Visitors arriving at Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Centre for LEAP 2026 will see more than 150,000 square metres of exhibition space filled with global technology companies, AI innovators, investors, startups and policymakers. They will navigate keynote stages, startup competitions, networking lounges and product showcases that appear to operate with remarkable ease.

What they won’t see is that LEAP effectively began before the previous edition had even finished.

Now in its fifth edition, LEAP has evolved from an ambitious technology conference into one of the world’s largest gatherings for the global innovation ecosystem, attracting more than 200,000 attendees and positioning Riyadh among the world’s most influential technology meeting places. But according to the executives who helped create it, its success has never been measured simply by visitor numbers. And the support and partnership of the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP) and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) have been instrumental in LEAP’s unprecedented growth.

Every decision—from speaker selection and exhibition design to investor matchmaking and visitor flow—is built around one objective: creating commercial outcomes.

That philosophy has helped transform LEAP into more than an exhibition. It has become a platform where investment is secured, partnerships are formed and companies make decisions about entering one of the world’s fastest-growing technology markets.

Planning begins before the doors close

For Annabelle Mander, executive vice president of Tahaluf and co-founder of LEAP, the event follows a continuous cycle rather than an annual calendar. Tahaluf is considered one of Saudi Arabia’s largest exhibitions companies.

“The next LEAP begins before the current one has really ended,” Mander reveals.

While visitors are still exploring exhibition halls, Tahaluf’s teams are already analysing movement patterns, identifying where conversations naturally develop and examining which experiences generated the strongest engagement.

Once the event concludes, every aspect—from commercial performance and partner feedback to visitor behaviour—is reviewed before planning for the next edition begins.

Those early discussions determine far more than logistics. They shape which industries LEAP will prioritise, the international audiences it wants to attract and the technology conversations it aims to lead over the following year.

From there, every department moves in parallel. Content teams begin developing conference programmes while commercial teams engage exhibitors and sponsors. Marketing, production and operations work simultaneously rather than sequentially, allowing each function to influence the others as plans evolve.

For Mander, that collaborative approach has become one of Tahaluf’s defining strengths.

She adds: “One of the things I’m proudest of is our people. LEAP only works because we have an exceptionally adaptable team that embraces change rather than resisting it. Plans evolve constantly, priorities shift and new opportunities emerge throughout the year, yet the team consistently responds with energy, creativity and an incredible willingness to support one another.” That culture has become increasingly important as LEAP has expanded in both size and complexity.

Turning an empty venue into a technology city

Constructing LEAP is less about assembling exhibition stands than creating an environment where thousands of business conversations can happen simultaneously.

Across more than 150,000 square metres, hundreds of contractors, production specialists, exhibitors, technology providers and logistics partners work in coordination to transform an empty venue into what is effectively a temporary technology city.

Mander believes the biggest challenge is not scale itself, but ensuring that visitors never feel overwhelmed by it.

“People often assume the challenge is building one of the world’s largest technology events. It isn’t. The real challenge is making something of that scale feel intuitive.”

That principle influences every operational decision during the final build.

As structures rise and exhibitors install demonstrations, Tahaluf’s teams repeatedly test the venue from different perspectives. She asks some pertinent questions.

Can founders move efficiently between startup pitches and investor meetings? Can CEOs navigate strategic discussions without wasting valuable time? Can first-time visitors instinctively understand where they need to be?

“If those people have to think about logistics, we’ve probably failed somewhere,” Mander says.

Rather than focusing purely on operational precision, the objective is to remove friction so visitors can spend their time building relationships instead of navigating the venue.

That philosophy extends beyond exhibition design to transport planning, digital tools, venue layout and visitor services—all intended to make the operational complexity virtually invisible. Of course, the support of LEAP’s partners has been instrumental to the invisibility of its operations too, explains Mander.

“LEAP doesn’t exist in isolation, and its growth over the past four editions would not have been possible without the incredible partnership of SAFCSP and MCIT. From the very beginning, both organisations understood what we were trying to build — not just an event, but a platform capable of connecting Saudi Arabia with the world’s leading innovators. Their support, trust and strategic guidance have been fundamental at every stage of our journey. Both SAFCSP and MCIT challenged us to think bigger, move faster and deliver greater impact.”

Curating conversations that matter

One of LEAP’s defining characteristics is the calibre of executives who take its stages.

The 2026 edition will feature leaders from companies including AMD, Qualcomm and HUMAIN. But attracting globally recognised CEOs is not simply about prestige.

According to Mike Champion, CEO of Tahaluf and co-founder of LEAP, every invitation is assessed against two straightforward questions.

“We apply two simple tests. Is this person genuinely shaping the future of technology? And is what they’re building relevant to where Saudi Arabia is heading?”

If the answer to both is yes, they belong at LEAP.

That approach ensures the programme reflects both global technology trends and Saudi Arabia’s ambitions under Vision 2030.

Equally important, Champion says, are the entrepreneurs, researchers and innovators who have yet to become household names.

“Some of the most important voices at LEAP are people the world hasn’t fully discovered yet. Today’s unknown founder, researcher or engineer is often tomorrow’s industry leader.”

The objective is not simply to assemble the most recognisable speaker line-up, but to create discussions that influence business decisions long after delegates leave Riyadh.

AI moves from theory to application

Artificial intelligence has become inseparable from LEAP’s identity, but its role has evolved significantly over the event’s first five editions. Early editions focused largely on AI’s future potential. Today’s conversations are markedly different. Businesses are increasingly focused on implementation, governance and competitive advantage rather than speculation. That shift is reflected in both LEAP’s 2026 theme—“Into New Worlds”—and the continued growth of DeepFest, now one of the region’s largest dedicated AI events.

For Mander, the theme reflects the speed with which emerging technologies are moving into mainstream business.

“Technology is moving faster than ever before. Our responsibility is to ensure people don’t simply leave excited by that future—they leave feeling equipped to participate in it.”

Rather than presenting AI as an isolated discipline, LEAP integrates it across sectors ranging from healthcare and manufacturing to finance and digital infrastructure.

DeepFest, meanwhile, provides a deeper exploration of artificial intelligence itself—from foundation models and infrastructure to governance and frontier research—while LEAP demonstrates how those technologies are transforming industries. Visitors will also experience significantly more live demonstrations this year, with the vast majority of sessions in the Tech Arena featuring working prototypes or inventor-led presentations, including AI-powered prosthetics and brain-computer interfaces.

Instead of discussing future possibilities in abstract terms, LEAP increasingly focuses on technologies that organisations can deploy today.

Engineering investment, not just attendance

If the exhibition floor is LEAP’s public face, its investment ecosystem has become one of its biggest commercial differentiators.

Over five editions, LEAP has evolved into a marketplace where founders, venture capital firms, sovereign investors and corporate buyers meet with a clear objective: turning introductions into long-term business relationships. For Tahaluf, that requires far more than bringing thousands of investors under one roof.

Champion says the ambition from the outset was to position LEAP as a place where investment decisions are made, not merely discussed.

“From the beginning, we wanted LEAP to be recognised as a place where investment decisions happen, not simply somewhere investment is discussed.” That ambition is reflected in the numbers. More than 5,000 investors have participated across LEAP’s first four editions, with more than 1,900 expected at this year’s event. Yet Champion insists attendance alone says little about the platform’s success.

Champion adds: “Access is no longer the challenge. Relevance is.”

Rather than maximising the number of meetings, Tahaluf spends months curating introductions based on investment priorities, sector focus and company maturity. Through LEAP Connect, structured matchmaking, curated networking and dedicated investor and founder programmes, the objective is to create conversations that have a realistic chance of progressing beyond the event.

“Our teams spend months preparing those connections before anyone arrives in Riyadh. Success isn’t measured by the number of meetings that take place. It’s measured by what happens afterwards.”

For Champion, the true indicators of success are tangible business outcomes: investment rounds completed, strategic partnerships formed and international companies choosing Saudi Arabia as their regional base.

Those same principles underpin Rocket Fuel, LEAP’s flagship startup competition. While its $1m equity-free prize fund attracts global attention, Tahaluf sees the programme as much more than a pitch competition.

“The $1m prize fund is significant, particularly because it’s entirely equity-free. Founders shouldn’t have to give away part of the business they’ve spent years building simply to gain recognition,” he says.

Instead, Rocket Fuel is designed to provide founders with access to investors, customers, mentors and commercial partners who can support long-term growth.

Champion points to EduFi as an example of the ecosystem working as intended. After winning at LEAP 2025, the startup subsequently secured investment from Alumni Ventures, whose representative had first encountered the company while judging the competition.

“Winning a prize lasts a moment. Building a business takes years. Rocket Fuel is designed for the second part.”

Designing the visitor journey

As LEAP has grown beyond 200,000 attendees, the challenge has shifted from accommodating more visitors to creating experiences tailored to very different audiences.

Investors, founders, corporate executives, government officials and students all arrive with different objectives. Rather than treating every attendee the same, Tahaluf has increasingly used ticketing and digital tools to personalise how people experience the event.

Mander says: “Introducing a ticketed model wasn’t simply about managing attendance. It was about creating a more intentional experience for every person who comes to LEAP.”

That insight allows organisers to recommend relevant content, facilitate targeted meetings and connect visitors with the companies and communities most relevant to them. Operational improvements have accompanied that evolution. Additional exhibition space, redesigned visitor routes, improved transport planning, expanded parking and enhanced digital navigation have all been introduced to minimise unnecessary friction.

“The best event technology is the technology people barely notice because everything simply works,” she adds.

Ultimately, Mander believes success is measured less by crowd management than by how easily visitors can move between conversations, meetings and discoveries. “If visitors can spend less time navigating the event and more time having valuable conversations, discovering new ideas and building relationships, then we’ve designed the experience well.”

A test behind the scenes

One of LEAP’s biggest operational challenges this year happened long before visitors arrived.

The decision to move the 2026 edition to a later date, following regional disruption, required thousands of exhibitors, speakers, partners and visitors to revise their plans within a compressed timeframe.

For Champion, the episode demonstrated the resilience that has become part of Tahaluf’s culture. “What impressed me most wasn’t the scale of the challenge—it was the response.”

Communication began immediately, responsibilities were clearly defined and partners understood the rationale behind the decision. While attendees will largely be unaware of the work involved, Champion believes those moments reveal the strength of the organisation behind the event.

“The Tahaluf team deserves enormous credit. They demonstrated exactly the qualities that have helped build LEAP over the past five editions: adaptability, professionalism, resilience and an extraordinary willingness to support one another,” he says proudly.

From Riyadh to the world

Reaching a fifth edition represents an important milestone for LEAP, but Tahaluf sees it as the beginning of a broader international chapter rather than the culmination of its journey.

That ambition is already taking shape with the launch of LEAP East in Hong Kong in 2026, marking the first time the Saudi-born technology platform will expand beyond the kingdom. For Mander, the move reflects the growing maturity of an event that has become recognised well beyond the Middle East.

“The first five editions proved that Saudi Arabia could build one of the world’s leading technology platforms. The next chapter is about deepening its impact through stronger commercial outcomes, greater international collaboration and even more opportunities for the people developing, financing and adopting technology.”

Champion believes LEAP’s growing international profile can be measured by the calibre of executives who now plan their annual calendars around attending Riyadh, as well as the wider economic value the event creates for the kingdom.

Independent analysis estimated that LEAP 2025 generated approximately $820m in economic impact for Riyadh, extending well beyond the exhibition halls into aviation, hospitality, transport and local businesses.

For him, those outcomes demonstrate that LEAP has evolved into something much larger than an annual technology exhibition.

“The launch of LEAP East in Hong Kong reinforced that journey even further. It showed that a platform born in Saudi Arabia can now contribute meaningfully to innovation ecosystems internationally.”

As visitors arrive for LEAP’s milestone fifth edition, they will see keynote speeches, startup pitches, AI demonstrations and exhibition halls buzzing with activity.

What they may not appreciate is the year of planning, thousands of coordinated decisions and hundreds of people working behind the scenes to make those four days appear effortless.

That, perhaps, has become LEAP’s greatest achievement. Beyond the scale, the headline speakers and the investment announcements, it has matured into a platform designed to create lasting commercial outcomes—connecting entrepreneurs with investors, global technology leaders with new markets, and Saudi Arabia with innovation ecosystems around the world.