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IPRN in Dubai: Day One

After 19 hours in the air, first San Jose to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Dubai, I’m here in the United Arab Emirates for the International Public Relations Network (IPRN) Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Just outside our hotel, Al Manzil in the “old” section of Dubai, the world’s tallest free-standing building, Burj Dubai, rises 157 stories of luxury condominiums and an Armani-styled residence hotel on eight stories.

The height of this building is truly awesome, even in a region of spectacular architecture and non-stop construction. At more than 1800 feet tall, this needle piercing the sky is a microcosm of the global influences intersecting at this oasis by the sea. Korean construction company Samsung is working with project manager Turner International, engineering consultancy Hyder and architect Skidmore, Owings and Merrill of Chicago. 300 Chinese cladding specialists are producing and installing the 30,000 hand-cut glass panels that sheathe this symbol of human ambition and achievement.

There seem to be hundreds of buildings going up, offices and residential complexes, in a race to see which developer can build the next iconic building, the next great shape on the skyline, and if there ever was a paradise for architects, this is it.

Cursed with monumental traffic jams, Dubai is investing in mass transit, and an elevated monorail stretches from the airport to the coast, with long sections completed and rows of columns waiting for the concrete roadway to be laid. It is said that fully one-quarter of the world’s construction cranes are in Dubai, and I can believe it.

Most of the people we encounter are not from Dubai or even the Middle East. In fact, only 15% of Dubai’s population is native with the rest coming from scores of Arabic- and English-speaking countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia to serve as waiters, taxi drivers, hotel staff and construction workers. I knew Thomas Friedman was right about globalization when I read his book, “The World is Flat,” but being here for just a few hours has driven the point home with a force I could never have anticipated.

Jonathan Choat, General Secretary of IPRN, “Lord Choat” to me (he is a dashing British dandy, a TS Eliot lookalike given to cinch-waisted tailored suits and flamboyant pocket scarves) and Maggie Fox, a British PR legend in high technology and pharmaceuticals, and I went exploring today before the official start of the AGM. After a cheap taxi ride to the “creek,” where dhows were being loaded with all manner of goods produced in China—air conditioners, tires, toys, refrigerators, blankets and colorful plastics—as well as canned fruit juices and other desert produce, we walked through the dark alleys of the souk, or market, working our way through the spice souk (“would you like saffron, boss? Do you know myrrh? Like Frankincense and myrrh. Cinnamon, cardamom, come inside and smell, sir.”) to reach the gold market. Scores of stores displayed all kinds of gold jewelry, from simple, elegant necklaces to the truly ostentatious.

So now it’s off to the welcome cocktail party where we’ll reconnect with friends and colleagues we’ve been seeing for the past 10 years of AGMs around the world and meet the new members from Spain, Sweden, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, France, Singapore and Portugal. Our dear friends Geoff and Inge Drucker from Australia, Mike Stringer from Boston, Larry Weis from Detroit, Keith Webb from the UK, Guido Minerbi from Buenos Aires, Marilyn and Jeff Weiss from Toronto and Karri Vesa from Finland can’t make it. We’ll miss them and hope they can make it to the next meeting in Milan.

More later.