RIYADH: The organizers of Saudi Arabia’s largest events, including the world’s biggest tech conference LEAP and award-winning Black Hat MEA Exhibition, aim to make Riyadh a global events hub. The InFlavour Expo, Tahaluf’s most recent venture, brought together world-renowned chefs, culinary industry leaders and international investors to address some of the most pressing issues in the sector, including food security and agriculture sustainability, under the theme “Ensuring Abundant Tomorrows.” Annabelle Mander, senior vice president of Tahaluf, told Arab News: “We are really committed to launching events in Saudi Arabia’s most strategic markets, so that can really be seen with Cityscape in real estate, LEAP in technology, Black Hat in cybersecurity. “We really felt that the food and beverage and hospitality industry deserved to have a very important event that was backed by the Saudi government, that could really grow into one of the leading food and beverage events, not only regionally but globally over the next couple of years.” The debut Cityscape Global event, which took place in September, saw 160,000 visitors from 170 countries, according to Cityscape Intelligence. By targeting the country’s most strategic sectors and inviting global industry leaders, these events act as key pillars during the calendar year. InFlavour was headlined by Marco Pierre White, who trained some of the world’s most prestigious chefs, such as Gordon Ramsay. White, alongside more than 40 international chefs, took the time to showcase various food creations and innovations made with Saudi produce and featured at masterclasses, live cooking shows and competitions at the Chef’s Arena. Mander said: “They’ve also been creating their favorite dishes. So, actually telling stories about where these dishes came from, what the heritage is, what the culture is. And I think that’s what’s really inspiring about this event, the fact that it’s so global with so many different nationalities coming in to provide their insights. “Our ambition was always to bring the most influential people within the sector to InFlavour, and we’ve really done that across the board. “We brought some of the most promising investors in agriculture and food tech here today to meet with the local and international companies.” Tahaluf’s shareholders include The Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones; the Kingdom’s Events Investment Fund; and UK business intelligence and exhibitions group Informa. While finding the right government partners, such as EIF, SAFCSP, and Sela, is key to the success of such large-scale events, this does not come without challenges. Mander said: “The fact (is) that the events are scaling so quickly. If we look at the likes of LEAP and Cityscape, they’ve grown into these huge global brands, and we require 200,000 square meters of exhibition space for these events. “Unfortunately, we don’t have that in Riyadh yet, but I believe that we will in the future. So, what it means is we are investing significantly in scaling the venues. We have temporary structures, which is great because we can increase the scale and the size of the event, but hopefully in the coming years we’ll have a larger venue to operate these mass events, and scale.” Tahaluf has a program to train local talent to staff key functions, supported by the EIF through sales, marketing, operations, and production. The Tahaluf Academy course equips young Saudi professionals with world-class training which, once completed, provides them with a series of placements across Informa offices globally, including in the US, UK, and Asia. Mander said: “We really want to strengthen and build the talent pool here in Saudi Arabia and also provide all of these individuals with great opportunities to work, go to the academy, go to all of these amazing events globally by Informa, and then come here and work with us on the incredible events that we are building here, and also the new events that we are launching over the next couple of years as well.” More events will be forthcoming in Saudi Arabia, while the company is also looking to recruit 150 people locally and internationally next year to work in Riyadh. “The future looks really exciting for us, and I don’t think there’s a better place to do it than Saudi Arabia,” Mander said.