It's one thing to announce a 100-day, multi-city business summit. It's another to actually pull it off. With less than seven months until doors open, we got a walkthrough of how OBS Summit plans to operate across its global hubs. Some of it is genuinely impressive. Some of it raises fair questions.

The global venue network

Each host city has a dedicated venue that serves as the regional anchor:

  • Dubai: Dubai World Trade Centre — the flagship hub, operational for the full 100 days with the largest permanent exhibition floor
  • London: ExCel London — hosting fintech and capital markets weeks
  • Singapore: Marina Bay Sands Expo — Asia-Pacific technology and trade programming
  • New York: Javits Center — Americas venture and startup weeks
  • Riyadh: Riyadh Front — Gulf economic development and sovereign investment tracks
  • Mumbai: Jio World Convention Centre — South Asian markets and digital transformation
  • Nairobi: KICC — African infrastructure and frontier market sessions

What's clever about the model is that each city operates semi-independently while staying connected through the central platform. You don't need to visit all seven cities to get value — you pick the hubs and weeks that matter to your business.

The hybrid layer that ties it together

The virtual platform is where things get ambitious. OBS is building what they describe as a "unified global layer" — every session in every city is available digitally, with real-time translation in 12 languages. The AI matchmaking tool doesn't just connect you with people in your city — it surfaces relevant connections across all hubs.

We saw a demo. A delegate attending in London could be matched with an investor in Dubai and a startup founder joining virtually from Lagos. The system uses your profile, stated interests, and platform activity to suggest connections. Whether it works at scale across seven cities and multiple time zones is the open question, but the tech is solid.

Daily life at any hub

A typical day at any host city runs roughly 9am to 8pm local time, structured loosely as:

  • Morning: Keynotes and main-stage programming (simulcast globally)
  • Midday: Regional breakout sessions, workshops, and guided exhibition tours
  • Afternoon: Investor forums, pitch sessions, and live auctions on OBS Marketplace
  • Evening: Networking events, cultural programming, and city-specific social experiences

The evening programming is where each city gets to show its personality. Dubai offers desert experiences and yacht networking. London does West End shows and private gallery tours. Singapore runs hawker food tours and Marina Bay events. It's a smart way to differentiate the hubs.

The logistics question

Running synchronized events in seven cities across different time zones, cultures, and regulatory environments is no small feat. The organizers have local teams in each city with deep event experience, but coordination at this scale is unprecedented.

OBS has partnered with global hotel chains for delegate rates and airlines for preferred routing between hubs. There's even a "Summit Circuit" package for people who want to attend in multiple cities — though the organizers are quick to point out that the virtual platform means you never have to leave your desk if you don't want to.

We'll be covering the summit extensively as it approaches. For now, the plans are ambitious across every hub, the infrastructure looks real, and the global format — whether you love it or are skeptical — is genuinely unprecedented.