Sponsored content
New opportunities Saudi Arabia ' s exhibitions and conferences sector has been expanding quickly. Vision 2030, a growing calendar of giga-projects, and new venue capacity opening across Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province have combined to create a market environment that looks considerably different from the one 1st Arabia entered when it was founded. The Saudi Conventions and Exhibitions General Authority( SCEGA), established in 2018, has worked over that period to regulate and grow the sector at a national level, supporting the development of local talent and encouraging international exhibitions and conferences to enter the Kingdom.
Several categories of opportunity have opened up as a result. Sectorspecific exhibitions are multiplying, as industries ranging from tourism and logistics to technology and healthcare build dedicated events to match the pace of national investment. New venues and convention centres are creating capacity for shows of a scale the market could not previously support. International organisers are increasingly looking to enter Saudi Arabia directly, whether by licensing an existing show or co-producing a new one, rather than treating the market as a one-off destination to visit.
Building the talent pipeline Talent development has emerged as a further area of opportunity. Saudi Arabia has built up a meaningful share of internationally recognised eventindustry credentials in recent years, supported by training partnerships between IAEE and Saudi institutions, including a formal collaboration with SCEGA that expanded access to the Certified in Exhibition Management( CEM) designation in the Kingdom. A growing base of certified Saudi professionals is likely to be one of the more durable outcomes of the sector ' s expansion, feeding a workforce that can support the market ' s growth over the longer term rather than becoming a constraint on it.
Each of these opportunities carries its own timeline. Venue capacity and sector-specific exhibitions tend to show up relatively quickly, as new spaces open and organisers respond to demand from fast-growing industries. Talent development moves more slowly, since building a certified, experienced workforce takes years rather than months. Taken together, however, they describe a market that is not simply growing in scale, but also in the range of activity it can support – from largeformat international exhibitions down to smaller, sector-specific gatherings that would not have found a natural home in the market a decade ago.
1st Arabia ' s position in that landscape For international organisers, venue operators and suppliers weighing their next move into Saudi Arabia, the combination of a maturing regulatory environment, expanding venue capacity and a growing base of trained local professionals lowers the barrier to entry considerably compared with several years ago. Companies already established in the market, including 1st Arabia, are positioned to act as a bridge for that entry – bringing local market knowledge and existing relationships with Saudi stakeholders to international partners who are less familiar with the market.
1st Arabia ' s own portfolio spans a range of sector-specific exhibitions delivered in partnership with international organisers, alongside its broader work advising on industry standards and professional development in the Kingdom. Al Barmawi ' s involvement with IAEE and other international associations, together with the company ' s expanding regional footprint, reflects an approach built around long-term relationships rather than one-off transactions.
Taken together, the growth of Saudi Arabia ' s exhibitions and conferences sector and the partnerships that companies like 1st Arabia have built over the past several years point toward a market that is likely to keep attracting international attention. Whether that translates into sustained longterm growth will depend, in part, on whether the partnerships and training pipelines now in place continue to be reinforced as the market scales. EW
n 1st Arabia Tradeshows & Conferences is a Riyadh-headquartered MICE organisation led by founder and CEO Bilal Al Barmawi. The company holds membership across SITE, SISO, MPI, IAEE, PCMA and UFI, and operates in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, with expansion currently underway into Syria, Iraq and Egypt. www. exhibitionworld. co. uk Issue 4 2026 23