Inside Tahaluf’s $17.6bn impact: Michael Champion’s exclusive keynote at the Gulf Business Saudi Summit

On 3 September 2025, Tahaluf CEO Michael Champion delivered an exclusive keynote at the first-ever Gulf Business Saudi Business and Investment Summit

Tahaluf has rapidly emerged as one of the most powerful forces in the global events industry.

Formed through a joint venture between Informa, the world’s largest trade show organiser, the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), and the Events Investment Fund (EIF), Tahaluf has been at the forefront of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 transformation.

The company is behind some of the Kingdom’s most ambitious and world-leading events, including LEAP, DeepFest, 24 Fintech, Black Hat MEA, Cityscape Global, Global Health Exhibition and CPHI Saudi Arabia.

In just three years, Tahaluf has grown at breakneck speed. By the end of 2025, it will have launched 21 event brands, attracting one million attendees annually, with 100,000 international visitors flying in – the equivalent of more than 400 Boeing Dreamliners. Since 2022, its platforms have been used to unveil almost $150bn worth of government contracts, reinforcing their position as key drivers of economic growth.

On 3 September 2025, Tahaluf CEO Michael Champion delivered an exclusive keynote at the first-ever Gulf Business Saudi Business and Investment Summit, held at the Sheraton Riyadh Hotel & Towers. The event brought together over 130 senior executives and government leaders for a day of high-level networking and debate, featuring three packed panels with speakers from the Saudi government, Frost & Sullivan, IHG, GE Vernova, and many more.

Read more: Catch all the action from the Gulf Business Saudi Summit in Riyadh

Below, Gulf Business publishes Champion’s keynote. The transcript has been edited for clarity and length, and readers can watch the full video of his address here:

Keynote: Michael Champion, CEO, Tahaluf

Thank you for inviting me to speak at this first edition of your conference. It’s great to be on this side of the stage for once. You’ve been so kind in the past, covering our shows, so it’s nice to experience the stress of organising an event ourselves – and I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we enjoy the challenge of running ours.

Four and a half years ago, we launched our very first event in Saudi Arabia called LEAP. His Excellency, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Abdullah bin Amer Alswaha, tasked Annabelle Mander (SVP of Tahaluf) and myself with creating a truly world-class event for the Kingdom. We explored several ideas, and in typical Saudi style, the decision was made to go for the most ambitious option: something with immediate global impact.

To achieve that level of ambition, we needed extraordinary alignment and partnership with the government. Together, we created a blueprint to grow LEAP to a size that would normally take 20 or 30 years to achieve – but to do it in just one or two. This involved special invitations from the Saudi government to other governments, and personal outreach to C-level speakers worldwide. Most importantly, it meant ensuring that the entire tapestry of Saudi government and semi-government buyers would be there to do business.

The government delivered on every commitment – and then doubled down. It was the first time I’d worked with a government that not only listened to private-sector advice but executed it with precision.

The launch of LEAP was such a success that on the second day of the event, we were invited to the Royal Court. In that meeting, we were told: “What you’ve achieved with LEAP is exactly what we want to replicate across many other sectors in Saudi Arabia.” They offered us two paths: continue as we were, or create a joint venture with the government to build a broader platform together. Of course, sitting in that beautiful room, there was only one answer – we agreed to the joint venture. After a year of negotiations, Tahaluf was born in 2022.

By the end of 2025, Tahaluf will have launched 21 event brands, with another five planned for 2026. Today, more than a third of all events mentioned in cabinet meetings chaired by King Salman or HRH Mohammed Bin Salman are Tahaluf events – the highest recognition for any organiser in the Kingdom.

This year alone, we will welcome one million attendees to our events. Of these, 100,000 will fly in from outside Saudi Arabia – that’s the equivalent of filling more than 400 Boeing Dreamliners. To give you an idea of the scale: our total event space will reach 700,000 square metres, which is the size of 17 Wembley stadiums, one and a half times the size of Vatican City, or the equivalent of 100 Titanic ships.

This kind of growth only happens when you create a place where money, business, and opportunity intersect. We’ve aligned closely with the government to make these events strategic hubs for global business.

One of our signature features is that major government contracts are announced live at our events. These aren’t just MOUs – they are actual signed agreements. Since 2022, almost $150bn worth of contracts have been unveiled at Tahaluf events. For international visitors, this is breaking news, showing them exactly where Saudi investment is heading.

These announcements generate massive global attention. In 2024, our events created 42 billion news impressions and 53,511 clippings – 20 times more social media coverage than Wimbledon received in the same year.

From Tahaluf’s perspective, this journey has been extraordinary. While many of you work in industries where a billion riyals might seem modest, in the world of event organisers, our revenue – now well beyond $200m – places us among the top 20 global players. Our growth has been consistent, with triple-digit year-on-year increases in the early years, now stabilising at around 36 per cent annually.

But the number we’re most proud of is the total economic impact. When 100,000 international visitors fly in, they book hotels, dine in restaurants, explore tourist attractions, and conduct business deals. On top of this, there are measurable transactions that happen directly on our show floors.

For instance, at Cityscape – our flagship property event – we tracked $5bn worth of property sales in just four days. That’s what we could measure; the real figure is even higher. Across 2023, 2024, and our forecast for 2025, Tahaluf’s events will generate a total economic impact of $17.6bn. To put that into perspective, that’s more than the total impact of the Qatar FIFA World Cup – a one-off mega-event – and our growth will continue year after year.

This success is also turning Saudi Arabia into a soft power hub. Those 100,000 international visitors – many coming to the Kingdom for the first time – leave with a new understanding of the country’s ambition and seriousness about business. They return home as ambassadors, spreading the message globally.

And now, for the first time, we are exporting a Saudi-born brand abroad. In July, we will launch LEAP East in Hong Kong – the first exhibition brand created in Saudi Arabia to expand internationally. It’s a proud milestone for us and for the Kingdom.

Thank you all for your support and partnership. I hope you’ll follow our journey closely, and perhaps join us at one of our events soon.