Dubai: My career in Dubai began by coincidence. I was originally invited by the Lebanese tourist office to travel to Beirut and explore exhibition opportunities there. On my first night in the city, the side of the hotel was blown out and I was escorted to the airport by the military. The only plane out of Beirut at the time brought me to Dubai.
Imagine a European arriving in Dubai in the late '70s and trying to promote the idea of an exhibition to a very traditional marketplace. I was successful in my endeavours and duly organised the first ever exhibition in Dubai, which was held in a tent near the Creek.
I then wanted to find another, more versatile location at which I could host a larger event and while standing at the old Dubai Chamber of Commerce Building (which was also next to the Creek) I asked the then executive director if he knew of anything suitable. He pointed to a very tall building under construction - the only building one could see - the Shaikh Rashid Tower (now more commonly referred to as the Trade Centre Tower).
The Trade Centre opened in 1979 and I organised the first exhibition there on Middle East Construction, which coincided with the queen's inauguration of the building. When we held that show, we created a large, domed, permanent tent with iron girders covered with canvas and large ceiling fans to cool the area. Hall One at that time was where the current stock exchange now sits, but for the construction show we required a larger space.
Originally, we used to stage these events in two shifts - the exhibition would begin at 10am and run until 1pm, and then the second shift would run from 5pm until 9pm. This suited the local schedule. As time went by, all exhibitions began to run through the day, starting at around 10am and concluding at around 6 or 7pm.
I organised the first water exhibition in Dubai with government ministers from all over the Gulf in 1984. While the officials were waiting for the start of the show and shading themselves under the palm trees, the sprinkler system came to life and managed to wet a number of people.
Although this was completely unplanned, and potentially disastrous, one minister approached me and said that it was the best opening to a water expo that he had ever witnessed.
Now Dubai is a very sophisticated marketplace and the exhibition facilities are comparable to the infrastructure anywhere in the world. From my point of view (and that of other organisers that promote exhibitions in the emirate), most people are sold on exhibiting here due to the cosmopolitan nature of the city and the state-of-the-art facilities. Most of our exhibitors expect this level of quality and service in Las Vegas, London or Paris and were quite pleasantly surprised to discover that Dubai's exhibition market is comparable to - and in some cases surpasses - those others.
Dubai is now one of the foremost exhibition capitals in the world, a fact that is borne out by the city's events calendar.
David Domoney is president of the Arab Lab Group
