DUBAI: Saudi Arabia is to host the region’s first music conference event later this year. Organized by the Kingdom’s music festivals MDLBeast and Soundstorm, the three-day XP event in Riyadh – due to start on Dec. 13 – will feature workshops, panel discussions and roundtables, networking opportunities, and music activations aimed at expanding opportunities for music industry professionals. The conference is expected to attract leading international and regional artists, creatives, executives, and policy makers and tickets are available online. Chief executive officer of MDLBeast, Ramadan Al-Haratani, told Arab News: “The music scene in the region is promising and growing. In 2019, when we launched our first festival, we attracted 400,000 people over three days. That just shows the potential that the music industry has. “This year, we are coming back with the XP three-day music conference in order to support building the infrastructure required for that music scene.” He said XP would provide the platform to spark conversations allowing professionals “to really leapfrog the music industry in Saudi and develop the right infrastructure for a sustainable music and culture ecosystem.” Al-Haratani noted that there would be a number of workshops, panel discussions, and masterclasses targeting “talent to support their career development on and off the stage,” adding that performances by local and regional talent would take place as part of the event’s night program. “The beauty of what we are looking at is the diversity of the music scene. Diversity brings creative collaborations together and inspires new thinking and disruptive ideas, and I think this merge between different genres and different languages is definitely an interesting space for the musicians to explore and use a platform like XP to further develop that creative scene,” he said. The conference program will focus on talent and development, inspiration and promotion, data, policy and advocacy, and social purpose. Guests expected to attend the event include Lebanese-Canadian Wassim Slaiby, the CEO of record label XO and manager of singer The Weeknd, Swedish DJ Salvatore Ganacci, and US record producer Swizz Beatz.