JEDDAH — After many years in the Hilton Hotel complex in Jeddah, the Jeddah Economic Forum (JEF) opens for business today at its new venue. Now housed in a large single pillarless exhibition hall on Madinah Road, the forum will run for the first time in a single security area and literally all under one roof.
The hangar-like building, more usually home to automobile shows and mining exhibitions, has undergone something of a rapid refurbishment to accommodate the JEF, which, after eight years, is now firmly established in the world conference circuit.
The cost of the refurbishments has, according to some reports, been as high as SR6 million. Structurally the same, the refurbishment is largely cosmetic but includes a resurfaced car park.
Gone is the club-like atmosphere that saw delegates able to mingle and network in quiet rooms and gardens. Replacing it is a somewhat spartan blue-draped hall with a new wooden veneer floor in one third where commercial exhibitors have set their stands.
Three audio-visual screens fronted by a minimalist stage and a table setup for the moderated sessions dominate the conference hall.
Likely to be of great improvement from the delegates’ perspective are the security arrangements. Once through the security screen at the entrance to the main building, there are no more security points.
While the previous fora were in theory to have a cordon sanitaire around them allowing free movement inside the complex, it never happened in practice resulting in bag searches and metal detector searches for delegates moving around the conference. However, women once again are, quite literally, sidelined in a triangular enclosure to one side of the main hall are 19 tables separated from the main body of the delegates by opaque glass screens.
From just eight of the tables is the whole stage visible; the view from the rest varies from half the stage to none at all. This means that well over half of the women delegates get only the projected images of the conference proceedings to look at, even though the live action is less than 20 metres away from them.
If the conference holds true to previous form, there is likely to be some lively and penetrating observations on this configuration from the very straight speaking women delegates who customarily attend.
The conference seating for the delegates is curiously devoid of tables. Unusually, delegates have nowhere to rest notes or computers and are for the duration of a session confined to boxy chairs in regimented rows. The whole setup gives the impression that they are to be lectured at rather than involved in the conference proceedings.
The success stories of the landmark 2007 JEF were the interactive voting system, which allowed instant audience feedback, and the quality of moderation of discussion by seasoned UK radio and TV personalities. Sue Macgregor and Alastair Stewart. Macgregor will not be present this year, but Stewart returns once again to the proceedings with his unique skills.
The die is cast: the move from the JEF’s traditional venue was a bold one. There has been much below the radar speculation as to the real reasons for the move. The real test of the new accommodation and format begins with the opening of the first session today at 9 a.m.
