As deadly Houthi missiles smashed into Riyadh’s international airport last week, people from around the world still made their way to the Saudi capital for one of the biggest oil and gas industry conferences on the calendar.
When they arrived at the WPC Energy Congress, in some cases having driven for hours to avoid flying, they found a number of prominent names on the agenda had gone missing. The bosses of ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, Shell and BP had pulled out after the attacks, which killed at least a dozen people and injured hundreds more.
I expect more big names will skip another international conference due to start in a week in Riyadh – the so-called Davos in the Desert.
This probably won’t be the last time this happens in a complicated world showing no sign of improvement. A string of Middle East trade shows and conventions has already been cancelled or deferred as the Iran war grinds on. The street arrests and travel restrictions by Donald Trump’s administration continue to drive international academic conferences away from the US to other countries.
As a frequent conference-goer myself, these dispiriting sights have made me wonder: which cities are now deemed the best places for business gatherings?
To my surprise, it turns out I am living in one of them.
London was named the best city in Europe for events and meetings this year for the fourth year in a row in a closely watched ranking by the Cvent conference tech group.
Yet again we beat Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon. Even Paris only managed fifth place.
I say “we”, even though I am a transplanted Australian, one of the more than 40 per cent of Londoners who are foreign-born. As it happens, that is a higher share than you will find in Paris, Berlin and even New York City – a pleasing reminder that London is one of the most diverse major cities on the planet.
Take the Tube that we all moan about constantly, and is admittedly expensive, but still zips you across the city in a sliver of the time it takes to cover such distances in other big cities
Cvent makes scant mention of this in its list of reasons for ranking London so highly. But the factors it does cite underscore how revealing it is to look at your city as an outsider.
The sprawling conference centres I am occasionally required to trek out to for work are apparently world-class.
London Southend Airport, which I have never technically been to, means we have six airports. There are also more than 80 Michelin-starred restaurants and, by Cvent’s count, 200 museums, 270 theatres, 857 art galleries and four Unesco World Heritage sites. If you are wondering, they are the Tower of London, the Palace (and Abbey) of Westminster, Kew Gardens, and maritime Greenwich.
All this helps to explain why the London Convention Bureau, a division of the city’s official growth agency, is expecting close to 80,000 convention visitors this year. Thousands of rheumatologists and urologists have already been for their latest shindigs. The 44th World Scout Conference is due next year, along with hundreds of port and harbour delegates and a slew of tech conventions.
The striking thing is, the big draws for convention delegates are just a fraction of what London now offers its full-time residents.
As of this year, there is year-round outdoor swimming in, of all places, Canary Wharf. You can get there on the Elizabeth Line railway that has transformed cross-city travel. Or cycle there via the cycle superhighways that have revolutionised two-wheeled transport.
Or take the Tube that we all moan about constantly, and is admittedly expensive, but still zips you across the city in a sliver of the time it takes to cover such distances in other big cities. And you don’t even need to queue up for a ticket. Just swipe a credit card on the turnstile.
Next week, something even more astonishing will begin. After years of wrangling and false starts, a stretch of Oxford Street nearly 1km long will be closed to traffic as the famed shopping street at long last starts to become pedestrianised.
[ Is London ‘lawless’ or the safest big city in the western world? Take your pickOpens in new window ]
As usual, critics are predicting mayhem. Diverted traffic will clog side streets. Bin collections won’t work. People will feel unsafe at night, and so on.
I suspect the doubters will all be proved wrong and the move will be so successful that we will regret it not happening years ago.
At least I hope so. Watching a city brighten and improve is a pleasure for visitors and residents alike. At a time when war and political strife stalk ever more unlikely places, these are gains that should be celebrated – and never taken for granted. – Copyright The Financial Times
