GRIF 2026 PROGRAMME - Day 3
Venues, speakers and timings remain subject to confirmation.
THRIVE
Three days of market insight, investment discussion, founder-led exchange and hospitality experiences across Dubai.
Day Three - Wednesday 21st October 2026
Intelligence, consumers, community and opportunity
25hours Hotel One Central | 25 Jump Street | Antika | Pepperoni Club
08:30 to 09:20 – registration required 25Hours One Central
Closed Door Operator's Forum: The Reality Behind the Headlines
Original GRIF intelligence followed by a candid closed-door industry discussion
Greg Wright, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Food People and Project People, presents the findings of the GRIF x Project People Industry Sentiment Report, with exploring industry challenges, investment appetite, growth markets and consumer priorities with comparisons to the 2025 findings.
Flo Graham-Dixon, Founder, Juniper Strategy then exclusively presents the key findings from the second wave of the GRIF x Juniper Strategy UAE Hospitality Baromete, a study of recovery through the current market disruption drawing on a survey of operators representation over 350 UAE restaurants.
The presentations are followed by an open round-table discussion with invited industry leaders about the realities behind the data: what is improving, what remains difficult, which pressures may be temporary and where business models need to change.
Operators only | No press | No recording | Chatham House Rule
08:30 – 09:30
Coffee & Chats at The Pepperoni Comedy Club, 25 Jump Street,
One Central
MC - Sarah-Jane Grant, Director, Ecoair
09:30 to 10:00 – Antika, 25 Jump Street One Central
Follow the Spend: What Consumers Are Choosing Now
The economic, travel and spending signals shaping hospitality demand
Drawing on real consumer-spending data, Bashar Hlayhel, Economist, Mastercard Economics Institute, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, opens with an evidence-led presentation on the forces shaping hospitality demand—from discretionary spending and travel patterns to resident and visitor demand, value-seeking and the occasions consumers continue to protect during uncertainty. Following the presentation, Bashar joins Tyrone Reid, Group CEO, MMI and Emirates Leisure Retail for a conversation translating the data into practical implications for hospitality operators, investors and destinations.
10:00 to 10:15
The Price of Assumptions: What UAE Purchasing Data tells us about buying better
What purchasing data reveals about the real cost of doing business
Data presentation
Drawing on a six-month study of anonymised purchasing data, Sven Tietz, Co-Founder and CEO, HeadsUp and BENCHMARKET, shares what he has learnt from 200 suppliers, 3000 SKU’s , 143 000 price points and identifies where operators have room to act.
10:15 to 10:45
The Operating Reality
What do the data and industry sentiment mean in practice?
How are UAE operators responding to recovering sales, margin pressures and uneven trading - and what does this mean for confidence and investment?
Greg Wright and Flo Graham-Dixon lead an operator panel discussion, drawing on key findings from the UAE Hospitality Barometer (operator survey) and the Industry Sentiment Report. The panel explores how confidence and investment appetite compare with trading realities, whether recovering sales are translating into profit, how performance varies by location, and which actions are working as operators plan for 2027
Flo Graham-Dixon, Founder, Juniper Strategy and
Greg Wright, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Food People and Project People
Nadim Majdalani, CEO, Eathos
Duncan Muir, Senior Director of F&B at Azadea Group
Najib Yaacoub, Chief Operating Officer, Lavoya Restaurants Group
10:45 to 11:00
Built for Residents
How operators have tapped into the resident and community market
Case study
A practical look at how operators built relevance with residents and repeat local customers: the proposition, location, programming and operating decisions that helped it become part of its community rather than relying on transient demand. The case study identifies how it tapped into new consumers without relying on discounting.
Nadine Benchaffai, Cofounder, Fabfood Co and
Kevin Boublil, CEO and Co-Founder, Mezza, in conversation with:
Jennifer Pettinger-Haines, Founder, the GRIF Collective
11:00 to 11:30
Coffee & Chats at The Pepperoni Comedy Club, 25 Jump Street, One Central
11:30 to 11:50
Hospitality 2030
Three shifts that will shape the next five years
Anna Sebastian, Founder, Anna Sebastian Hospitality offers a future-facing provocation on how people will live, travel, socialise, discover hospitality and spend by 2030—and what leaders should be building for today.
11:50 to 12:15
360 Degree Hospitality
What do consumers actually want?
Hospitality is increasingly expected to support more of how people live, work, eat, socialise and travel. This panel examines how customer expectations are changing across restaurants, hotels, residences and lifestyle environments—and what a genuinely joined-up experience looks like.
Claudia de Brito, Curator, The Cru Collective; hospitality writer and journalist, in conversation with:
Anna Sebastian, Founder, Anna Sebastian Hospitality
Ciara Jones, Group Marketing Director, AlphaMind Group
Georgina Woollams-Edwards, Founder and Managing Director, Katch International
12:15 to 12:30
The Community Hotel
How do hotels become neighbourhood hubs?
Tobias Schulz, Managing Director, Restaurant and Bar Partnerships, Hilton Worldwide Services Ltd, explores how hotels can move beyond serving only overnight guests to become relevant, active places for the people who live and work around them. The conversation considers third-party restaurant partnerships, programming, dayparts, local customers and how a stronger community role can improve both F&B performance and the wider hotel proposition.
12:30 to 12:55
Unlocking a Destination Through Hospitality
A look inside Wynn Al Marjan Island
CREATE Session
As Wynn Al Marjan Island accelerates Marjan Island and Ras Al Khaimah's transformation, what role will hospitality and F&B play in the destination's next stage of development? We look at how demand, community, hotels, restaurants, entertainment and public realm can work together, where the opportunities lie for operators and what is planned for the destination.
Bob Hamersma, Managing Partner, Forsite Creative in conversation with:
Christopher Hewett, Executive Vice President, Marjan Hospitality
Max Tappeiner, President, Wynn Al Marjan Island
12:55 - 13:10
Backing the UAE
Where is the next hospitality opportunity?
Khaled Alfahim, Executive Chairman, RMAL Hospitality PJSC & Chairman, Abu Dhabi Family Business Council, shares an investor's perspective on the UAE hospitality market: where demand and value are emerging, what makes an opportunity credible and what founders and operators need to demonstrate to secure backing. He shares the lessons of being an early entrant, what makes a homegrown concept worth backing and how long-term family capital can support sustainable growth. With the next chapter of RMAL Hospitality taking shape, where would he invest today—and where would he be cautious?
13:10 to 13:25
Build. Exit. Build Again.
What do you do differently the second time around?
Closing fireside
Bradley Martin Michael began with R5,000 borrowed from his uncle and a hospital canteen. He went on to build restaurant brands across several continents, scale Seagrass Boutique Hospitality Group into a multinational platform and sell its premium restaurant portfolio to Colowide Corporation in 2025. Now, through Blue Coral Concepts, he is building again—and has chosen the UAE for his next chapter. What makes a hospitality business valuable beyond its founder? How do you know when the time is right to sell? What do you do differently the second time around, and why does he believe the UAE is the right place to build again?
Bradley Martin Michael, Founder and Chairman, Blue Coral Concepts, in conversation with:
Jennifer Pettinger-Haines, Founder, GRIF.
13:25 - 13:40
Closing announcement!
Investing in F&B, Building Communities
Abdulla Al Mheiri, Chairman, DEAL Holdings, and Shabnum Stumpf, Head of Projects & Brand Activations, DEAL Holdings, in conversation with Duncan Fraser-Smith, Founder, Craft Hospitality, reveal their ambitions for FAB Group, and why they are doubling down on F&B across the GCC, before exclusively unveiling their next deal—born at GRIF.
13:35 - 15:00
Closing lunch hosted by Paris Society at The Pepperoni Comedy Club, 25 Jump Street, One Central
It's a wrap!