Before the Middle East wars, the Gulf had established itself as one of the world’s busiest hubs for conferences, exhibitions and high-level events.
The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have each hosted global sporting events, from Formula One to high-stakes boxing championships and top-level golf tournaments, and have all strived to be seen as crossroads of business, politics and innovation.
The Gulf region also welcomes global CEOs, being home to major business gatherings such as the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, the Web Summit in Doha, and Abu Dhabi Finance Week.
A delegation arrives at the King Abdulaziz Conference Center in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, to attend the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Forum.
Fayez Nureldin | AFP | Getty Images
Now, events ranging from culture to cryptocurrencies are being quietly rescheduled as war-induced refugees threaten to destabilize the future the region has carefully built.
Several high-profile meetings scheduled across the Middle East between March and May have been postponed, rescheduled or reconsidered as organizers assess the impact of current regional conflicts, underscoring how geopolitical tensions have disrupted the Gulf’s once chock-full of conference calendars.
F1 announced earlier this month: “Due to the continuing situation in the Middle East, the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia GPs will not be held in April.”
Many major gatherings scheduled for April and May remain in limbo, with some opting for modified versions of normally large-scale global events.
Art Dubai is the city’s signature cultural event, with 120 galleries from over 40 countries participating each year, and the event will be held from May 14 to 17 in an “adapted format in Madinat Jumeirah,” he told CNBC.
“There remains a clear sense that maintaining the platform that Art Dubai represents is important to the broader cultural ecosystem,” the statement added.
Several other big events have already been postponed. The Arabian Travel Market, a major travel industry conference to be held at Dubai’s World Trade Center, was originally scheduled for May, but organizers said it was moved to August due to “recent developments in the region”.
The World Economic Forum has announced that the Global Cooperation and Growth Conference, scheduled for April 2026 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, will be rescheduled. “This reflects a commitment to holding the meeting under conditions that ensure its full strategic impact,” the World Economic Forum said on Tuesday.
The Arab Media Forum, scheduled for April, has been postponed to September 2026, with organizers saying the decision was taken to ensure the scale and ambition of the event was met.
Smoke rises in Bahrain, February 28, 2026, after Iran launches a missile attack on the US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in Manama in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks.
Stringer | Anadolu | Getty Images
TOKEN2049 Dubai, one of the world’s largest crypto conferences that was also attended by Tether CEO and Binance founder Eric Trump last year, has been postponed a full year to April 2027 after organizers said they wanted to ensure the ability of the global crypto community to come together “at the scale and quality that defines TOKEN2049,” while reiterating their long-term commitment to Dubai.
Abu Dhabi Business Week, originally scheduled for April 6th to 9th, has also been postponed, with new dates yet to be announced. Organizers said the decision was taken to ensure “the optimal environment for the success of this extraordinary economic event” and the meaningful participation of international stakeholders.
These changes highlight the growing operational uncertainty facing the Middle East’s events sector, which is at the heart of the Gulf’s non-oil economy, as organizers balance security concerns with the region’s ambitions to remain a global conference hub.
Travelers to and from the Gulf’s major aviation hubs are facing thousands of canceled or rerouted flights as airlines re-evaluate their operations in the region’s increasingly unstable airspace.
Impact on “Davos Energy”
The CEOs of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Saudi Arabia’s Aramco have chosen not to attend the so-called “Davos of Energy” CERAWeek conference in Houston due to the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Both ADNOC and Aramco facilities have been targeted by Iranian drones and missiles in recent weeks, and industry sources close to CEO Amin Nasser told CNBC that Nasser’s priority was “to be there for his team across the kingdom.”
ADNOC CEO Sultan Al Jaber also prioritized addressing the crisis over an energy conference attended by oil giants and US Energy Secretary Chris Wright. In a video address to the conference, President Sultan said Iran’s disruption of the Strait of Hormuz amounts to “economic terrorism” and threatens global energy supplies.
