Interview
Celebrating a 40-year connection in Oman
CONNECT celebrates its 40th year as an event organiser in Oman this year. EW asked managing director Ashley Roberts about the landmark moments along that journey. And, despite some regional headwinds, he is predicting another record year for businesss.
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A founded back in 1986, MD Ashley Roberts says the defining period of his tenure to date at the helm of the exhibition organiser, was the global pandemic, when he had to reschedule an entire exhibition portfolio three times before events in Oman resumed in March 2022. CONNECT’ s exhibitions were then among the first to return.
“ It was an exceptionally difficult period that demanded tough decisions, resilience and complete honesty about what needed to change. However, it also became the catalyst for CONNECT’ s transformation,” Roberts says of that period.“ We used the disruption to challenge every assumption about our business, scrutinise every event and rethink how we operated.”
He says the experience saw the company emerge as a more entrepreneurial, agile and ambitious organisation.“ We became more willing to question established ways of working, make decisions faster, take calculated risks and challenge ourselves to continually improve. We raised expectations across the business, invested in talent and created a culture where people were encouraged to bring forward ideas and pursue opportunities with greater confidence.”
A rebrand from Omanexpo to CONNECT symbolised that transformation and was, says Roberts, a statement about the what the organisation intended to become and the role it wanted to play in connecting industries, people and opportunities.
Above: Ashley Roberts
Left: OPES Conference 2026
“ We returned in 2022 with a phenomenal year. Initially, we questioned whether this was simply part of the industry-wide postpandemic rebound. The records achieved since have proved otherwise,” Roberts says.“ By continuing to challenge ourselves, investing in our people and events, and approaching growth with a more entrepreneurial mindset, we converted recovery into sustained transformation.”
External recognition has come this year from the UK Association of Event Organisers( AEO), which gave its Excellence Award for Best Independent Organiser > 20 Employees to CONNECT. That same resilience was evident again during the Middle East regional disruption in the first half of 2026, a period Roberts says when the team had to draw heavily on the lessons of the pandemic, remaining calm and agile to deliver its strongest-ever event cycle despite difficult circumstances.
The CONNECT portfolio includes the flagship events OPES( the Oman Petroleum and Energy Show) and Oman Sustainability Week and both, says Roberts, are experiencing strong growth, driven by close collaboration with the Oman government and industry stakeholders.
Roberts adds that when he joined CONNECT, annualising OPES was a strategic opportunity.“ However, it was not a decision we could make alone. As an industry-led event, its success depends on the confidence and commitment of government, industry committees and the wider energy sector,” he says.“ We worked closely with these stakeholders to demonstrate that the market was ready to support an annual edition. OPES was successfully annualised in 2025, and its continued growth in scale, participation and commercial performance has firmly validated that collective decision.”
Oman Sustainability Week was first co-located with OPES in 2025 – another strategy developed in partnership with government and the respective event
34 Issue 5 2026 www. exhibitionworld. co. uk