News Highlights:

1. The events industry size is growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.2 percent from $1.13 trillion in 2019 to $1.55 trillion by 2028, according to Allied Market Research;

 

2. MICE sector in the Middle East is growing at 7.2 percent year-on-year and generates US$1.4 billion annually;

 

3. The UAE's hotel occupancy rate rose to 62 per cent in the first six months of 2021, up from 53.6 per cent reported during the same period in 2020, primarily driven by business travelers;

 

4. Hotels earned revenue of Dh11.3 billion ($3.08 billion) in the six-month period from Dh8.6 billion recorded a year earlier.

 

Cogent Solutions Event Management, a Dubai-based event management company, has started to change the UAE’s events landscape and plans to revolutionise the industry to help businesses maximise gains through effective engagement with stakeholders through “hyper focused business events” – Virtual, Hybrid and Physical Conferences and Executive Boardrooms.

 

The new approach offers a better value to the event sponsors, hosts, participants and other stakeholders – due to engaging eco-system created by Cogent Solutions Event Management (CS Events) – making all stakeholders happy. It helps them to generate credible leads that could be turned into business development and customer acquisition.

 

“Our new approach has helped us to give a better value to all participants, sponsors, event hosts and co-sponsors during the lock-down period and even after that,” Nizam Deen, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CS Events, says. “After every event, the sponsors, participants reported an increase in their engagement with new customers – and that’s an amazing feat – especially during pandemic when a lot of businesses have either declined or collapsed, we were able to help the events sponsors generate leads and sales!”

 

COVID-19 has changed everything – including the events industry, mostly known as the Meetings, Incentives, Conference and Exhibitions (MICE) – a US$1.33 trillion (Dh4.88 trillion) industry globally. 

 

The events industry size is growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.2 percent from $1.13 trillion in 2019 to $1.55 trillion by 2028, according to Allied Market Research. Events refer to public gathering of populace art at a determined time and place. 

 

The purpose for staging an event can be increase in business profitability, celebratory, entertainment, and community causes among others. The most popular events include conference and exhibition, corporate events and seminars, promotion and fundraising, music and art performance, sports, festival, trade shows, and product launch. The key stakeholders within the events market are corporate organizations, public organizations and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs).

 

MICE sector in the Middle East is growing at 7.2 percent year-on-year and generates US$1.4 billion annually, according to Allied Market Research. 

 

CS Events, a one and a half-year-old company, is deploying the latest cutting-edge technology to disrupt the events industry – that has faced the biggest challenge in hosting in-person events due to COVID-19 related restrictions, especially new health and safety as well as social distancing protocol.

 

Through its well-thought-out events, CS Events has managed to create economic values to its clients – who now sees tangible results by participating in these events – that are not just part of marketing expenses – but something that is helping to solve business development challenges and contributing to their topline revenues and bottom-line profits.

 

“Our world has changed forever. Events industry has been the biggest victim of the COVID-19 pandemic that forced us to change fast. So, we launched CS Events during the COVID-19 lockdown in April 2020 to disrupt the events industry with the help of the latest cutting-edge technology,” Nizam Deen says.

 

“Necessity is the mother of invention. COVID-19 pandemic that forced us to stay at home and stay away from each other, has also forced us to think ways to overcome this social distancing protocol. We sought innovation and found a way out to organise events – virtually, through the use of technology.

 

“Our bold move helped us to serve our clients – industry stakeholders, large corporates and industry professionals – to engage with each other virtually through our virtual conferences. Today, as the world returns to normalcy, we are better off in organizing hybrid events – where people can participate in-person and virtually through technology.”

 

This way, CS Events could connect the corporate clients to engage with not only local or regional – but also international clientele through technology that helped the event sponsors to extend their market reach, converted leads to sale and helped maximise revenue.

 

“We are one of the first event organisers who based our business on technology. In many ways we are more of a technology company than events. But essentially, we found out that the event sponsors or hosts are able to reach to a wider audience through hybrid conferences,” Nizam Deen, who is just 30 years of age, says.

 

“Our hosts, sponsors and participants are overwhelmed to see the additional value we deliver through virtual and hybrid events. The future of the events industry is hybrid and we are ahead of the rest in the market.”

 

The UAE's hotel occupancy rate rose to 62 per cent in the first six months of 2021, up from 53.6 per cent reported during the same period in 2020, primarily driven by business travellers. Hotels earned revenue of Dh11.3 billion ($3.08 billion) in the six-month period from Dh8.6 billion recorded a year earlier, the Emirates Tourism Council said in a statement recently.

 

Some 8.3 million guests flocked to hotels in the UAE during the first half of 2021, a 15 per cent year-on-year increase, according to the Tourism Council data. A large number of them came to the UAE to attend business events – conferences and exhibitions.