Dubai Metaverse Assembly: as it happened

The event took place on September 28-29 with more than 500 global experts in attendance

Presentations regarding different facets of Metaverse at the Dubai Metaverse Assembly at Museum of the Future. All photos: Khushnum Bhandari / The National

Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, speaks about The Building Blocks for WEB 3.0 and the Metaverse.

From left, Alex Gubbay, Head of Digital at 'The National', moderator Amin Al Zarouni, of Bedu, Abdelrahman Mohamed, of MetaCon Global, Abdulla Mohamed Al Dhaheri, of Chaintech Lab, and Haya Al Gussain, of Evolve Network Club take part in the UAE Metaverse Contributors' panel discussion.

From left, Jane Witherspoon of Euronews moderates a panel discussion on 'Which sectors is the Metaverse already impacting' with Yusuf Bahadir, of GoArt, Vishal Gondal, founder and CEO of GOQii, David Clark-Joseph, of Pixelynx and Bradford Bird, of The Fabricant.

Tom Urquhart from Arabian Radio Network speaks about gaming with Ahmed Tehemar, of Gamefi.

From left, Mustafa Alrawi of 'The National' speaks to Adel Al Redha, CEO of Emirates about 'Opportunities in Aviation'.

A visitor tests a virtual reality headset at the Dubai Metaverse Assembly at Museum of Future.

From left, moderator Mina Al-Oraibi, Editor-in-Chief at 'The National', HSBC's Catherine Zhou, Alexander Chehade from Binance, Keith Jordan from Mastercard, DIFC Authority's Christian Kunz and Vinit Shah from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority discuss the role of governments in virtual worlds.

Ziad Traboulsi from Meta addresses the assembly.

Gabriel Abed, ambassador of Barbados to the UAE, speaks about the future of nations in the Metaverse.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, attends the event at Museum of the Future.

From left, Euronews moderator Laura Buckwell, Cathy Li of the World Economic Forum, Digital Dubai's Marwan Al Zarouni, Meta's James Hairston and Balsam Danhach of FTX discuss 'Maximizing the Potential of Ecosystems on the Metaverse'.

Brandy Scott of the Arabian Radio Network, left, and Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO of DP World discuss 'How the Metaverse will Enable People and Operations'.

Omar Al Olama, Minister of State for Digital Economy, AI and Remote Working System, speaks about 'Unlocking Dubai's Potential'.

Asma Shabab of Accenture leads the 'Building the Responsible Metaverse' discussion with virtual speaker Anne Groeppelin, also from Accenture.

Ms Li, left, and Mr Hairston, right, listen as Mr Al Zarouni makes a point.

Mr Al Olama, who is also Chairman of Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy and Vice Chairman of the Higher Committee for Future Technology and Digital Economy in Dubai.

Moderator Ms Buckwell leads the panel discussion on 'Maximizing the Potential of Ecosystems on the Metaverse'.

From left, The National's Sarah Forster moderates a discussion with Samuel Hamilton of the Decentraland Foundation, Majid Al Futtaim's Joe Abi Akl, Damac Properties' Ali Sajwani and Guy Parsonage from PwC on 'Opportunities in Virtual Real Estate'.

Ihab Foudeh from Microsoft speaks on the topic of 'Unravelling the Metaverse and its Future'.

Khalifa Al Jaziri Al Shehhi gives a presentation on 'Metaverse and the Economy'.

Some of the audience at the Dubai Metaverse Assembly.

From left, Mr Abi Akl, Mr Sajwani and Mr Parsonage continue their discussion.

The audience takes in the discussion.

Front-row seats for the Dubai Metaverse Assembly.

Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq, second from left, joins a discussion on 'Metaverse and the Economy' moderated by Karl Tlais, left, founder and strategic advisor of iAdvisory, Accenture managing director Bashar Kilani, second from right, and BCG Digital Ventures managing director and partner Mark Zaleski.

Khalfan Belhoul, CEO of the Dubai Future Foundation gives the opening address.

The Dubai Metaverse Assembly had technology experts and people from the metaverse community as well as major companies convene to discuss opportunities and ways that its potential can be unlocked.

Dubai has already announced its metaverse strategy, which aims to create 40,000 jobs and add $4 billion to the emirate's economy. This was the first event of its kind since the announcement in July.

The National brought all of the latest updates from the event: