Hello and welcome to the latest edition of The Alea Journal.
The Middle East Family Office Investment Summit 2023 marks ten years since the first edition of the very first Family Office Investment Summit from Alea Global Group.
This accidental line of business for Alea came about because I was invited to speak at a number of conferences from 2011 onwards, and noticed something was missing from these events.
As a family office member myself, I didn’t feel that many of the events I attended were able to serve the needs of family offices in the most effective way possible. I was unable to find the programs, the level and mixture of delegates, or the atmosphere I felt was required to make these events of maximum interest and use to all who attended. Rather than simply be critical of other conferences, I decided to organize my own singular event to see whether my observations and ideas were correct.
I chose Dubai for this initial summit because I am from the region and I know a great deal of family offices there. The ratio between family offices and service providers was set at 70:30, to make the networking as effective as possible. I also sought out family office members themselves to attend, rather than sending their representatives, to ensure that there were decision-makers in the room.
This was only ever meant to be an experiment, and never something I took seriously as a potential ongoing line of business for Alea, but it was an experiment that was to change everything.
Over two days people traded information and built relationships, and delegates enjoyed the conference so much that we decided to repeat it again the following year.
Having succeeded in the Middle East, we went on to host similar events in the APAC region, then Africa, LATAM, the United States, and Europe. We now hold regular summits all over the world where we are able to bring together not only service providers and family offices within single regions, but also family offices from different regions.
This has become an expanded global network of people and organization who understand each other in a way no other kind of business could, and whose positive values align in ways that transcend borders.
As ever, you can contact me at info(at)aleaglobalgroup.com