For nearly a decade, Gulf states have been building tentpole conferences to draw global money.
The war in Iran is threatening those gatherings and the global power they project.
Bloomberg is likely to delay the Qatar Economic Forum it runs with the country’s commerce ministry, slated for May, people familiar with the matter said.
Billionaire Steve Ross, a megabooster of Florida as a new “Wall Street South,” held early discussions about whether the event might be shifted to West Palm Beach, which would have been another coup for the Miami area’s conference circuit. (A Bloomberg spokesman declined to comment on specifics but said the company is committed to hosting the event in Doha, which has been running since 2021.)
The longer the war drags on, the harder these decisions get.
Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative and its Emirati answer, Abu Dhabi Finance Week, are typically held in the fall and draw global CEOs whose schedules book up months in advance.
Losing these events, or being forced to host them elsewhere, hurts the narrative the Gulf has been painstakingly trying to project as a stable region open for business.