Terrapinn establishes regional headquarters in Dubai

The UAE becomes the latest addition to Terrapinn's global network of offices which also includes Australia, Singapore, United States, United Kingdom and South Africa. From Dubai the company will offer a wide range of products including trade exhibitions, conferences, training solutions and electronic and print publications.

The initial conference to be organised by the new regional headquarters' team is the First Middle East Aviation Outlook Summit, which will take place in Abu Dhabi on 27-28 February 2008. The event has been organised to address the growing influence of the Middle East on global aviation and tourism, and will consist of a high-level speaker programme and an accompanying exhibition.

Symon Rubens, who has been appointed Managing Director, Terrapinn Middle East, says he is excited at the prospect of significantly building on the portfolio of events Terrapinn has been successfully running across the Middle East region over the past 10 years.

'The Middle East region - and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in particular - is undergoing unprecedented economic growth and diversification,' he said.

'The Emirates places strong emphasis on the MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions) sector, which is a key component in future tourism development. Our aim is to support the Government's drive to attract more conference tourism by developing and running innovative and informative trade exhibitions and conferences.'

'We are already one of the world's leading organisers of exhibitions and conferences with an international portfolio of more than 500 events spanning a wide variety of industry sectors from aviation and telecomms to capital markets,' he said.

'An illustration of our desire to create meaningful events for this region comes in the form of the First Middle East Aviation Outlook Summit and continues throughout the year with a full line-up of other more established events, such as Hedge Funds World Middle East in March, through to Telecoms World Middle East in November 2008.'

For the Aviation Summit, Terrapinn is teaming up once more with the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) with whom they have jointly staged some of the world's most highly acclaimed aviation events in recent years.

An unprecedented assembly of up to 250 industry leaders are expected to gather in Abu Dhabi for this essential event, with participants including government ministers and CEOs from the leading airlines, airports, investors, suppliers as well as tourism/property developers with an interest in the region.

The Terrapinn Middle East office will initially employ some 40 people, a number which it is anticipated will grow significantly and quickly, to meet the market demand. Each will have unique skills designed to enhance Terrapinn's unique selling proposition (USP).

'Terrapinn place great emphasis on creative thinking that begins months, even years, before an event is staged,' explains Rubens. 'It is this emphasis that has helped create many very special events - which are so much more than an aggregation of slides and suits. What we strive for is collective lightbulb moments - when an audience is exposed to real thought leadership and innovation.'