Agenda
Day 1 | The Infrastructure Race
10:00-17:00
Day 1 of TDME 26 looks at how the GCC is building its digital infrastructure. It covers Abu Dhabi’s tech investment plans, choosing building locations, network connectivity, power supply, green data centres, and local data laws.
NOV
18
WED
Panel
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Abu Dhabi is positioning itself as one of the region's most ambitious digital economies, backing its ambitions with major capital commitments and investor-friendly policy. This panel brings together the people shaping that strategy to discuss how the emirate is competing for global tech investment, what incentives are drawing operators and hyperscalers in, and what the next phase of expansion could look like.
Panel
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Across the Gulf, governments are moving from policy to ownership, backing state-linked platforms and pushing for greater control over the region's digital assets. This panel examines what's driving that shift, how sovereign wealth and state-backed vehicles are shaping the market, and what it means for operators, investors and international players trying to navigate it.
Panel
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Choosing where to build is one of the highest-stakes decisions in the data centre lifecycle. This panel looks at how free zones, industrial clusters and government incentives are shaping site selection across the GCC, what developers are weighing up between power, land and connectivity, and which locations are emerging as the region's next big bets.
Panel
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The GCC's position at the crossroads of major subsea cable routes gives it a genuine connectivity edge. This panel explores how new cable investment, peering infrastructure and internet exchanges are strengthening that advantage, and what still needs to be built to support the coming wave of data centre and AI demand.
Fireside Chat
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Capital is pouring into the Gulf's digital infrastructure at a pace few other regions can match. In this fireside chat, some of the region's most active investors sit down to talk candidly about where they'replacing bets, how they're evaluating deals, and what it really takes to capitalise on the opportunity in front of them.
Panel
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Data centre power demand is accelerating faster than grids were built to handle. This panel asks whether the GCC's energy infrastructure can keep pace, what governments and utilities are doing to close the gap, and how operators are adapting their plans as power, not land, becomes the region's biggest constraint.
Panel
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As AI and cloud demand drive up energy and water usage, sustainability commitments across the Gulf's data centre industry are being put to the test. This panel discusses how operators are integrating renewables, managing water-intensive cooling, and working toward net zero targets, and how the region's progress compares with its international counterparts.
Panel
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Data sovereignty regulation across the GCC is evolving quickly, and owners and operators are having to keep pace. This panel brings together legal experts to unpack what's changing, what compliance really requires in practice, and what the region's regulatory direction of travel means for cross-border data flows.
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Day 1 of TDME 26 looks at how the GCC is building its digital infrastructure. It covers Abu Dhabi’s tech investment plans, choosing building locations, network connectivity, power supply, green data centres, and local data laws.