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LONDON: The Middle East has used large-scale events such as the World Expo and FIFA World Cup as transformative exercises in nation-building, Sir Martin Sorrell, executive chairman of digital advertising and marketing company S4Capital, told the World Economic Forum in Davos.

During a panel session called “Mass Events, Massive Gains?” Sorrell highlighted how countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE were leveraging major events to reposition themselves on the global stage.

“What’s really interesting about what's happening in the Middle East is we’re seeing nation branding on a scale that we’ve never seen before,” he said. “Because what’s happening in the Middle East is (that) the rulers of these countries are really thinking about not just (in terms of) sports positioning, (but) it goes much more (deeply), it’s about political, cultural, social positioning of the country.”

The region, particularly Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, has heavily invested in hosting high-profile events to boost international appeal while providing citizens with a growing array of entertainment and cultural experiences.

Dubai hosted the World Expo in 2021, the first such event in the Middle East, while Qatar welcomed a cumulative 3.4 million attendees during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, according to official figures.

Saudi Arabia has also expanded its portfolio of global events, hosting major sports competitions such as Formula One in Jeddah, the 2024 WTA Tennis Finals in Riyadh, and the Dakar Rally since 2020. Looking ahead, the Kingdom is set to host marquee events including the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, the 2030 Riyadh Expo, and the 2034 FIFA World Cup.

While these drive significant social and economic benefits, they also come with high costs. Sorrell emphasized the need for a more balanced approach to event planning in the future.

“There’s also an economic tension, because whilst it’s true that these events are very powerful, they’re also very costly,” he explained.

“So what’s happening is the events are going to have to be changed, in my view, in the longer term. One, they’re going to probably have less new facilities, and therefore (be) more economic. And they’re also going to have to be much more sustainable, and they’re also going to have to appeal to consumers, particularly Gen Z, who are different.”

On the same panel, H.H. Sheikha Latifa Bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, chairperson of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, emphasized the broader social impact of such events, particularly in enhancing quality of life and fostering cultural connection.

“Culture is a very important part of social fabric. It is the thread that connects communities. It is the thing that formulates your self-identity, creates your values, and it’s the thing that really connects people and brings people together,” she said.

Dubai, she added, has aimed to deliver strategies that provide opportunities for cultural industries to thrive organically and create that social cohesion.

For Anna Marks, global chair at Deloitte, the key lies in understanding the human need for connection and experiences, particularly among younger generations like Gen Z, who place a high value on belonging and social cohesion.

“When you look at some of the research out there around what Millennials and Gen Zs want, when they want to spend their money, they make choices, and they actually are telling us they want to spend their money on experiences and not product,” she said. “And that’s a really interesting trend.”

“You need to really come together, not just sort of cooperate by not getting in each other’s way, but deeply collaborate, agreeing what the vision is, building the solution together and delivering that. And (then) you move that into partnership and the economic aspect.”

To avoid creating unused facilities, Marks suggested repurposing venues for other uses, such as retail or community spaces.

“I think we should be excited about this sector,” she added.

LONDON: Trust will remain the defining characteristic of journalism in the age of artificial intelligence, protecting the industry from being “taken over by robots,” panelists said on Tuesday.

Speaking at “Scrolling Media’s Future” on the second day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mina Al-Oraibi, editor-in-chief of UAE daily The National, said trust had become a central pillar in the survival and evolution of journalism.

“We approach it (AI) in three different ways. One is organizing information, and that’s incredible, because there is all this information out there. We just don’t have enough time to process it, understand it,” she explained.

“Pillar number two is efficiency. Unfortunately, usually companies think efficiency means let people go, but actually it’s efficient to (consider) how do you free up more of their time, not doing the mundane tasks.”

However, she noted that the third aspect — verification — was where much of the concern lay.

The rise of AI as a disruptive force has significantly impacted journalism, particularly with the emergence of tools such as deepfakes and generative AI capable of mimicking human output. This has led to increased skepticism among audiences, even as traditional media faces ongoing criticism.

“With AI producing content that sounds like you but isn’t you, there’s a growing trust issue. Readers, despite their complaints about the media, still trust journalists more than machines. They trust a human to go out and gather the story,” Al-Oraibi said.

The Iraqi-British journalist, who has led the Abu Dhabi-based English-language newspaper since 2017, expressed optimism about journalism’s resilience, saying that such trajectory revealed a “kind of silver lining that there’s still a role for us, and it won’t be taken over by machines.”

Al-Oraibi illustrated her point with an example involving Justin Bieber, who sparked controversy at the start of the Israel-Hamas war by sharing an Instagram post with a photo of a demolished building in Gaza alongside the message “Praying for Israel.”

“It went viral because everybody thought because he’s a celebrity, he’s somebody they (can) trust,” she said. “(In episodes like this), we see the value of strong journalists. We see the value of news gathering and going out there and getting the story, and that’s what we want to have our journalists do.”

Speaking on the same panel, Daniel Roth, editor-in-chief and vice-president of content at LinkedIn, highlighted how the platform’s structure, which prioritizes content quality over popularity, has helped mitigate the impact of AI and misinformation.

“We have not done a lot of the attention economy work that other platforms have done that also keep it safe,” Roth explained, noting how, like in LinkedIn, “AI is going to stay away from doing anything highly opinionated.”

“If you have people who are experts and have very strong opinions and can sway an audience, I think that’s going to do well,” he said, adding that AI’s impact on breaking news — a core journalistic area — would remain limited.

James Harding, founder and editor of Tortoise Media, agreed with many points raised but warned the rapid development of AI tools capable of generating videos, images and stories will exacerbate the current information overload. This, he suggested, could have significant economic implications for media outlets.

“Human-generated information, verified information, reliable information, is going to become a smaller proportion of that (amount of info),” Harding explained. “At some point it’s going to be the case that advertising-based news media is going to find it harder and harder because it’s just managing to command a smaller amount of the public’s attention.”

Harding also discussed Tortoise Media’s recent acquisition of The Observer, the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper. While some view the purchase of a print-focused publication as counterintuitive in a digital-first era, Harding framed it as a strategic move to enhance Tortoise’s digital reach.

“We appreciated the value of print and what it could do in terms of broadcasting, the value of the journalism as a platform for advertising and as a way, in fact, of recruiting digital subscribers. But it was, what Mina was saying was that you have something that has an identity and a meaning to people, that you can then build a relationship in digital,” he said.