ADFW 2026 | Chris Hughes on DubaiEye 103.1's Business Breakfast

Yeah, and speaking of Abu Dhabi and quite frankly, speaking of stages, we are getting closer to Abu Dhabi Finance Week. It is just over a month away. To update us on progress, we're very pleased to be joined by the editor-in-chief, Chris Hughes. Chris, good morning.

Hello. Good morning to you, too.

We're in your hood. Tell me, what does your speaker count look like now?

There's a lot. We have This year we're going to go to 1,000 speakers. You see all those gray hairs in my beard? That's where they're all coming from. There's an awful lot going on this year.

We're going to go up to 1,000 different speakers talking about you know, everything across the global economy. Some of the most important CEOs in the world are flying in. You know, we're going to do 80 different events across Finance Week. That's up from 70 last year. Our event Our Our mini city that we build every year is growing by about 25% this year.

And people are really excited because I think more than anything there's a lot to talk about in the world today.

Oh, there is.

And yeah, it's an important time to get people together.

Yeah, it is. And I want to talk about all of that. So, getting people together first off, we've seen FII, another big finance conference. I know that you're normally an attendee, canceled in Saudi Arabia alongside another a lot of other events. And those that have been going ahead in the region, we know that some big names have been missing from from lineups.

Have you had any speaker cancellations? Have you had any choosing to take place virtually? What's the vibe in the conversations been like for you?

The vibe's been great. The You know, what happens in other parts of the region, I don't really have any expertise on. I spend my time in Abu Dhabi and I'm building Abu Dhabi Finance Week with the team and you know, we're all systems go. Um it's we're in great shape. It's become one of the most important events in the world I um you know, the thing about speaker cancellations, I seen that somebody put a a note out about ADIPEC last week.

I don't know if that's really a story. That that's just events every year, right? If you have a thousand speakers, of course you're going to have one or two of them say, "Well, I can't I can't come now. You know, I've got a dentist appointment. I've got something to do."

You know, the So, cancellations are just a part of event management. It's nothing new for this year, right? Um but in terms of the leaders that are planning to come, our numbers are up. And although I've nothing to do with the organization of ADIPEC last week, you know, Sam Altman turned up. He wasn't a hologram as far as I can see.

He was he was very much there in real life. You know, anyone that's ever done that trip to from California over to Abu Dhabi will know that that is a long trip. And Sam Altman is one of the most you know, busiest and important people in the world today. He's building AI. And you know, for him to take that trip over is pretty much the signal that you need, you know, that uh people are quite comfortable to be here.

And look, I hear you. I hear you on that. We've seen the the Sam Altman visit as kind of you know, the biggest vote of confidence you can get. I mean, it hasn't been a normal year though. I'm speaking to you the day after midterms.

There's been a lot of concern about what that could mean. We're here on a very quiet, peaceful morning here on this Abu Dhabi golf course. But have you had to have different conversations with delegates team this year? Have they had different questions?

Of course, when you're organizing something as big and complicated of as Abu Dhabi Finance Week or any mega event, you you have to put management plans in place. And there's all sorts of things that that you have to be ready for. And again, that's not a 2026 thing. That's just an event management thing. And yes, you know, there's a lot going on in the region.

But you can only really deal with the facts as you see them. Speaking for myself, you can only deal with the facts as you see them. And statistically, mathematically, everything's up. All the numbers are up. So, we're in good shape today.

And I Yes, I'm aware that we exist in a wider moment in time, but that's why conferences are important. Conferences are important to come along and talk about these things. And you know, for all the things that people are curious about, you know, we hope to be dealing with so many of them at at Finance Week. You know, we don't just put ordinary people on the stage, we put the CEOs running some of the biggest financial institutions, corporations, investment companies, and so on on the stage. And these are the people that have to make decisions in real time that can affect the global economy.

So, it's an extraordinary opportunity, I think, in Abu Dhabi to you know, to come along to to learn about what 2027 might bring because there is a lot to talk about. You know, the the news cycle every every day seems to be getting more and more dramatic. Um but, you know, I'll I'll give you an anecdote. I went for dinner the other night in a steak restaurant in one of the hotels here in Abu Dhabi, and I was leaving it. And I I saw Ray Dalio just kind of he was looking, you know, at some exhibition, and he was kind of staring at it.

He had a child with him. And just as I was chatting to him, Larry Fink, who's the most important man in world of finance by many people's estimations, kind of walked past. And I was like, "Oh, wow, there's Larry Fink." And then behind him, there was like two other big CEOs, big institutions walk past. I was like, "I just seen CEOs running a quarter of the global economy in like 75 seconds."

I don't think there's anywhere else on Earth that you could see that. You know, it's just pretty bizarre, to be honest with you. Um and they're all there, and they're all they're all laughing and joking. The one was walking around with serious faces. You know, it was all um it was all systems go.

So, Abu Dhabi, the global economy really likes Abu Dhabi. And you know, they come here, they they do meaningful business here, not just with Abu Dhabi and the sovereign wealth funds and all the the various apparatus of the financial economy here in Abu Dhabi, but they're increasingly using Abu Dhabi as a place to to trade with India, to trade with the ASEAN regions, to trade with the CIS nations, the stands, you know, the it's kind of a good hub for a much wider location. And they spend a lot of time here. And as far as I can see, that has not only it's not only um not gotten worse, but it's actually like improved. There's more people I've never seen so many big and important people in uh in Abu Dhabi as I have this year.

I'm going to steal another 20 seconds and risk my producer's rage because I did see on your LinkedIn that out of those 80 events you mentioned, you are moving half of them to private door sessions.

Yeah.

What's going to happen behind those closed doors?

Oh. Those conversations are incredible. Like the things that people will talk about when, you know, you put 30 CEOs in a room together and you, you know, keep it private. Like the things that they can talk about, the the the the the really big and important issues in in the world that they can brainstorm together with. Honestly, can change the world.

That's the power of events. Events can change the world when they're designed properly. Um and that's what we're going to try in our own small way to do. Last thing I'm going to say, Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi and the UAE in the week of finance week is part of a much bigger moment of time. You've got GITEX in Dubai, you've got the United Nations water conference with the whole leadership of the UN, dozens of heads of state.

You've got the Abu Dhabi culture summit, you've got the Formula 1, which is all systems go that we're all excited about. That's all in the same week. It's going to be an extraordinary time to be in the UAE for anyone that's interested in big business from anywhere in the world.

Uh it's going to be a time that I think we're going to be staying intense, Chris, cuz I hear that the hotel booking um are also quite punchy. People have got organized early.

Sorry about that.

Chris, who's the of PW Finance Week, thank you for your time.