Dubai, UAE: Messe Frankfurt Middle East, the name behind some of the Middle East & North Africa’s (MENA) largest and most successful trade shows, has launched a new exhibition dedicated to serving the region’s fast-growing, multi-trillion-dollar smart buildings market.

 

Intelligent Building Middle East (IBME) will run from January 17-19 next year at the Dubai World Trade Centre and will be co-located with Light Middle East | Intelligent Building Middle East and Intersec to create MENA’s leading trade fair for lighting and building services technology which will span 13 halls with 60,000 square metres of display space and house around 1,000 exhibitors.

 

“This new collaboration realises an unmatched opportunity for the entire building technology community to advance towards a smart, safe, secure, and sustainable future,” commented Dishan Isaac, show director of Light Middle East | Intelligent Building Middle East. “This show has arrived in the right place at the right time as nations across the region continue to progress smart city ambitions with mega projects encompassing the entire construction value chain. The MENA region today is fast becoming a global smart, and sustainable, city hub.

 

“With analysts identifying a GCC project pipeline of over US $2.3 trillion in planned and unawarded projects, and current estimates of the Middle East Lighting fixtures market alone being US$5 billion, the overall regional potential is quite simply huge. The region has established a reputation as an increasingly important smart city development hub where advanced technologies drive lifestyles in urban environments. This means architects, developers, construction companies, governments, technology firms, and engineering firms must adapt and collaborate to realise these ambitions.”

 

Light Middle East | Intelligent Building Middle East will reflect 2023 themes of Innovative Design, Sustainable Future and Seamless Integration, and new-to-market features will provide unrivalled networking and knowledge building opportunities. Among these are LIGHTALKS discussion and networking platform, which will discover where the industry is heading through five key sessions and panel discussions involving the entire lighting design process. InSpotLIGHT will put attendees at the centre of the latest developments in the industry connecting lighting, technology, and the built environment, providing a 360-degree platform.

 

A new addition to this year’s event is the practical lighting design workshop, Meraki. Participants will be part of a series of practical sessions that guide them through the whole process of a lighting project, from concept development right up to the realisation of the project. This will be done by selecting and testing lighting fixtures to installing and fine-tuning the scheme on site, before presenting the final concepts to a professional audience.

 

The Smart Buildings Summit will see experts offer an outlook on MENA’s prospects, provide an update on the region’s iconic projects, explore next-gen people-centric technology and design and discuss  smart paths to sustainability and legacy retrofits. The knowledge-sharing programme will see more than 70 speakers, and 12 focussed sessions on architecture and design, sustainability and net zero buildings and integrated systems.

 

The speaker line-up includes Eng. Nawal Alhanaee, Director of Future Energy Department at the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure; Christopher Seymour, Regional Director and Head of Strategy and Investment, MEASA at Mott MacDonald, and Chairman of RICS MENA;

Ioannis Spanos, Director of Sustainability and Environmental Services Division at KEO International; as well as Omar Barakat, Associate Director - Projects Delivery at The Red Sea Development Company.

 

The 9th edition of the Light Middle East Awards will recognise innovations in lighting, design & technology, and are aimed at raising the profile of the profession and demonstrating the visible success of lighting inside and outside the region. Industry players are vying for 14 awards to be judged by an expert panel in the Specifiers Arena live at the event on 17 January. The winners will be announced at the awards gala two days later at the Ritz Carlton hotel Dubai. 

 

Light Middle East and Intelligent Buildings Middle East will also run alongside Messe Frankfurt Middle East’s Intersec event - the world's leading trade fair for safety, security, and fire protection – providing 360-degree coverage of all smart buildings’ needs.

 

“Everything smart and technology focussed will be covered via the simultaneous staging of these three major fairs from lighting to smart building applications, to all security and safety needs,” explained Isaac. “This focussed trio will enable professionals to get the most knowledge and industry exposure possible over three days and combined present the industry with a world of opportunity in one of the world’s most opportunity-rich locations.”