Dear colleagues, dear UFI members,

I have to admit, I am already excited about our Global Congress in Oman this November. For a number of reasons – let me share them!

You know that we strive to bring in an opening speaker who can take a look at our industry’s opportunities and challenges from an outside perspective – remember the organic wine farmer who spoke about resilience in Johannesburg? Or the conductor who taught (and touched) us with his compassionate speech about engagement in Bangkok?  This year, we will welcome a multiple Oscar and Emmy Awards winner: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. A Pakistani-Canadian journalist, filmmaker and activist, she will talk about what it takes to take a different perspective, and how we can manage to look at our industry from other angles, and therefore escape the trap to be caught in our own perceptions. Of course, this is just the opening session, and the full programme is shaping up as well – you can always check here for the latest.

Then – our hosts: The team spirit between our host OCEC and their partners and the UFI team is great. Ideas are created, new elements are being prepared, and I can assure you that you will experience Omani hospitality at its best!

And finally – you! We are seeing a lot of registrations and enquiries already, and as usual we have the list of participants online for you here. I can only encourage you to join your peers and be with us!

But that’s not the only event we are preparing for you in the 4th quarter of 2022. Working together with AEO, SACEOS, and SISO, we are also organizing the first ever “Asia CEO Summit” in Singapore from 5-7 October – a new platform for organizer C level managers from East and West to connect, network, and learn. It adds an Asia-centric global summit to the one that we run ourselves in Europe (UFI’s  Global CEO Summit) and the one that we partner with in North America with SISO (SISO’s CEO Summit). If you are interested to attend, please go to asiaceosummit.com for more.

Best regards,

Kai Hattendorf