Standing Out and Looking to the Future
Even with the record-breaking numbers, Tahaluf has made it a point to look forward and capitalize on the success of its first Cityscape Global event in Saudi Arabia, a success that has exceeded the expectations of Tahaluf and its partners.
“It is important to highlight that the real estate sector was a new opportunity for Tahaluf in Riyadh and to come and break all records across the Middle East was an amazing achievement. It is a testament to the dedication of our team and our partners,” Speller explains. “Tahaluf has achieved phenomenal success with launching mega exhibitions, LEAP set records as the largest debut tech event in history and now claims the title of the world’s most attended. Following suit, Cityscape’s first edition has quickly become the leading property event globally. ese achievements highlight Saudi Arabia’s emerging status as a prime location for impactful event launches,” says Sturgess. Sturgess emphasizes the amount of effort that is required to pull off such an unprecedented feat, and how it was achieved. “At the core of our exhibitions is a strong emphasis on content, ensuring a valuable experience for our visitors through diverse platforms. We featured five stages focused on discussions around what living in the future looks like; be that through design, architecture, smart cities, investment and tech advancements. Our speakers ranged from Ministers, prominent celebrities, and institutional investor CEOs to architects and technology experts. e event included start-up competitions, hackathons, live auctions, and sessions specifically dedicated to female leadership in real estate. Our goal was to firmly establish Cityscape Global in Saudi Arabia on the map in its inaugural year.”
“It goes without saying that the numbers we’ve been talking about couldn’t have been achieved without the incredible efforts of our marketing teams, our partners at SAFCSP and the Tahaluf and Informa teams. Major global campaigns were run with specific persona targeting, while simultaneously focusing on key messaging tailored for the local market,” explains Sturgess. Meanwhile, Speller explains how he looks at success, saying: “From a commercial perspective, you consider the success of an event by how many of your exhibitors are willing to come back, and Cityscape Global has seen phenomenal success in that area.” “Every single partner is looking at increasing their activations and activities at the show and that doesn’t just look at the quantity of square meters that they’re looking to book. It also looks at how they can get involved with our content-led features, be it at our main stage or our property portfolio or our hackathon or the investor roundtables.”
“Now what we’re looking at is the expanse of international companies and international visitors who are looking to come to the next edition. When we look at our exhibitors, they are split between local and international and what we’re seeing now is probably 30% growth across the board, maybe 25% growth will be international and 15% will be local,” he adds.
We don’t want to build events which jump into a market for a year. We want to create events which are sustainable, which have longevity.