for putting it all together.

Enjoy the newsletter and here’s to wishing you all a fantastic and successful year ahead.

Warm regards,

Barth de Ridder

Contributors:

Mike Allsopp, Marcela Soukupova, Michaella Black, Premila Braganza, Matt Denton, Geoff Dickinson, Ayana Everett, Alden Guevarra, Eleanor Head, Mike Hughes, Nicola Hudson, Samantha Kane-Macdonald, Prudence Kolong, Alma Macalalad, Nick Pomeroy, Jason Smith, Tim Wilson, Maude Aimee, Glenn Freeman

Who’s been shortlisted for the President’s Award…See Page 5

02 | the dmg lowdown Connecting People, Creating Communities, Facilitating Business

I would like to express my thanks to all of you for your hard work during 2012. It has been another year of growth for the business including three new shows in Saudi Arabia with INDEX, MEDEXPO and Hotel. In 2013 we will see more new events in a number of new countries with Big 5 Kuwait, INDEX Kuwait and Big 5 Construct India. There will also be two new exhibitions in Abu Dhabi in December next year with Life & Style and Abilities ME.

In 2010 we had just 8 events and today we have 18, plus we have taken ADIPEC to being an annual event, we created the conference unit and we have started launching online portals such as www.constructarabia.com. The business now covers exhibitions, conferences, publishing and online.

Over the past 2 years we have increased from circa 60 staff to over 130 staff and we have taken further office space on both the 5th, 2nd and 7th floors.

dmg::events has become a significant events business in the Middle East & Asia and I expect our growth to be equally as dramatic again in 2013. We are currently working on plans to acquire an events business in Thailand and looking at possible launches for Singapore.

November was one of our busiest months with Big 5 continuing to grow, ADIPEC bigger than ever and the inaugural Hotel Saudi Arabia exhibition.

The success of our business comes from our good fortune of having an excellent team and I am looking forward to celebrating with you all at our annual party at the World Trade Club at the Dubai World Trade Centre Tower on Thursday January 17th. I hope you will join us at what I am sure will be a great evening. There will be great food, drinks all night long, entertainment, music, President’s Awards and lots of on the night prizes.

My sincere thanks to all of you for being the most hard working and talented team in the region – Best wishes to you all for a wonderful 2013.

Geoff DickinsonPresidentdmg::events Middle East & Asia

Another Great Year

from Geoff

BUSINESSUpdate

the dmg lowdown | 03

We are looking forward to the second edition of our three Saudi launches from 2012 – INDEX, Hotel and MEDEXPO. All three of these events face local competition with MEDEXPO, in particular, fighting a particularly difficult battle with an offshoot of Arab Health.

We’re also looking forward to continuing the good work that’s already been done in developing our established UAE events. Specifically, as we’ve brought forward INDEX in the calendar, the team have got a big job to do in delivering INDEX 2013 in only a seven month timeframe. The Office team are also really having to pull out the stops as this sector continues to struggle against the global downturn. Hotel is shaping up well and we’re also hoping to add a new section that takes in leisure (sport and fitness, predominantly) as well as expanding our spa profile. There could also be an exciting JV on the cards for the Hotel team in the Far East.

Our two launches in the UAE will both take place in Abu

Dhabi and both have got off to a good start. ABILITIESme is really shaping up to become something special and we’re very hopeful that this becomes the ‘reference’ event of its type in the region. Life & Style represents something of a ‘first’ for dmg::events in the Middle East and has already attracted strong support from leading international and regional brands.

As ever, we are looking to launch and, if we can get past profile protection, we would like to put an event into Qatar.

In keeping with the saying ‘monotony is the awful reward of the careful’, for me the really exciting developments for the year are our steps into the unknown, our two new launches into new markets.

Big 5 Construct Indian in early September is dmg’s first

tentative step into the India sub-continent and all eyes will be on the show. The team looks to have it all under control and the relationship with our local partners FICCI is blooming. Once we have proven ourselves with this show, much like with Big 5 in Saudi, we will look to roll out more events in the region.

Big 5 Kuwait, our second launch and just two weeks

later, is also getting good traction, the fantastic venue facilities are a world apart from those of Saudi and India, but the big unknown here is the audience…

Of our existing events, late February sees the never

monotonous Middle East Coatings Show that two years on from the last Cairo edition offers similar challenges, the revolution may be over but the current unrest leads to familiar sleepless nights. That said the Quartz team managing the show for us report business as usual with the show tracking well.

We are also less than two months away from the third

edition of Big 5 Saudi which continues its stellar growth, pushing the boundaries of the venue and screaming out for more space.

It doesn’t seem that long ago we were onsite for the

Autumn Shows. Together the Big 5, Middle East Concrete, PMV Live and FM Expo in 2012 delivered almost $25m in stand revenue and the plans are in place to smash that in 2013. Plans that will develop the show, create more focused sections, deliver more visitor content and cement the future growth of the events.

Elsewhere 2013 is all about looking forward and

planning for 2014, we have two additional show launches in the pipeline and countless other opportunities waiting to be explored. I started with a quote so I’ll end with one that sums up our ethos, in the words of Peter Drucker “the best way to predict the future is to create it.’”

After a successful 2012 we asked our VPs to share their divisions’ plans and what they are looking forward to in 2013.

Mike Allsopp

Senior Vice PresidentDesign

Matt Denton

Vice PresidentConstruction

VPs Visions for 2013


We are currently working on establishing more sponsor-led events which have proven to be quite successful for us in 2012. C&T will continue to carve out a niche in this market and more sales led events and road shows will result. We will also focus on changing our event format somewhat to add shorter technical briefings to our existing training courses.

In an increasingly overcrowded conference market

there is no profile protection so we will have to fend off fierce competition for the same sponsorship dollar. The challenge will be to vary our events from what others are offering and create so-called blue oceans.

Data build remains one of our priorities in order to enter

into new markets. The GCC and neighbouring countries are important but also Africa is increasingly interesting given the type of events that we specialise in. The African market is not quite uniform in language and will need to be tackled with the right kind of patience to get to the right kind of results.

Our presence in the market will be re-emphasised by

delivering high quality events where no short cuts are taken. We are increasing the number of industry specific training courses and technical updates in order to satisfy the market needs.

Next to running our stock events we are also looking

at moving InRetail to Saudi Arabia after the success of the two Dubai events in the previous years.

It promises to be an interesting year ahead for us.

Following a really busy end to the year and the success of Big 5, ADIPEC and Hotel Show Saudi, it’s actually a great time to reflect on the past year and look forward to 2013. It only feels like yesterday that we were in January 2012, so looking forward to 2013, it is clear that we must realise how quickly time passes and how many things we need to accomplish as dmg :: events continues to grow. Some areas that I am looking to see us develop are:

• Introducing more consumer marketing techniques into our marketing campaigns. Although we market trade shows (sorry Ash), all our attendees are still consumers and there are ways we interact with them to continue improving pre-registration, conversation rates and overall attendance.

• Continue to develop our Social Media engagement to drive more user-generated content across our websites. This fits with our goals of year-round communication with our audience – let’s make it useful, relevant and compelling content.

• 2012 has seen a great improvement in our data quality and I’m keen to see us develop our databases and our audience reach in the UAE, key GCC markets and wider around the MENA region, India and South East Asia.

• Our web presence has grown hugely with the web team building excellent in-house websites, managing our corporate sites and developing new online communities. Constructarabia.com is enjoying a great period of growth and there is a lot more to come in early 2013. We’ll also be launching more online communities in other vertical sectors, so watch this space.

In summary, I want us to continue delivering quality attendees to our shows and making sure the visitor and exhibitor experience keeps them coming back for more and having fun while we do it.

Barth de Ridder

Director Conference & Training

Nick Pomeroy

Marketing Director

VPs VISIONS FOR 2013


VPs VISIONS FOR 2013

President’s Awards:

It’s time once again for the second annual President’s Awards, and I am delighted that we have received numerous nominations again this year with some colleagues being nominated more than once. These nominations have been reviewed and the Bronze, Silver and Gold awards will be announced at our annual party on 17th January 2013. Thank you to those of you that took the time to submit a nomination, and good luck to those of you who have been nominated below.

The Nominees are:

There has been lot of activity within HR since the last newsletter

HR Update

Salman Abou Hamzeh Senior Project Manager ADIPEC

Hanadi Aliwat Office Manager ADIPEC

Nithya Joseph Accountant Finance

John Suzara Project Manager MedExpo

Supriya D’Souza Accountant Finance

Sangeeta Dhanak Sales Manager Hotel

Cenil Roy Senior IT Support Analyst IT

Samer Alyain Senior Operations Manager Operations

Jaafar Shubber Project Manager INDEX Saudi

Leonora Daclitan Senior Exhibitions Administrator INDEX

Samantha Kane-Macdonald Senior Project Manager INDEX

Patrick Gedeon Project Manager Big 5

Andy White Event Director Big 5

Larisa Kalmykova Marketing Manager INDEX

Femi Itiola Senior Business Development Manager Conferences & Training

Robyn Sokol Operations Manager Reflex

Savitha Abreo Operations Executive Operations


New Joiners:

Juma Ghulam, Exhibition Administrator – Life & Style UAE (8 July 2012): Juma joined dmg last year as a temp on Big 5, but became permanent this year when the launch of Life & Style UAE was announced.

Chris Ayres, Project Manager – Life & Style UAE

(15 July 2012): Chris comes to us from IIR where he worked on their Life Sciences portfolio, fi rst on their 4 magazines and later on Africa Health 2011. Chris now works on the show’s Speed & Power and Sports & Leisure.

Waleed Mohammed, Credit Controller (18 July 2012): Prior to joining dmg, Waleed has worked with the likes of Dun & Bradstreet in Melbourne and the recruitment portal Monster.com in India.

Vina Alcala, Sales Manager – INDEX (1 August 2012): Vina’s last role was with Pico International, a renowned stand contractor whom she had worked with since 2005.

Alex Sworder, Project Manager – Life & Style UAE (5 August 2012): Alex is one of three Project Managers on this show. He is responsible for the Toys, Hobbies & Games and Gizmos, Gadgets & Tech segments of the show. Alex relocated to Dubai in August having worked with the likes of Incisive Media & RockMedia Events Ltd. in the UK.

Samer Sadaka, Sales Executive – Big 5 (21 August 2012): Samer’s background stems from advertising, media & publishing. His last role was with Variety Arabia magazine.

Goutam Malhotra, Sales Manager – MedExpo (1 September 2012): Goutam joined us as a temp resource on MedExpo a few months ago before becoming permanent recently. He has worked with the likes of IEC on an amusement trade show followed by IIR where he was responsible for an agricultural event.

Ayana Everett, Senior Conference Manager - C&T(1 September 2012): Ayana comes to us with a host of experience in conference producing gained with the likes of IIR and Terrappin. At IIR Ayana has worked on the Arab Health Congress.

Christine Davidson, Event Director – Hotel (16 September 2012): Christine’s vast events experience springs from time spent with renowned players such as Centaur Communications, Archant Regional Media, United Business Media, etc.

Chris Seymour, Senior Operations Manager (23 September 2012): Chris comes to us from Projex Event Services where he worked for the last 4 years as Manager - Show Management Services.

Ahmad Alghawanmeh, Sponsorship Sales Executive – C&T (23 September 2012): Ahmad’s last role was with Strategic Marketing & Exhibitions on their Annual Investment Meeting product.

Giorgios Retsinas, Editor – Construct Arabia (14 October 2012): Prior to joining dmg, Giorgios worked on Forbes Middle East as a Senior Editor.

Jinitha Sunil, Web Developer (21 October 2012): Jinitha is an experienced Web Developer who has worked with Larsen & Toubro Infotech and more recently with Rnl Solutions.

Ramya Chidambaran, Exhibition Administrator - Index(1 November 2012): Ramya is a familiar face around the JLT offi ce as she spent time earlier this year on Hotel followed by INDEX as a temp. With Hayley’s promotion to Marketing Coordinator, she has stepped into Hayley’s shoes as an Exhibition Administrator for INDEX.

Anis Zahoor, Delegate Sales Executive – C&T (1 November 2012): Anis’ background stems from Strategic Marketing & Exhibitions where he worked on the 12th Asia Conference on Giftedness.

Emran Hussain, Journalist – Pipeline (1 November 2012): Emran comes to us having worked as a Senior Writer for Oil & Gas Middle East and arabianoilandgas.com with ITP Publishing.

Lavina D’Souza, Alma Macalalad, Rejitha Nair, Nisha Lobo,

Jennifer Cardoza, Tarulata Joshi and Manju Sharma – Database Executives (1 November 2012): These ladies have been part of the Database team for the last year & I am delighted that they are now permanent members of staff.

Nancy Daher, Platimum Club Manager – Big 5 (1 December 2012): Nancy has worked with dmg on The Big 5 for several years now. She has recently become permanent in this crucial role on Big 5. Congratulations Nancy!

Bhagya Wijethunga, Database Executive (1 December 2012): Bhagya has been temping with us for a few months now and is now a permanent member of our Database team.

Leavers:

David Manuel, Journalist at Pipeline (5 July 2012) ended his nearly 5 year run with us on 5th July as he felt it was high time that he ventured onto greener pastures.

Naomi Barton, Event Director – INDEX (31 July 2012) relocated to Qatar with her family this past summer after spending nearly 3.5 years with INDEX and dmg.

Sandra Hijnen, Senior Conference Manager (23 August 2012) who had been at dmg for over a year decided to return home to Holland.

Catherine Vaughan, Marketing Manager – Hotel (26 September 2012) decided to return home to the UK for personal reasons after having been at dmg for a year.

JOINERS& LEAVERS

There has recently been a whole host of new staff who have joined

dmg::events. And sadly, there have been some who have left us….


Faisal Jameel, Senior Web Designer (31 October 2012) was a familiar face at dmg due to his active participation with both the Sports & Social and the CSR committees. After spending 2 years with dmg, he decided to pursue his creative streak with a design agency.

Kimon Alexandrou, Commercial Director – Energy (30 November 2012) has left us after delivering a successful ADIPEC to pursue a larger role elsewhere.

Sonia Simons, Marketing Manager – MedExpo and AbilitiesME (11 December 2012) is sadly leaving us to join her husband in the UK. Good luck Sonia!

Matt Kidd, Operations Executive (30 December 2012) who has been with dmg for over a year now is relocating back to the UK with his family.

Movers & Shakers:

Michaella Black, July 2012 (Project Manager – Life & Style) – Michaella is a familiar face here at JLT; she has been a part of the INDEX team since joining us in February 2010. In July this year she moved to take on a challenging opportunity with our new Consumer show Life & Style UAE, where she will be working on the Home & Living and Fashion & Beauty sectors.

Firas Abou Ltaif, December 2012 (Sales Manager – PMV and MEC) – Firas joined us last year as a Sales Executive to assist Nathan in developing the PMV & MEC brands. Congratulations Firas!

Alaa Alush, October 2012 (Project Manager – INDEX Kuwait) – Alaa has taken on the helm of INDEX’s newest regional launch in Kuwait. Good luck Alaa!

Hayley England, October 2012 (Marketing Coordinator – INDEX) – Hayley is yet another familiar face here at dmg. Hayley’s career with us has seen her many roles from Receptionist at JLT to Exhibitions Administrator on INDEX to her latest role as Marketing Coordinator for INDEX working alongside the dynamic duo of Jason and Larisa.

Emily Goodhew, October 2012 (Marketing Executive – Big 5) – Emily joined us in January 2011 as Marketing Coordinator on the Big 5 portfolio. Congratulations Emily on this well deserved promotion.

Roshen Oommen, October 2012 (Senior Exhibition Administrator – Big 5) – Roshen has worked on The Big 5 since joining dmg nearly 5 years ago. His recent promotion refl ects his dedication and hard work on this product to date.

Sonia Simons, October 2012 (Marketing Manager – MedExpo & AbilitiesME) – Sonia joined us last year to offer temporary assistance with Marketing on FM Expo. She then became permanent earlier this year as a Marketing Executive on MedExpo & soon after took on the Marketing responsibility for AbilitiesME too.

Leony D’Silva, October 2012 (Senior Web Developer) – Leony’s skills as a Web Developer have led to her well-earned promotion in October.

Roger Cardoso, October 2012 (Database Team Leader) – Everyone has come across Roger’s sunny personality and can-do attitude at some point or the other. It’s these qualities that have led to his new role as a Database Team Leader.

Reynal Lobo, October 2012 (Database Team Leader) – Reynal has been an integral member of the Database team for over a year now. Therefore, this promotion is just a refl ection of her hard work and dedication thus far.

Tina Quraishi – October 2012 (Senior Exhibition Administrator – Hotel) – Tina’s hard work on The Hotel Show has culminated in this well deserved promotion.

Alden Guevarra – October 2012 (Senior Graphic Designer) – Alden’s creativity, hard work and can-do attitude are deservedly refl ected in his recent promotion.

JOINERS& LEAVERS


New look for our Careers page:

Our Careers page on our corporate website now has a new look in a bid to attract more traffi c to it. The page sports two sections: work @ dmg and life @ dmg. The work @ dmg section covers our current vacancies and details on our recruitment process, while the life @ dmg section captures what we have to offer candidates as a company should they be employed by us.

CSR pages:

Here at dmg : : events Middle East we take great pride in our CSR efforts and rightly so. To refl ect our caring and giving initiatives, CSR pages on our corporate website have now been created. These pages document our corporate CSR philosophy as well as personal stories as told by our staff such as Robyn Sokol’s long-time relationship with Friends of Cancer Patients through her work on the Oil Baron’s Charity Ball, Tim Wilson’s passion for Movember and Marcela Soukupova’s recent trip to Uganda to assist Malayaka House.

Dates For Diaries - 2013 Public Holidays:

There has been lot of activity within HR since the last newsletter

HR Update

Public Holiday No. of Days Tentative Dates

Prophet Mohammed’s Birthday (PBUH) 1 Thursday, 24 January 2013

Israa & Miraaj 1 Thursday, 6 June 2013

Ramadan expected to begin (29/30 days) Sunday, 14 July 2013

Eid Al Fitr* (End of Ramadan) 2Wednesday, 14 August 2013Thursday, 15 August 2013

Eid Al Adha* (including Arafat Day) 3Monday, 14 October 2013 Tuesday, 15 October 2013Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Islamic New Year (Hijra)* 1 Tuesday, 5 November 2013

UAE National Day 1 Monday, 2 December 2013

Christmas Day 1 Wednesday, 25 December 2013

Boxing Day 1 Thursday, 26 December 2013

New Year’s Day 1 Wednesday, 1 January 2014


Pink Day 2012 on 4th October was a big success once again this year thanks to your generosity, enthusiasm and unwavering support. We raised AED 9,512.25 on the day in support of AVON’s Breast Cancer Crusade foundation. The day was marked with the sale of AVON’s Breast Cancer trinkets, a mouthwatering bake sale and the sale of the ever popular raffl e draw tickets.

Three gorgeous ladies won the Best Dressed awards on the day: Rose Jaliel (JLT), Mercy Deriada (Abu Dhabi) and Reynal Lobo (Oasis Centre). A special thanks goes out to all those individuals who convinced sponsors to donate wonderful prizes for the draw, and the team of CSR reps without whom this event would not have been possible.

Pinkday


It’s always diffi cult to say goodbye to your hairy friend, you have formed a bond for 30 days and been through thick and thin, but the time has to come for a clean break and shave the mo.

DMG have been fantastic in supporting this great cause over the years and you’re hopefully aware that you’ve just been a part of the most successful Movember to date adding to the £13.9 Million that has already been raised in the UK in 2012.

I would like thank personally Jaafar, Alaa and Alex who all joined the team this year sporting exceptional upper lips, and a special thanks to Rebecca Lockwood who organized the Mo Sista’s “Wear a tache day”

Mo’Sista’s Rebecca Lockwood proposed a fun way of supporting the guys & their Movember initiative by rallying the ladies in JLT to participate in Mo’Sista’s. On the 29th of November, the ladies in JLT all sported dashing moustaches for the cause & raised AED 1,785.

DMG - thank you for all your kind contributions.

MOVE BER Raising over 2500 AED, proof that a good deed brightens a hairy worldRemember knowledge is power, moustache is king Tim Wilson

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CHARITY FOCUS

Do the dmg :: events runners have the ability to go the

distance?

Back in September Premila went in search of volunteers to run for a good cause as part of dmg’s ABILITIESme CSR initiative. 23 athletic employees signed up from all departments and grades and will run under ABILITIESme and FREEJ colors at the Dubai Marathon on 25th January 2013 to raise funds for the Rashid Pediatric Centre.

In an effort to support fundraising Raymond Sports, a Dubai-based sports equipment distributor has kindly donated a luxury mountain bike to the most prolifi c fundraiser from the dmg/ABILITIESme team, whilst ABILITIESme has pledged to match all funds raised by dmg’s 23 participants.

With less than 4 weeks till the run we caught up with some of the runners to see how their training is going and to discover the dmg’s Mo Farah’s.

Nicola Hudson, Hotel Show

• Distance: 10k• Predicted Time: under 58 minutes • Training:

o Completed Ladies 5k on Palm Jumeirah - under 30 minutes so on track

o Trying to run 3 times a week – but need to up my distance as only doing 5 km runs at the moment!

• Top tip/unusual fact: Music really keeps me going. • Running Track: FOOTLOOSE & CANDY - Robbie Williams

Ayana Everett, C&T

• Distance: 10k• Predicted Time: 59 mins• Training:

1. Running myself crazy• Top tip/unusual fact: Beer or chocolate milk is better for you than

water after working out. (http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/hack-your-muscles-comparing-the-best-post-workout-beverages.html)

• Running Track: In the Club – Go Shawty by Fifty!

Samantha Kane-Macdonald, Index

• Distance: 10k• Predicted Time: Under an hour (I’m very unfi t so a massive task!)• Training: I’ve started running on the treadmill in the gym and hope to

build up by stamina and speed in time for the run in Jan. I walk / run in 2 minute intervals and try and go for as long as I can – apparently this is how you can start training!

Alma Macalalad, C&T

• Distance: 10k• Predicted Time: 60 mins.• Training: Gradually building up distance and speed – this month

onwards I will hopefully be practicing 10k and reduce the time. • Top tip/unusual fact: Go to the gym every single day, at least an hour

will do, don’t over do it, otherwise 2-3 times a week for two hours, always remember to have a cheat day. Exercise while you’re at work like sit-running, stretching and taking the stairs. Keep drinking water and fresh protein juices like watermelon and bananas, or make your own at home. Diet tip: count the calories that you burn during work out, it will help you to know how much you can cheat when eating the next day. “Don’t starve yourself, do a simple exercise instead.”

• Running Track: Tribal Dance - 2 Unlimited, Can you move it like this – Baha Men

Eleanor Head, C&T

• Distance: 10k• Predicted Time: 60-65 mins.• Training: Women’s 5K race and the treadmill. I need to venture out

more to the great outdoors but the couple of times I have aren’t worth mentioning!

Running Track: Stay Awake - Example

Maude Aimee, Digital Marketing

• Distance: 10k• Predicted Time: 55 mins• Training: Women’s run 2012 (5k) and Dubai Marathon 2012 (10k)

Show your support for this great cause by sponsoring one of your colleagues simply touch base with one of the runners or Premila.

Dubai Marathon

Update



REVIEW OF OUR EVENTS

The 15th edition of ADIPEC closed its doors on the 14th

November to the most successful event in its 28 year

history.

More than 1,600 exhibitors covered over 38,500 sqm, with

a record 51,100 professionals coming through the doors

over the 4 days PLUS 235 speakers presenting to more than

4,200 delegates across 50 technical sessions, 5 key panel

sessions and 2 high level plenary sessions ... This not only

makes ADIPEC the largest oil and gas event in the Middle

East but also the largest outside of North America!

The Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) was a hub of activity during the 1st half of November with 5 days of build up and then 4 days of opening between 11 – 14 November.

During build up, it was estimated that more than 292,000 man hours of work were required to ensure that ADIPEC was ready to welcome the record number of attendees. Buildup included the construction of the largest outdoor tent that ADNEC has ever seen, hosting an additional 100 plus exhibitors who couldn’t be accommodated inside the oversubscribed 12 indoor halls! The outdoor section also included a heavy equipment arena with some of the biggest machinery in the industry on show …. And just to throw in an additional challenge, there were major construction works in and around the venue which made the maneuvering of equipment and attendees around the venue a massive challenge – no problems for our courageous Ops team who were also having to deal with the aftermaths of Big 5’s build up and opening!

REVIEW




ADIPEC welcomed H. E Mohamed Bin Dhaen Al Hamil, UAE Minister for Energy to Open the Conference and H.H Sheikh Hazza Bin Zayed Al Nahyan to conduct the offi cial opening tour of the exhibition. The Royal entourage for the opening tour was introduced to some new and exciting features for ADIPEC this year plus the largest gather of IOC’s (International Oil Companies) and NOC’s (standing for National Oil Companies surprisingly enough!!) the region has seen.

While the exhibition offi cial tour was happening, the conference kicked off where it was estimated that there was more than 9,640 minutes of knowledge sharing over the 4 days where some of the leading international industry fi gures, such as the CEO of BP, who rarely attends any events around the world, captivated the 4,000 strong audiences. Only one other oil and gas conference in the world offers PLUS 50 technical sessions across 5 topical disciplines and 7 streams, confi rming ADIPEC’s place amongst the elite.

1st for the Team, 1st for Features

As if the team didn’t have enough on its plate, ADIPEC 2012 launched a host of new features as well as this being the fi rst ADIPEC for the majority of the team! New features included: - ADIPEC Museum. This was the UAE’s fi rst public

display of historical oil and gas artifacts. From a copy of the original signed concession document when oil was fi rst discovered through to a typical truck used to travel between oil fi elds, the museum was walk through time and captivated all visitors from Royalty through to students, who were eager to learn about their history. Huge thanks has to go to Hanadi for all her hard work, research and endless chasing of clients to gather such an exhibition of images and equipment.

- Middle East Petroleum Club. A dedicated structure was built in the Outdoor area away from the hustle and bustle of the exhibition where selected, senior industry professionals could network and relax in a quiet area away from the hounding press. Welcoming over 700 key individuals, the Petroleum Club proved to be one of the greatest successes of the event with favorable comments from all those who were allowed entry. Congratulations to Tea for pulling off a great new addition to ADIPEC which is bound to become a regular Club throughout the year between events.

- Outdoor Area. With the inside halls already bursting over capacity and a growing waiting list, the new Outdoor area – comprising of the largest structure ADNEC has hosted plus the outdoor equipment area – provided a new area for ADIPEC to cater for the ever increasing waiting list of exhibitors. As a fi rst for the event, this has built a platform for growth for 2013 and beyond.

With the ADIPEC Awards – Excellence in Energy expanding, the ADIPEC Country Briefi ngs – Middle East Business Opportunities offering practical advice to launch businesses throughout the region launched plus the Show Dailies produced by the Pipeline publishing team, ADIPEC brought a new team – both exhibitions and publishing – together to produce what was truly a mammoth team effort …. Well done to all!With the event now annual, the team has 2013 to look forward to and put the whole event together within a year’s cycle rather than the traditional 2 years ….. they are already looking forward to 10 – 13 November 2013!


The Big 5 2012 was the largest construction exhibition ever

held in the Middle East. Opened by HH Sheikh Maktoum

bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, it also saw the presence of UK Prime Minister David

Cameron on the inaugural morning.

Not only did the event include more exhibitors than ever, it also featured a complete educational programme accessible to all participants.

Events which ran at The Big 5 2012 included the Green Build

Conference, the World FM Congress, the Gaia Awards, over 50 live product demonstrations, LEED Workshops, Concrete

Repair Workshops, How to Trade in the GCC seminars and many other events, all designed to add value for our exhibitors and make The Big 5 a ‘must attend’ event for buyers.

We also took further steps to increase product categorisation with six distinct product zones, as well as Middle East

Concrete, PMV Live and FM EXPO. By doing this we made it easier for visitors to fi nd the products they were looking for and for exhibitors to meet more of the right type of buyers.

These new initiatives, along with an expanded Platinum Club, attracting the region’s top buyers, contributed to our most successful show to date with re-bookings for The Big 5 2013 at record levels.

With many construction markets around the world struggling to recover from a diffi cult period, The Big 5, buoyed by a strong and growing GCC construction market, continues to deliver strong results for our exhibitors.

REVIEW




Braving the many challenges of the ever fast moving Design industry, the INDEX 2012 team delivered what was arguably the most successful edition since the global economic downturn.

With its proven record of delivering the principal business platform for the design and interiors industry, INDEX International Design Exhibition 2012 opened its doors from 24-27 September and was offi cially inaugurated by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance.

The 22nd edition of INDEX hosted 777 exhibiting companies from 46 countries, including 21 national pavilions, and saw 23,186 industry professionals from 93 countries – a 7% increase on the previous year – gather together under one roof to source the latest interior products and innovations being showcased at the four day event.

From the moment the show opened right until the last few minutes on the fi nal day there was a constant buzz across the exhibition fl oor as visitors and exhibitors interacted with each other. More than half of the exhibitors took orders onsite and it is estimated that a whopping US$223 million in sales was generated at INDEX 2012.

With eleven features and events taking place during the show, INDEX delivered more than just a trade exhibition. Features that returned for 2012 included the Artists’ Avenue, LIGHTING | Visione and our very own fashion show with a twist, ‘Les Collections Exclusives’.

This year INDEX also hosted the 4th Annual Contemporary Majlis Design Competition, which saw a new prize up for grabs, the ‘People’s Choice’ Award; which gave all visitors to the exhibition the chance to vote for their favourite Majlis room set from the six fi nalists on display.

REVIEW

The INDEX Design Talks seminar programme was also bigger and better than ever before with more than 400 delegates attending across the four days.

Those great results were achieved as a united and solid team, who took a positive stand to the rapid changes which included the appointment of Frederique Maurell as INDEX’ new Director six weeks prior to the event! With new shows to be launched and a revamped profi le, the marketing and PR campaigns pre-show and onsite were executed perfectly under the wing of Jason, Larisa and Hayley. INDEX 2012 also saw the emergence of a new Radio and TV star, our very own Jaafar Shubber, who took part in a 20-minute long live TV interview for Dubai’s Arabic-speaking breakfast TV show!

With such a short lead time until the next edition of INDEX the team did a sterling job on rebooking exhibitors for INDEX 2013, scheduled to take place in May, with over 1600 sqm net of direct sales booked onsite; a record to date for INDEX Dubai.

With a strong team spirit, a new team member, Ramya, we are looking forward to consolidating and growing the portfolio of INDEX-OFFICE events.

As with all our exhibitions, special thanks must also go to many of the other departments within dmg, such as Accounts, Operations and the Admin staff, without whom we would never be able to deliver such great events!





The inaugural Hotel Show Saudi Arabia closed its doors on November 19th 2012 to a very successful three days of business where more than 100 local and international brands showcased the latest food and hospitality products, technology, interiors and solutions to a very healthy audience of buyers.

With an overall attendance of 3,830 trade professionals, of which 57% were decision makers and buyers, the 2012 exhibitors came away from the event extremely happy with their decision to participate in and support a new event in the region. They further demonstrated their ongoing confi dence and support by rebooking for the next edition of the event in 2014.

With exhibiting companies from 20 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East, the Hotel Show

Saudi Arabia has already established itself as the largest and most comprehensive international hotel and hospitality trade event in the Saudi Arabian events calendar.

Plans for 2014 are well underway and it certainly promises to be bigger and better, offering the unrivalled opportunity for more food and hotel suppliers to enter a challenging but exciting and exceedingly lucrative marketplace.

A special thanks goes to Jaafar from Index who helped The Hotel Show team onsite and during the exhibition, stealing the show with his moustache, using stealth and ability to sneak into every picture. The fi rst person to spot Jaafar should email [email protected] to claim their prize of a sneak preview at the must see post show report!!

LAUNCH REVIEW





If you ventured to the second fl oor in September it may have seemed quieter than usual. However, looks are deceptive as this was C&T’s busiest month to date. With three conferences, two executive workshops and a training course taking place across four cities in a space of two weeks the team had a massive challenge to deliver so close after the summer months and ramadam.

Kick starting the month was the second edition of last year’s hugely successful Health, Safety and Risk Management Forum for Oil

and Gas. From the offset the event, orginally scheduled for June, was not delivering to the same level as last year due to a number of factors including a signifi cant decline in group bookings. The team rose to the task to minimise the defi cit and delivered a successful forum which received great feedback, such as: “Very interactive! I love the fact that participants fom different organisations shared their HSE experiences”.

Following hot on the heels of HSRM the C&T team hosted the Executive Construction Workshops in Doha and Riyadh for SAP. As a key sponsor, Femi worked closely over a couple of months with SAP in developing a specialist platform to showcase the capabilities of their solution to key decision makers in two of the

most promising construction markets in the region. Though a lot of time had been spent in the workshop’s conception, the team had a relatively short time to deliver attendees in both cities and a market intelligence report. For two weeks our database and sales teams were constantly on the phone confi rming guests and diligently getting them to fi ll out the online survey as a basis for the report. The team worked up until the wire to ensure our client would have a successful event.

The following week proved to be less chaoctic with the division’s two fl agship conferences InRetail Summit and Middle East Gas

Forum taking place.

A stellar line-up ensured the Middle East Gas Forum returned to Abu Dhabi bigger and better than before. The forum was packaged with a two day training on Natural Gas Supply, Pricing and

Tariffs and this proved to be a winning formula with the majority of delegates booking both. With functions starting earlier and an increased lead time this contributed to the 2nd Annual Middle East Gas Forum to be the best performing event of the year. We are sad to lose the forum this year as we hand it over to the very capable Adipec team who will continue to grow, develop and build the event.

UPDATE


The InRetail Summit is really starting to establish itself as one of the meeting points for the region’s retail industry. With increasing competition in the market and the summit now running in a separate venue to Index it looks as if all the pieces are coming together in terms of audience and programme. New features included the inaugural InRetail Awards and a special breakfast briefi ng by SAP. One of the highlights came on day two when it was announced that Namshi, our speakers and winners of the Online Retailer award, were receiving an investment of more than US $20

million showing that the potential of e-commerce in retailing in the region is beginning to take off.

Like Index and Big 5, 2013 is set to be an exciting year as we roll out the InRetail Summit to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Our fi nal event of the year was The Hotel Summit Saudi Arabia

which ran alongside The Hotel Show and provided an exciting and interactive platform for investors, operators, owners, developers and industry specialists to discuss and debate the latest trends, challenges and opportunities surrounding the Kingdom’s hospitality sector. With a lot of positive feedback the foundations have been laid to grow this event further.

In 2013 we look to build on the sucesses and lessons we learnt to further expand our portfolio. Our fi rst venture, is early in 2013 as we head to Morrocco to present a workshop with the DMBoard, a Saudi Aramco initiative.



JUST FOR FUN

Caption Competition:As you can see the award for Online Retailer of the year was a highly sought after award.

What happened to the award? We want your creative captions.

Send your captions to [email protected] for your chance to win a 200 dihram voucher.

For those seeking additional running thrills after the Dubai Marathon, I’d like to put together a team to take part

in the Wadi Bih Run 2013, held on 8 Feb.

I participated as part of a group last year and it’s a lot of fun. Some beautiful scenery to run through - a rarity

for the UAE, where most of our running seems to be through construction sites!

Don’t be daunted by the 72km total length – it’s a relay with fi ve entrants in each team, at least one of which

needs to be a female. If more people are keen, we could enter two teams. Someone would need to volunteer

their vehicle too – preferably a 4WD.

See the following for additional info: http://www.premiermarathons.com/event/Wadi_Bih_Run_2013

We need to enter by 29 January, so let me know asap if you’re keen.

[email protected]


Sports and Social this edition has been a little slow especially

as we has so many of our major events taking place at during

this part of the year.

Things to look forward:

DMG’s Annual Party: 17th of December 2013 at

Dubai World Trade Center Towers

GOT SOMETHING TO SAYOR ANNOUNCE?

SEND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO

[email protected]

Copyright dmg :: events 2011. All rights reserved.

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the dmg lowdown - Issue 7