In the first episode of the Backstage Leadership Conversations podcast series, learn about Abu Dhabi's strategy for attracting MICE events and how it became one of the leading business-friendly event destinations.
In our Backstage Leadership Conversations podcast series, in collaboration with Abu Dhabi's Culture and Tourism Department, we explore the post-pandemic trends in business travel, focusing on key areas such as technology, impact, sustainability and recovery. Learn how Abu Dhabi is helping the MICE sector to thrive.
For this series, we went backstage at Abu Dhabi Business Events Week and had engaging discussions with a range of interesting leaders from across the sector to understand more about the shifts and trends they have witnessed in their work. We heard a range of different perspectives and talked about how everybody can collectively come together to reinforce Abu Dhabi's very competitive positioning and continue to help the MICE sector thrive as a more competitive, exciting and innovative industry as we come out of the pandemic.
In the first episode, we focus on the key trends that are impacting the industry. We deep dive into Abu Dhabi's strategy for attracting MICE events and how it aspires to become one of the leading business-friendly event destinations worldwide as it shifts from an oil-based economy to a knowledge-based economy.
In this episode, we hear from Mubarak Al Shamsi, the director of Abu Dhabi's Convention and Exhibition Bureau (ADCEB), who has experience across the entire tourism sector. He started working as the director of ADCEB in 2004 and helped transform the ADCEB to be one of the most ambitious and forward-thinking convention bureaus in the world. His main mission is to put Abu Dhabi on the map as one of the strongest and most competitive MICE destinations. Abu Dhabi Business Events Week is just part of this ambition, helping to enable the industry to foster collaboration.
Firstly, looking at the 2030 vision of the government of Abu Dhabi, we can see that there's a long-term plan towards the transformation of the entire emirate's economy. This focuses on a shift from being an oil sector economy to a knowledge-based economy, where innovation is key to helping it thrive and embrace future opportunities. Having understood that one of Abu Dhabi's goals is to become a leading MICE destination, Nick asked Mubarak about ADCEB's plan to achieve this.
It's very important for us in Abu Dhabi to make sure that we are up to the task when it comes to the MICE industry. We've been involved in the MICE sector for a long time and it's very key for us to be up-to-date with the latest trends and the latest focus in the MICE industry. Therefore, you see us as a convention bureau participating in international shows, attending events and being board members in associations. All this is to make sure that we are future-ready when it comes to the MICE industry.
It's really key for us to lay out a clear strategy for the MICE industry in Abu Dhabi. We have a very clear and focused 10-year strategy that positions Abu Dhabi as an international MICE hub that welcomes lots of international business events to Abu Dhabi. We make sure that we are up to the task and closely aligned with the international industry in order to consider how we can cater for the international MICE industry.
With the overview provided by Mubarak, we get a really good sense of where the convention bureau is heading and where this sense of determination, drive and ambition comes from. There are some really exciting changes happening right now across the whole industry. In particular, this has been witnessed during Abu Dhabi Business Events Week, which is determined to foster collaboration and crystallise exciting ideas around mega projects, transforming the overall competitive positioning of the sector. There is also a need to think about how to translate and relay these innovative actions to the different events which may be looking at Abu Dhabi as an attractive place to host their next event.
Abu Dhabi is creating its own space where we see events such as the Formula One, the UAE Tour and the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, crafting a very unique identity for the event sector. I wanted to dive into more detail about how ADCEB is working to attract more large events and to build this tightly into the overall strategic approach.
The ADCEB was established in 2015. At that time, Abu Dhabi had a good calendar of business events - such as ADIPEC and IDEX - which were great events that reflected the different industries and positioned Abu Dhabi very nicely. We have some MICE elements within the destination and since ADCEB was founded, it was very clear to us where we wanted to go in the next 10 years and how we wanted to position Abu Dhabi strategically in the MICE event industry.
During the process of creating Abu Dhabi's MICE strategy, it was very important to make sure that Abu Dhabi has the right infrastructure and stakeholders for business events to ensure that the business event attendees have the best experience ever in Abu Dhabi. The focus is on having the right tourism proposition for the destination, including being accessible and having the right accommodation. All of these different elements make the perfect MICE destination.
We need to make sure that the MICE industry innovates and is one of the best in the world. Hence we are part of the Department of Culture and Tourism so we have alignment and work very closely with stakeholders. The main ingredient of our success today is partnerships. We need to make sure that we have a very clear alignment with our partners, both in Abu Dhabi and internationally. We want to make sure that alignment happens across all aspects and we work with our partners to make sure that we successfully implement the best-in-class practices when it comes to partnerships, accessibility and the venues and convention centres. I believe we have achieved this, but there are a lot of areas to keep developing further.
The second element that we need to focus on is how we are going to be visible to international audiences when it comes to the MICE industry. Our participation in international MICE platforms is key for us; not only to be part of them, but to be an active part of that industry. Today as a convention bureau, we sit on international association boards, such as ICCA, the IEEE and SITE. The reason to do so is to very closely integrate with these associations to understand the focus of the MICE industry and reflect these needs back to Abu Dhabi's MICE industry to create a special agenda that will suit everyone.
Working in the international market gives us exposure to bid for big international events to take place in Abu Dhabi, which we've been very successful at. Hosting major international events in Abu Dhabi reflects a strong testament to the appeal of Abu Dhabi as a destination and how successful the industry is in Abu Dhabi in terms of its infrastructure and overall business ecosystem. It gives reassurance that Abu Dhabi can and will provide the best event experiences.
We keep pushing to bring in a lot of international events, which has resulted in a very robust calendar of events across the year, reflecting the narrative of how strong and successful the destination is in hosting such events. Even during the pandemic, we've been one of the very few destinations to host a major event, namely IDEX in 2021. It was very successful and was attended by a lot of international delegates.
In 2022, in addition to the robust and strong business events calendar that we have in Abu Dhabi, we've been able to anchor 11 new events in the destination. Six out of these eleven events are exhibitions, which are here to stay for the next five years or longer. Besides the association events that we are hosting, I also met one of our major partners who won an extra international event which will take place in 2025 with more than 1,500 delegates. The strategic impact of such events and the economic impact on the destination are the key ingredients to put Abu Dhabi on the map.
Abu Dhabi Business Events Week 2022 was a huge success, following on from the inaugural event in 2021, where we managed to gather hundreds of delegates from across the MICE sector to share best practices, talk about some of the trends they're seeing and explore some of the exciting opportunities on the horizon. It's moments like this where you start to get a sense of just how competitive this industry is and how innovative we are together when we are able to foster a strong sense of collaboration. This helps to both embrace the opportunities on the horizon when we think about overcoming challenges and also ideas that perhaps present themselves in things like the metaverse and other virtual or multi-layered experiences.
When we think about important challenges like sustainability, we understand that as a sector we have to respond proactively to it. Nick asked Mubarak what this means when thinking about Abu Dhabi's competitive positioning and how the strategy is built on creating something which crafts its own place in this very busy marketplace, enabling Abu Dhabi to truly stand out against its competition.
It will create the link in the narrative of where and how that could happen. The 2nd edition of the Abu Dhabi Business Events Week was organised after a very successful first edition in 2021. Keep in mind that 2021 was very hard for a lot of events to establish themselves, but we did it. The essence of the week was very simple and straightforward, creating a platform in the region to focus on the MICE industry, which didn't previously exist. To make sure that happens, we wanted to make sure that we can relate to the region's MICE requirements and needs and to cross-check and make sure it's also aligned with the international focus, needs and trends of the MICE industry in general.
In order to make sure that we create the right agenda and content for the event, we created an advisory board that consisted of members from international associations that focus on the MICE industry, including IEEE, ICCA and SITE, in addition to the local and regional partners. This structure was selected because those respective agencies, associations and members shape the industry. We wanted to align with them very carefully around how to create content and a programme that will best fit the region. The event was really engaging and enlightening for a lot of our MICE delegates.
We target delegates from the Middle East region to attend the event. Last year, around 300 entities and delegates from the MICE industry within the region attended and gave us great feedback, which helped focus this edition. Partners in Abu Dhabi and from international associations frequently ask why the event focuses on the entire region, not just Abu Dhabi. ADCEB and Abu Dhabi's MICE industry need to look into the second phase. I think we've been very successful in the destination to build the MICE sector in Abu Dhabi and to keep developing that. However, we also want to have an impact and contribute to the entire region. I think that puts us in a very competitive position and builds respect for Abu Dhabi through the contribution the destination is making towards the region. We definitely benefit from positioning ourselves in that way because the MICE industry plays an important role as a destination in the region, resulting in the MENA region looking at Abu Dhabi completely differently. Therefore, Abu Dhabi is viewed as being where people should visit to gather information and be enlightened about the MICE industry through these platforms. This improves Abu Dhabi's competitiveness against other regions and destinations, in addition to what we are doing around the strategies and initiatives that we are creating within the ADCEB.
I've mentioned partnerships a lot during our podcast today, but it's key for us. In 2022, ADCEB built alignment between itself and Miral and launched a joint fund. Miral is the company which runs Yas Island, including hotels, theme parks and MICE products. ADCEB works with them very closely and focuses on the corporate and incentives elements. On the other hand, ADCEB also extends certain new initiatives with members of other associations, such as ADNEC and the Emirates Medical Association, which focuses on medical conferences to push them towards Abu Dhabi.
The partnerships that we have are not Memorandums of Understanding. Instead, it's much deeper than that. We understand the requirements and the needs of our clients and how we can cater for them. Secondly, we are looking into the incentive tools that we can utilise as a convention bureau, which is a programme called Advantage Abu Dhabi. It's an incentive scheme that's been utilised to capture events and bring them to Abu Dhabi.
We are very flexible and adaptive to changing situations. In 2022, ADCEB launched version 2.0 of the Advantage Abu Dhabi programme. Version 2.0 came right after the pandemic because the requirements and the needs of the industry were totally different than before COVID. We wanted to make sure that all the tools that exist today in Abu Dhabi help to bring MICE business to the emirate and make the industry even more competitive.
Within ADCEB we also focus on destination weddings, which is a segment that is also a strength for Abu Dhabi. This complements the MICE industry since destination weddings have the same characteristics of a bidding process, with delegations attending roadshows in the main markets, such as India. We are focusing on all of these different elements when it comes to how Abu Dhabi can be competitive against other destinations.
For the last part of the interview, I wanted to sit down with Mubarak and explore how the pandemic has influenced and shaped the industry, looking at where the industry is at today and where it's heading in the future. One of the things that is really clear from chatting with Mubarak is that there is a strong sense of determination and also a collective thinking about how the future can be really exciting if we all work together.
We also see that a lot of resilience has been built up through periods of change, which has helped build the strengths and capabilities that exist within the sector and also helped it to adapt and shift towards new opportunities, such as how to leverage the potential of new technologies rather than seeing this as something which could threaten an industry which has traditionally depended on the quality of face-to-face human engagement. As we look forward, we can really see that these new technologies have completely changed the way the MICE sector comes together and only present themselves as opportunities to enhance and strengthen both remote communication and crucially the in-person experience. We already see this through a very strong recovery of the sector compared to 2019 levels.
From an industry perspective, ADCEB works very closely with all its partners within Abu Dhabi. We need to make sure that Abu Dhabi has the right industry ecosystem for the destination. When it comes to the MICE industry, we've launched a couple of initiatives that focus on resilience and economic safety as well as ensuring that we are insulated from a pandemic perspective. All our tourism propositions were vetted and improved visitation as part of these initiatives, which is something that we are very proud of. This drove a lot of business towards the destinations.
Abu Dhabi is one of the very few destinations around the world focusing on safety and healthcare. During the pandemic, we made sure that these aspects were covered. The process itself is very simple and easy to make sure conducting business could be done very easily.
In the past two years, a lot of our industry has been affected and it was very challenging during the pandemic. We saw the quick rebound of the industry as soon as everything opened up, which gives an indication of how Abu Dhabi today is ready to host events and that the appetite of the industry is there for the events to take place in Abu Dhabi. It's very interesting to say that because when the industry across the world was not having any events, moving them online or doing hybrid events, during the pandemic, ADCEB hosted IDEX, which is one of the leading exhibitions and conferences when it comes to the military. This was held in Abu Dhabi during the pandemic, which reflects how resilient the industry is in Abu Dhabi specifically and how determined we are in Abu Dhabi's government in regard to the business events industry. I don't think that we would be where we are today without the strong vision of the government and the clear structure and focus of ADCEB and our partners due to having a mindset of being very strong and resilient when it comes to business events and how we can adapt to different situations as we go forward.
I think the past two years had taught us a lot and made us more resilient when it comes to crisis management. I think we'll be ready for any similar situations in the future. Some of the debates and sessions during Abu Dhabi Business Events Week focused on that aspect because one of the main goals of the week is to make sure that we are future-ready.
From the conversation with Mubarak Al Shamsi, one thing that I was able to take away is this huge sense of pride and passion in what ADCEB has been able to achieve as a sector, where they see the sector going in the future as well as where they feel the need to invest to help the MICE sector become more resilient and to succeed with partnerships in order to create the right framework and models of working together. Crucially, we also discussed the importance of using technology to enhance in-person experiences and recognised that whilst the pandemic created huge challenges for the sector, it created strong opportunities for learning.
We've been able to build resilience to see the potential that technology can bring us, but also to value human interaction, which is at the heart of the MICE sector. It's about people coming together face-to-face and having that quality time where they can engage, explore a topic and meet with colleagues in an environment which inspires new ideas and helps them to see things in a different way that they wouldn't see in a virtual meeting space.
This episode has shown how having a multi-year destination strategy enables Abu Dhabi to identify future opportunities and transform the MICE sector through continuous innovation and the development of new initiatives that increase the appeal of the destination. This was especially important during the COVID pandemic with Abu Dhabi focusing on the resiliency of the MICE sector and quick adaptation to changing needs and requirements, enabling ADCEB to host events during the pandemic when most other destinations were unable to do so.
A central pillar of ADCEB's approach is to develop alignment with key stakeholders within Abu Dhabi and internationally to foster a collaborative environment based on partnerships. Abu Dhabi invests in developing top-quality infrastructure, ensuring accessibility and that visitors have the best experiences when attending MICE events in the emirate. Technology has changed the way the MICE sector operates, but face-to-face communication remains key to strong event experiences.
Abu Dhabi also uses international participation in associations to learn about the latest trends and generates exposure for the destination. This helps ADCEB generate respect and leadership as a best practice MICE destination in the Middle East, with Abu Dhabi Business Events Week acting as a good opportunity to share knowledge across the region.
In our Backstage Leadership Conversations podcast series, in collaboration with Abu Dhabi's Culture and Tourism Department, we explore the post-pandemic trends in business travel, focusing on key areas such as technology, impact, sustainability and recovery. Learn how Abu Dhabi is helping the MICE sector to thrive.
For this series, we went backstage at Abu Dhabi Business Events Week and had engaging discussions with a range of interesting leaders from across the sector to understand more about the shifts and trends they have witnessed in their work. We heard a range of different perspectives and talked about how everybody can collectively come together to reinforce Abu Dhabi's very competitive positioning and continue to help the MICE sector thrive as a more competitive, exciting and innovative industry as we come out of the pandemic.
In the first episode, we focus on the key trends that are impacting the industry. We deep dive into Abu Dhabi's strategy for attracting MICE events and how it aspires to become one of the leading business-friendly event destinations worldwide as it shifts from an oil-based economy to a knowledge-based economy.
In this episode, we hear from Mubarak Al Shamsi, the director of Abu Dhabi's Convention and Exhibition Bureau (ADCEB), who has experience across the entire tourism sector. He started working as the director of ADCEB in 2004 and helped transform the ADCEB to be one of the most ambitious and forward-thinking convention bureaus in the world. His main mission is to put Abu Dhabi on the map as one of the strongest and most competitive MICE destinations. Abu Dhabi Business Events Week is just part of this ambition, helping to enable the industry to foster collaboration.
Firstly, looking at the 2030 vision of the government of Abu Dhabi, we can see that there's a long-term plan towards the transformation of the entire emirate's economy. This focuses on a shift from being an oil sector economy to a knowledge-based economy, where innovation is key to helping it thrive and embrace future opportunities. Having understood that one of Abu Dhabi's goals is to become a leading MICE destination, Nick asked Mubarak about ADCEB's plan to achieve this.
It's very important for us in Abu Dhabi to make sure that we are up to the task when it comes to the MICE industry. We've been involved in the MICE sector for a long time and it's very key for us to be up-to-date with the latest trends and the latest focus in the MICE industry. Therefore, you see us as a convention bureau participating in international shows, attending events and being board members in associations. All this is to make sure that we are future-ready when it comes to the MICE industry.
It's really key for us to lay out a clear strategy for the MICE industry in Abu Dhabi. We have a very clear and focused 10-year strategy that positions Abu Dhabi as an international MICE hub that welcomes lots of international business events to Abu Dhabi. We make sure that we are up to the task and closely aligned with the international industry in order to consider how we can cater for the international MICE industry.
With the overview provided by Mubarak, we get a really good sense of where the convention bureau is heading and where this sense of determination, drive and ambition comes from. There are some really exciting changes happening right now across the whole industry. In particular, this has been witnessed during Abu Dhabi Business Events Week, which is determined to foster collaboration and crystallise exciting ideas around mega projects, transforming the overall competitive positioning of the sector. There is also a need to think about how to translate and relay these innovative actions to the different events which may be looking at Abu Dhabi as an attractive place to host their next event.
Abu Dhabi is creating its own space where we see events such as the Formula One, the UAE Tour and the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, crafting a very unique identity for the event sector. I wanted to dive into more detail about how ADCEB is working to attract more large events and to build this tightly into the overall strategic approach.
The ADCEB was established in 2015. At that time, Abu Dhabi had a good calendar of business events - such as ADIPEC and IDEX - which were great events that reflected the different industries and positioned Abu Dhabi very nicely. We have some MICE elements within the destination and since ADCEB was founded, it was very clear to us where we wanted to go in the next 10 years and how we wanted to position Abu Dhabi strategically in the MICE event industry.
During the process of creating Abu Dhabi's MICE strategy, it was very important to make sure that Abu Dhabi has the right infrastructure and stakeholders for business events to ensure that the business event attendees have the best experience ever in Abu Dhabi. The focus is on having the right tourism proposition for the destination, including being accessible and having the right accommodation. All of these different elements make the perfect MICE destination.
We need to make sure that the MICE industry innovates and is one of the best in the world. Hence we are part of the Department of Culture and Tourism so we have alignment and work very closely with stakeholders. The main ingredient of our success today is partnerships. We need to make sure that we have a very clear alignment with our partners, both in Abu Dhabi and internationally. We want to make sure that alignment happens across all aspects and we work with our partners to make sure that we successfully implement the best-in-class practices when it comes to partnerships, accessibility and the venues and convention centres. I believe we have achieved this, but there are a lot of areas to keep developing further.
The second element that we need to focus on is how we are going to be visible to international audiences when it comes to the MICE industry. Our participation in international MICE platforms is key for us; not only to be part of them, but to be an active part of that industry. Today as a convention bureau, we sit on international association boards, such as ICCA, the IEEE and SITE. The reason to do so is to very closely integrate with these associations to understand the focus of the MICE industry and reflect these needs back to Abu Dhabi's MICE industry to create a special agenda that will suit everyone.
Working in the international market gives us exposure to bid for big international events to take place in Abu Dhabi, which we've been very successful at. Hosting major international events in Abu Dhabi reflects a strong testament to the appeal of Abu Dhabi as a destination and how successful the industry is in Abu Dhabi in terms of its infrastructure and overall business ecosystem. It gives reassurance that Abu Dhabi can and will provide the best event experiences.
We keep pushing to bring in a lot of international events, which has resulted in a very robust calendar of events across the year, reflecting the narrative of how strong and successful the destination is in hosting such events. Even during the pandemic, we've been one of the very few destinations to host a major event, namely IDEX in 2021. It was very successful and was attended by a lot of international delegates.
In 2022, in addition to the robust and strong business events calendar that we have in Abu Dhabi, we've been able to anchor 11 new events in the destination. Six out of these eleven events are exhibitions, which are here to stay for the next five years or longer. Besides the association events that we are hosting, I also met one of our major partners who won an extra international event which will take place in 2025 with more than 1,500 delegates. The strategic impact of such events and the economic impact on the destination are the key ingredients to put Abu Dhabi on the map.
Abu Dhabi Business Events Week 2022 was a huge success, following on from the inaugural event in 2021, where we managed to gather hundreds of delegates from across the MICE sector to share best practices, talk about some of the trends they're seeing and explore some of the exciting opportunities on the horizon. It's moments like this where you start to get a sense of just how competitive this industry is and how innovative we are together when we are able to foster a strong sense of collaboration. This helps to both embrace the opportunities on the horizon when we think about overcoming challenges and also ideas that perhaps present themselves in things like the metaverse and other virtual or multi-layered experiences.
When we think about important challenges like sustainability, we understand that as a sector we have to respond proactively to it. Nick asked Mubarak what this means when thinking about Abu Dhabi's competitive positioning and how the strategy is built on creating something which crafts its own place in this very busy marketplace, enabling Abu Dhabi to truly stand out against its competition.
It will create the link in the narrative of where and how that could happen. The 2nd edition of the Abu Dhabi Business Events Week was organised after a very successful first edition in 2021. Keep in mind that 2021 was very hard for a lot of events to establish themselves, but we did it. The essence of the week was very simple and straightforward, creating a platform in the region to focus on the MICE industry, which didn't previously exist. To make sure that happens, we wanted to make sure that we can relate to the region's MICE requirements and needs and to cross-check and make sure it's also aligned with the international focus, needs and trends of the MICE industry in general.
In order to make sure that we create the right agenda and content for the event, we created an advisory board that consisted of members from international associations that focus on the MICE industry, including IEEE, ICCA and SITE, in addition to the local and regional partners. This structure was selected because those respective agencies, associations and members shape the industry. We wanted to align with them very carefully around how to create content and a programme that will best fit the region. The event was really engaging and enlightening for a lot of our MICE delegates.
We target delegates from the Middle East region to attend the event. Last year, around 300 entities and delegates from the MICE industry within the region attended and gave us great feedback, which helped focus this edition. Partners in Abu Dhabi and from international associations frequently ask why the event focuses on the entire region, not just Abu Dhabi. ADCEB and Abu Dhabi's MICE industry need to look into the second phase. I think we've been very successful in the destination to build the MICE sector in Abu Dhabi and to keep developing that. However, we also want to have an impact and contribute to the entire region. I think that puts us in a very competitive position and builds respect for Abu Dhabi through the contribution the destination is making towards the region. We definitely benefit from positioning ourselves in that way because the MICE industry plays an important role as a destination in the region, resulting in the MENA region looking at Abu Dhabi completely differently. Therefore, Abu Dhabi is viewed as being where people should visit to gather information and be enlightened about the MICE industry through these platforms. This improves Abu Dhabi's competitiveness against other regions and destinations, in addition to what we are doing around the strategies and initiatives that we are creating within the ADCEB.
I've mentioned partnerships a lot during our podcast today, but it's key for us. In 2022, ADCEB built alignment between itself and Miral and launched a joint fund. Miral is the company which runs Yas Island, including hotels, theme parks and MICE products. ADCEB works with them very closely and focuses on the corporate and incentives elements. On the other hand, ADCEB also extends certain new initiatives with members of other associations, such as ADNEC and the Emirates Medical Association, which focuses on medical conferences to push them towards Abu Dhabi.
The partnerships that we have are not Memorandums of Understanding. Instead, it's much deeper than that. We understand the requirements and the needs of our clients and how we can cater for them. Secondly, we are looking into the incentive tools that we can utilise as a convention bureau, which is a programme called Advantage Abu Dhabi. It's an incentive scheme that's been utilised to capture events and bring them to Abu Dhabi.
We are very flexible and adaptive to changing situations. In 2022, ADCEB launched version 2.0 of the Advantage Abu Dhabi programme. Version 2.0 came right after the pandemic because the requirements and the needs of the industry were totally different than before COVID. We wanted to make sure that all the tools that exist today in Abu Dhabi help to bring MICE business to the emirate and make the industry even more competitive.
Within ADCEB we also focus on destination weddings, which is a segment that is also a strength for Abu Dhabi. This complements the MICE industry since destination weddings have the same characteristics of a bidding process, with delegations attending roadshows in the main markets, such as India. We are focusing on all of these different elements when it comes to how Abu Dhabi can be competitive against other destinations.
For the last part of the interview, I wanted to sit down with Mubarak and explore how the pandemic has influenced and shaped the industry, looking at where the industry is at today and where it's heading in the future. One of the things that is really clear from chatting with Mubarak is that there is a strong sense of determination and also a collective thinking about how the future can be really exciting if we all work together.
We also see that a lot of resilience has been built up through periods of change, which has helped build the strengths and capabilities that exist within the sector and also helped it to adapt and shift towards new opportunities, such as how to leverage the potential of new technologies rather than seeing this as something which could threaten an industry which has traditionally depended on the quality of face-to-face human engagement. As we look forward, we can really see that these new technologies have completely changed the way the MICE sector comes together and only present themselves as opportunities to enhance and strengthen both remote communication and crucially the in-person experience. We already see this through a very strong recovery of the sector compared to 2019 levels.
From an industry perspective, ADCEB works very closely with all its partners within Abu Dhabi. We need to make sure that Abu Dhabi has the right industry ecosystem for the destination. When it comes to the MICE industry, we've launched a couple of initiatives that focus on resilience and economic safety as well as ensuring that we are insulated from a pandemic perspective. All our tourism propositions were vetted and improved visitation as part of these initiatives, which is something that we are very proud of. This drove a lot of business towards the destinations.
Abu Dhabi is one of the very few destinations around the world focusing on safety and healthcare. During the pandemic, we made sure that these aspects were covered. The process itself is very simple and easy to make sure conducting business could be done very easily.
In the past two years, a lot of our industry has been affected and it was very challenging during the pandemic. We saw the quick rebound of the industry as soon as everything opened up, which gives an indication of how Abu Dhabi today is ready to host events and that the appetite of the industry is there for the events to take place in Abu Dhabi. It's very interesting to say that because when the industry across the world was not having any events, moving them online or doing hybrid events, during the pandemic, ADCEB hosted IDEX, which is one of the leading exhibitions and conferences when it comes to the military. This was held in Abu Dhabi during the pandemic, which reflects how resilient the industry is in Abu Dhabi specifically and how determined we are in Abu Dhabi's government in regard to the business events industry. I don't think that we would be where we are today without the strong vision of the government and the clear structure and focus of ADCEB and our partners due to having a mindset of being very strong and resilient when it comes to business events and how we can adapt to different situations as we go forward.
I think the past two years had taught us a lot and made us more resilient when it comes to crisis management. I think we'll be ready for any similar situations in the future. Some of the debates and sessions during Abu Dhabi Business Events Week focused on that aspect because one of the main goals of the week is to make sure that we are future-ready.
From the conversation with Mubarak Al Shamsi, one thing that I was able to take away is this huge sense of pride and passion in what ADCEB has been able to achieve as a sector, where they see the sector going in the future as well as where they feel the need to invest to help the MICE sector become more resilient and to succeed with partnerships in order to create the right framework and models of working together. Crucially, we also discussed the importance of using technology to enhance in-person experiences and recognised that whilst the pandemic created huge challenges for the sector, it created strong opportunities for learning.
We've been able to build resilience to see the potential that technology can bring us, but also to value human interaction, which is at the heart of the MICE sector. It's about people coming together face-to-face and having that quality time where they can engage, explore a topic and meet with colleagues in an environment which inspires new ideas and helps them to see things in a different way that they wouldn't see in a virtual meeting space.
This episode has shown how having a multi-year destination strategy enables Abu Dhabi to identify future opportunities and transform the MICE sector through continuous innovation and the development of new initiatives that increase the appeal of the destination. This was especially important during the COVID pandemic with Abu Dhabi focusing on the resiliency of the MICE sector and quick adaptation to changing needs and requirements, enabling ADCEB to host events during the pandemic when most other destinations were unable to do so.
A central pillar of ADCEB's approach is to develop alignment with key stakeholders within Abu Dhabi and internationally to foster a collaborative environment based on partnerships. Abu Dhabi invests in developing top-quality infrastructure, ensuring accessibility and that visitors have the best experiences when attending MICE events in the emirate. Technology has changed the way the MICE sector operates, but face-to-face communication remains key to strong event experiences.
Abu Dhabi also uses international participation in associations to learn about the latest trends and generates exposure for the destination. This helps ADCEB generate respect and leadership as a best practice MICE destination in the Middle East, with Abu Dhabi Business Events Week acting as a good opportunity to share knowledge across the region.
In the first episode of the Backstage Leadership Conversations podcast series, we deep dive into Abu Dhabi's strategy for attracting MICE events and how it aspires to become one of the leading business-friendly event destinations worldwide.
In the first episode of the Backstage Leadership Conversations podcast series, we deep dive into Abu Dhabi's strategy for attracting MICE events and how it aspires to become one of the leading business-friendly event destinations worldwide.
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