In no particular order,Getting back the blogging spirit

Thanks to my friend Ali he remind me of my blog that I started it in February 2006
And for no specific reason I just stopped in February 2008, except for this post about gaza, but I noticed that this is normal cycle you start the blog some time just to have an idea or to know what blogging is, than you like it and you get all excited about and you start to post daily even think about what to post tomorrow than suddenly your posting start to decline to once a week once a month or you leave the whole thing or in some cases you even delete the whole blog.
Or you get back your blogging spirit and start again in my case deleting the blog never cross my mind I always wanted to get back and kept reading and browsing others blogs daily.

Now lets look back at what the major events in abu dhabi and globally that I missed blogging about.

In my personal view or my personal awareness I wanted to blog about number of things that happened in Abu Dhabi which are in no particular order

1- The national English-language daily newspaper, launched in Abu Dhabi, first, was published on April 17, 2008; it is different local newspaper different in very professional way I really enjoy reading it. Read it online here

2- New public beach on Abu Dhabi Corniche opened in July 2008 , it is beautiful beach and must visit tourist destination

3- new transportation in Abu Dhabi the silver taxi and the new bus network ,while it is good effort , but I still see queues of people waiting in the sun, often for up to an hour to get a taxi and I still think that the old gold color taxi should be in service along with the new one it will reduce the queues of people plus it is part of Abu Dhabi history.

4- Abu Dhabi Media Park " TwoFour54" established and started operation in october 2008.
To k now what this media park all about it is enough to look at some of their partner which include the BBC, Thomson Reuters Foundation, CNN, Financial Times, Random House and HarperCollins.
twofour54 is about placing companies and organisations at the heart of the Arab world and giving them the tools, the support and infrastructure to create the highest quality content to the highest possible standards. Official web site
.
5- The Global financial crisis
The most talked about subject now days but I am going to point you to very good article about the Meeting Industry in a Time of Economic Crisis read it here

"We solve problems best when we’re doing it together. That’s what meetings achieve, and why they therefore need to remain a priority even when it appears that the economic lights are going out! "

October 14 is the launch date of the International Middle East Film Festival in Abu Dhabi

Another international event to post Abu Dhabi as a destination for tourist of art and culture, it is obvious that Abu Dhabi is doing a good job positioning it self as culture and art destination.
But I really wonder why I didn’t hear of this Festival earlier and if they just started marketing for this Festival isn’t the date 14 October is very close, my Sixth Sense telling me this festival will postponed.

Unfortunately this sixth sense was not working when I wrote my last post about my business startup so if any one wonder yes it did not work out because lack of commitment and awareness from my partner but I did not give up hope will look in to another way and another partner
However if you want to read more about the International Middle East Film in Abu Dhabi click here or here

Art Paris in Abu Dhabi

The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), has launched artparis-abudhabi.
Created in 1999, artparis is an international fair dedicated to modern and contemporary art which takes place in March of each year, in the heart of Paris, under the elegant glass roof of the Grand Palais, a prestigious location of French culture, now in Abu Dhabi.

A unique approach to become the destination point of the region art market.

artparis-abudhabi , Emirates placeHotel , November 26-29-2007

The Exhibition Management Degree (EMD)

To my readers if there is any, I want to say it is long time again a way from blogging but I was really busy planning and organizing for a key events that fruitfully done, it was long and hectic month but I really enjoy it, I enjoy very much organizing events and my most satisfaction comes when finally I see participants coming together and working together as we planned, it s like the feeling of movie director when finally he is able to watch his movie in the screen.
Today I want to drew your attention to this good news
Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) and UFI (The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry) have joined forces to offer regional managers, government officials, project managers, and event organizers the chance to obtain a specialised degree in event management. To read more you can click here

Since I involved in the filed of events and meetings 9 years ago I was always in search for a course or a degree in event management because I believe there is much to learn within this specialization, in the last couple of years I found several courses and degree related to the meeting industry but all of them are abroad and sine I am working full time job you can imagine how difficult it is to enroll in such course.
Yes it is great news for me that this course is coming to Dubai but it is tough one too, most of the course or two module of it as I understand is online course the other two modules are on-site which in this case is Dubai world trade centre, although Dubai is not far from Abu Dhabi but it is difficult task for me as full time employee but I think I can mange to take some days off out of my 35 day annual paid leave
But the big issue is can I pay 3300 Euro which is about 16,000 DH for the full EMD course? I am not sure in my opinion it is really an expensive course especially for a new or unheard of degree yet, however I am going to contact the UFI office for the Middle East which happened to be here in Abu Dhabi to look for a discount or a way to pay in installment
I would also like to hear from any person in the other regions about this course if any one enrolls in it before and reading this.
Another related news to share with you which is an evident of the importance of MICE or the meeting industry for Abu Dhabi and the middle east:
Construction begins on AED 8 billion 'Capital Centre' in Abu Dhabi
An AED 8 billion business and residential micro-city which will become the world's first fully networked exhibition and lifestyle destination.

'As a thriving destination, Capital Centre will have a huge economic impact on Abu Dhabi; the development will directly support business, trade and investment, in addition to stimulating events which themselves encourage the tourism and hospitality sector,'
Simon Horgan, Chief Executive Officer, ADNEC
Capital Centre is being developed under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company and the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA).
To read the full press release click here

Abu Dhabi Taxi

Not long a go when I ever needed a taxi in Abu Dhabi it doesn’t take me longer than 1 or 2 minutes maximum to find one but I did not notice till two days a go when my car broke down and I had to take it for service, that it is getting really difficult to find a taxi in Abu Dhabi I wait about 30 to 45 minute every day to find one.
Now I know in the third quarter of this year, and within three years fleets of 7,100 modern taxis operated by private companies would have replaced all existing taxis in the emirate.
I know this is a positive news but in my humble opinion I see the old gold and white taxi as part of Abu Dhabi image now and it should not change, each city in the world have a famous kind of taxi image and Abu Dhabi is that gold / white taxi and right now it is almost the only way of transportation available for many people not to mention the cost that will rise with the new taxies
I asked couple of taxi drivers what is the problem? Why there is a lack of taxi now
They all said that due to the housing rent increases many families moved out from the city to near by cites like Baniyas, Musffah, shahama and other areas so most of taxi drivers prefer to work in these areas and avoid Abu Dhabi congested street and the business there is very good as they say you can make 25 Dh in one trip form Musffah area to Abu Dhabi better than doing the same amount of money driving inside the town

Now this can be a big problem for a city that started to host very good number of big events and exhibitions I know there is other taxi services available like alghazal taxi and NTC taxies but the need of normal affordable taxi that you can take from the street anywhere is still a must and the golden /white taxi is really nice figure to keep, so why not add to it the modern taxies and keep the old one too
So:
1- it lasted for more than 25 years with the golden and white color this an image should not change
2- it is affordable for wide range of low income group of people
3- they can work in parallel with the other modern taxies