DUBAI 1 June 2017: Thought leaders and senior representatives of British business gathered in London to learn more about Expo 2020 Dubai and the emirate’s drive towards an innovation economy during two business breakfast sessions staged around the latest instalment of the European Tour’s Race to Dubai, the 2017 BMW PGA Golf Championship at Wentworth, United Kingdom (UK).
The sessions were organised by Falcon and Associates, a strategic advisory company working for the Dubai leadership, together with its affiliate Falcon Golf, a new entity set up to optimise golf in Dubai.
Peter Dawson, Chairman of Falcon Golf, said “As the European Tour’s season-long competition consisting of 47 tournaments in 26 countries, the Race to Dubai provides a natural hosting platform to bring golf and business together in key markets around the world, to tell the wider Dubai story and to highlight opportunities that exist in the emirate. The business breakfasts in London proved to be hugely helpful in this regard and we look forward to engaging with the wider international business community as the Tour moves around the world.”
Representatives from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in the UK, the British Council, Dubai’s Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) were present in addition to a wide range of organisations including Emirates Airline and the European Tour.
Chaired by Rt Hon Sir Hugh Robertson KCMG DL, Vice Chairman of International Relations, Falcon and Associates, the Thursday session focused on Expo 2020 Dubai – the first World Expo to be staged in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region.
Speaking at the event, Simon Clegg CBE, Chief Operating Officer of Expo 2020 Dubai said, “Expo 2020 Dubai will be a celebration of human ingenuity and innovation, and a platform where millions of people and hundreds of countries and companies will be able to form new connections that propel us into the future. The UK was home to the first World Expo, in 1851, and it was among the first countries to commit to take part in our Expo. We’re looking forward to seeing the creativity that Britain took to the recent Expos in Shanghai and Milan in Dubai, where international participants will be able to start work on their pavilions from April next year.”
Understanding how innovation is driving Dubai’s economic policy was the focus on the Friday session where the latest developments were discussed by an expert panel consisting of Simon Devonshire OBE, Entrepreneur in Residence at the UK Government, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS); Marios Maratheftis, Chief Economist of Standard Chartered and Roland Daher, Head of Dubai 100 at Falcon and Associates.
Commenting on the session, Simon Devonshire OBE said: “Ultimately my work in the UK Government is about creating sustainable and vibrant entrepreneurial eco-systems. With Wayra, the business accelerator that I helped build, our aim was to ‘build Silicon Valleys all over the world’. I visited Dubai earlier this year, and I am really excited that a brilliant eco-system could thrive there.”
The 2017 BMW PGA Championship concludes on Sunday 25th May before the Race to Dubai heads to Malmö, Sweden for the Nordea Masters taking place on 1st-4th June, 2017. The Race to Dubai culminates at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
By Sports Staff