The UAE’s BRIDGE Summit wants 60,000 attendees to connect with entertainment, entrepreneurship, and policymaking in the Middle East

The United Arab Emirates is continuing its ambitious and expensive push to become a prominent hub for digital content creation with the BRIDGE Summit, which pitches itself as an event where “the future of media, entertainment, culture, and technology meets power, policy, and capital on one bridge.”

The first BRIDGE Summit plans to bring over 60,000 attendees to the ADNEC Centre in Abu Dhabi for a three-day conference that will offer a swath of programming tracks across multiple industries, including Creator Economy, Technology, Marketing, Media, Gaming, Picture/Film, and Music.

The event will feature over 400 speakers, including:

• Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian
• TIME CEO Jessica Sibley
• Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, the UAE’s Minister of State for AI, Digital Economy, and Remote Work
• Mo Abudu, Founder & CEO of EbonyLife Media
• Anthony Scaramucci, former Trump administration White House Communications Director and current Founder & Managing
• Partner at SkyBridge Capital
• travel YouTuber Joe Hattab
• podcaster Steven Bartlett

Organizers say attendees, ranging from Fortune 500 CEOs and government representatives/policymakers to investors, humanitarian foundations, academics, and content creators, will be able to connect for “inspiring talks and keynote speeches”; “mind-opening panel discussions”; and networking, collaborations, and deals. There will also be roundtables for policymakers, workshops and masterclasses, and new product launches and innovation showcases.

The summit is opening an official Business Office it says will give partners and VIP guests “direct access to leading local media and entertainment entities and free zones in the UAE.” That in turn will create “a perfect opportunity for stakeholders to launch new ideas, innovations, and businesses in the Emirates,” it added.

Each of BRIDGE Summit’s three days will have one core theme. Day 1 is Landscape, asking What is the state of media and entertainment?, Day 2 is Vision, asking How is the ecosystem being reimagined?, and Day 3 is Blueprint, asking What strategies and steps will take us into media’s next era?

Those interested in attending can apply here, and those interested in exhibiting can apply here.

The inaugural BRIDGE Summit will run Dec. 8-10 at the ADNEC Centre in Abu Dhabi.

BRIDGE Summit is a Tubefilter partner.