Why would we take you stargazing?

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This week we’re quoting…

Basma Dawwas (Director of LEAP Events)

What Basma said: 

“Our most powerful partnerships are built on trust, shared values, and the promise of long-term collaboration. These relationships are grounded in mutual respect and cultural understanding.”

A perspective that works for any business 

Basma was speaking about LEAP’s global partnerships. But she could just as easily have been describing any meaningful business relationship.

Trust, shared values, cultural understanding – these are human conditions. And in reality, they don’t emerge easily in brightly lit meeting rooms between back-to-back calendar invites. 

Which brings us to the question: why would we take you stargazing? 

Because sometimes the fastest way to build a serious relationship is to step away from serious settings.

A different kind of meeting room

During LEAP Nights, the desert becomes our meeting room.

You leave the hum of the exhibition floor behind, and Riyadh’s skyline fades. The air cools. And above you, a dark sky stretches out. 

Looking up together helps us all let our guard down. The conversations slow down and wander. 

Maybe you start by talking about the day – a pitch that surprised you or a technology that felt ahead of its time. But somewhere between identifying constellations and standing in silence, the focus changes. 

Why did you really start your company? 

What kind of legacy are you trying to build? 

What does long-term really mean to you? 

Some questions need air outside of transactional spaces. 

Stepping out of B2B autopilot

We spend a lot of our professional lives in our B2B autopilot state. We know how the interactions work and what’s expected of us, and we play the role. 

We’re not saying that’s a bad thing – it’s necessary, much of the time. 

But it doesn’t create trust very easily. Everyone knows that everyone else is operating from behind a B2B mask, and each one of us wonders who the real people are behind those masks. 

Experiences like stargazing interrupt the pattern. They invite a different state of mind – one that’s more open and reflective, and probably less defensive. When we take away the normal B2B structures and formats, people tend to show up differently.

Business conversation still continues, but it gets more grounded. And as Basma pointed out, lasting partnerships are rooted in mutual respect and cultural understanding. That comes from shared moments – like seeing the landscape, feeling the air, understanding the rhythm of a place.

The desert has shaped the region’s history for centuries. Spending an evening beneath its sky helps you put this business ecosystem in context. 

Shared memory and accelerated trust 

Networking shouldn’t have to be boring. We see so many pivotal conversations happen away from formal settings. 

When you’ve stood under the same sky and traced the same constellation (or laughed at your own inability to spot the obvious star), your sense of the person next to you becomes something new. The next morning, when you meet again in the Investor Lounge or pass each other in the Tech Arena, the dynamic is warmer. 

Instead of being just a badge and a company name, you’re the person who stood beside them in the desert silence. 

LEAP is intense and busy, so those moments are incredibly important here. They turn introductions into relationships, and transform polite interest into genuine curiosity. We believe this lays the groundwork for the kind of long-term collaboration Basma described. 

So we design it this way 

During the day, LEAP is about ambition and global connection. By night, it’s about depth. 

The exhibition floor sparks ideas; the desert sky gives them space to breathe.

So yes, we will take you stargazing – if you want to come, of course. 

Planning your LEAP week? Make room for the moments you’ll never forget. Join us at LEAP Nights – and see what happens when you look up.

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Catch you next week,
The LEAP Team