An Interview with Mr. Hatim Alkahily (SCEGA) on the International MICE Summit 2025
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24th Nov, 2025
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Photo credit © Abdulmeilk Aldawsari
Saudi Arabia will convene the second International MICE Summit on 26 and 27 November at The Canopy in Riyadh’s Hittin District. Hosted by the Saudi Conventions and Exhibitions General Authority (SCEGA), the summit is expected to attract more than two thousand participants and will focus on how public and private organisations can strengthen strategy, investment and operational capacity across the business events sector. The programme builds on the inaugural edition in 2024 and forms part of the wider economic transformation outlined in Vision 2030, where meetings and events are positioned as contributors to diversification and knowledge development.
New data from the Saudi Conventions and Exhibitions General Authority shows a thirty-two per cent annual increase in accredited exhibition space, with more than nine hundred venues now registered nationwide. This expansion, underway since 2018, reinforces the Kingdom’s growing role in the global meetings landscape and provides the context in which this year’s discussions will take place. Mr. Hatim Alkahily (pictured on the right), SCEGA CEO, outlines how the 2025 programme reflects current industry priorities and the Kingdom’s long-term objectives.
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Headquarters: The International MICE Summit 2025 marks the second edition of this fast-growing platform. How would you describe its evolution since last year's inaugural event? What role does the summit play in helping Saudi Arabia achieve its ambitions under Vision 2030, particularly with regard to strengthening collaboration between the public and private sectors?
Hatim Alkahily: Since its launch in 2024, the International MICE Summit (IMS25) has grown from a promising industry meetup into a truly global platform. Last year’s inaugural event convened 1,700 participants from 25 countries. This year, IMS25 has scaled significantly, bringing together 2,000 leaders from over 70 countries, with 140 speakers, 20 plenaries, and 19 workshops. The expanded programme is designed to deliver not just a larger event, but larger outcomes, from policy alignment to new partnerships and investment.
This growth builds on the institutional foundation established by SCEGA, whose frameworks and partnerships continue to anchor the Kingdom’s MICE ecosystem and ensure policy alignment as the sector enters its next phase of expansion.
The Summit advances Vision 2030 by turning public–private collaboration into tangible outcomes. It brings ministries, regulators, investors, and global organisers into one arena to align priorities, shape policy, and convert partnerships into real outcomes. This coordination is crucial as Saudi enters its “golden decade of events,” leading to Expo 2030 and the FIFA World Cup 2034. As part of this exponential growth, the business events sector has become one of the fastest engines for high-value tourism, talent, and investment, helping drive the Kingdom’s target of 150 million visitors by 2030.
The Summit also reflects SCEGA’s commitment to translating Vision 2030 objectives into measurable outcomes through collaboration between government, destinations, and the private sector.
HQ: Saudi Arabia has become the fastest-growing business events market among G20 countries, with the sector expanding by over 40% in the last five years, with Riyadh at the heart of this transformation. How is the Kingdom positioning itself within the global MICE landscape, and what sets it apart from other regional business events hubs?
HA: Saudi Arabia has become the fastest-growing business events market in the G20, supported by a 320% increase in exhibition capacity since 2018, including a 32% boost in the past 12 months alone, and more than 900 accredited venues nationwide.
What sets the Kingdom apart is the speed and coordination of its expansion. The government is investing more than $150 million a year into the MICE sector, advancing policy, infrastructure and private-sector partnerships at the same time. That approach has turned business events into both an economic engine and a core pillar of Vision 2030’s tourism strategy. The impact is already visible in the scale of events now based in Saudi Arabia, from LEAP, FII and the World Defense Show to the upcoming Expo 2030 and FIFA World Cup 2034.
Some other more established hubs optimise what already exists; Saudi Arabia is designing the sector from the ground up with state backing, global events secured, and infrastructure built for the next decade, not the last.
SCEGA’s national regulatory framework remains the cornerstone of this expansion, serving as the model now being adopted and localised by emerging DMOs and private-sector partners across the Kingdom.
HQ: The Kingdom’s investment in infrastructure has been remarkable, encompassing new convention centres and hotels, improved air connectivity, and streamlined visa processes. Which of these developments do you think has had the greatest impact on international organisers and association planners seeking to hold events in Saudi Arabia?
HA: Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure investment has reshaped the country into one of the world’s most connected and capable business events destinations. Since 2015, 11 new venues have opened, expanding exhibition space to 340,000 square metres with plans to exceed one million by 2030. Hotel capacity is also rising, with 124,000 new rooms targeted by the end of the decade.
For international organisers, however, the most transformative changes have been in accessibility. The Kingdom now connects to more than 160 destinations worldwide, supported by new national carriers and simplified visa access for over 60 nationalities. Together, these advances have made it easier than ever to bring global events to Saudi Arabia, reinforcing its position as a premier host destination fully aligned with Vision 2030’s ambition to make the Kingdom a global MICE powerhouse. These achievements reflect years of coordinated planning in the sector to connect infrastructure growth with streamlined regulation, investment incentives, and international standards for venue accreditation.
HQ: SCEGA has become a key enabler of this transformation. In what ways are the Authority’s regulatory framework, incentive programmes and partnership model helping to attract global meeting planners and association congresses to the Kingdom?
HA: SCEGA has been a unifying force for the sector, creating the shared standards, incentives and partnerships that allow international organisers to operate confidently in Saudi Arabia. By streamlining regulation, aligning stakeholders, and convening the industry through platforms like the International MICE Summit, it has helped move the market from individually driven projects to an integrated national ecosystem. That coordination, across government, destinations, venues and global partners, is what gives Saudi its competitive edge as it competes for major association congresses and world-scale events.
HQ: With Expo 2030 Riyadh and the 2034 FIFA World Cup on the horizon, how do you think these global events will influence Saudi Arabia’s long-term MICE strategy? What lasting impact do you hope they will have on the country’s standing within the international meetings community?
HA: Expo 2030 and the FIFA World Cup 2034 will act as accelerators for Saudi Arabia’s long-term MICE strategy. Both events lock in sustained investment in infrastructure, skills, air connectivity, digital systems and global partnerships — strengthening the sector far beyond the events themselves.
The real legacy is continuity: embedding Saudi Arabia into the global meetings calendar, growing a recurring pipeline of international congresses, and demonstrating the Kingdom’s capacity to deliver at scale. The ambition is not just to host two mega-events, but to cement Saudi Arabia’s role as a global convening nation where industries, ideas and talent converge long after 2034.
IMS25 is where this next “golden decade of events” begins. The Summit brings the global industry together now, before the world arrives, to shape the partnerships and platforms that will define the decade ahead.
The International MICE Summit will take place on 26 and 27 November in Riyadh. Registration details are available here.
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