GBB Venture hosted the 16th Real Estate Development Summit Saudi Arabia: Luxury Edition and the REDS Industry Choice Awards on November 20 and 21 at the Ritz Carlton, Jeddah. The event was represented by more than 90 global suppliers, 170 project companies, 1400 pre-arranged meetings and 7000 projects. Aptly themed: "Together Towards Tomorrow," the summit focused on futuristic aspects of real estate development with discussions around investment, development, design and delivery of these projects while keeping sustainability at its core. The 16th RED Summit witnessed over 650 pre-qualified attendees based on the projects represented, budgets, decision making power and a host of other criteria. With this, yet again it turned out to be the largest by-invitation decision makers gathering in the Kingdom. The Summit started with the welcome address by the Managing Director of the organizing company of the REDS brand, GBB Venture Ravi Kumar Chandran. Then came the Guest of Honor Dr. Sami Angawi, Founder - Sami Angawi Architects, who inspired the real estate fraternity present at the summit with his words of wisdom and vision for future developments in Saudi Arabia. Elias Bou Habib, head of Consulting KSA – CBRE then took the stage to present one of the most popular subjects in the Kingdom: Branded Residence: The Direction of Luxury in Real Estate. Following this, there were a series of sponsor presentations by HH-SHAKER & MIDEA, OSUS Real Estate, RAK Ceramics, Daamah Trading Est, Legrand and Gutmann ME. Post a break to explore the 20+ beautiful exhibition booths, the summit resumed with a Fire Side Chat: Residential Luxury – What Saudi Needs for homes of tomorrow? lead by Pedro Ribeiro, KSA General Manager – CBRE. Joining him on the panel were, Fabrice Collot, Managing Director - Arabian Homes, Cyril Piaia, Former Chief Executive Officer - Emaar, The Economic City (EEC) and Sultan Batterjee, CEO - IHCC, Lifestyle Developers and Greener who shed light on how their efforts are directed towards creating branded residences and bringing in international experts to take the luxury quotient a notch higher. They also highlighted that Saudi Arabia is one of the most travelled to, and desired destination in the world today and thus residential market needs to grow at the same pace. The crux of GBB Summits: the Signature Face-to-Face pre-scheduled meetings kick-started between the global pool of suppliers and an elite set of project holders, representing over 7000 real estate projects in the Kingdom. These meetings, painstakingly curated by GBB professionals ensured that every single attendee's business needs were best catered to. Over 1400 such meetings were successfully conducted over the two days. Post lunch was yet another awaited panel discussion on the very controversial topic of Sustainable Luxury where the speakers truly challenged the myths with real world examples. Moderated by, Ignacio Gómez, Global Design Principal – Aedas, the panel speakers Martin Pease, Group Head Development Architecture Design and Planning – Red Sea Global, Dr. Francesca Arici, Chief of Planning and Development - Aseer Development Authority, Alberto Bounous, VP Design & Development – KAFD and Saeed Albially, Executive Director - Rua Al Madinah Holding, all representing PIF-backed establishments spoke about how, in their respective mega and giga projects are incorporating sustainability at the very core of the planning and development. The next day began with a panel that brought together some of the heavy-weights from the tourism and hotel sectors. Hosted by an energetic and popular hospitality leader, Bastien Blanc, Co-Founder - TroKadero Hospitality Global, the panelists were: Lee Hallman, Acting Chief Development Officer – AlUla Development Company, Fahad Alobailan, Group CEO - Alhokair Group, Samer Sabra, Chief of Assets Management – Jabal Omar Development Company and Dr. Fahad bin Mushayt, CEO – ASFAR. While the panel spoke of the immense tourism and hospitality-oriented opportunities, they also highlighted the importance of retaining the native heritage to create an authentic destination offering exceptional experiences to all kinds of tourists and travelers. Religious tourism being one of primary focuses, crafting a whole new luxury experience in this area was also said to be crucial. The last discussions on-stage revolved around 3 different perspectives from 3 different speakers to one common subject: Preservation V/S Modernization – Breaking even with the past and the future. What should be retained? What should be omitted? The esteemed speakers, Gabriel Gil, Head of Interior Design Department - OMRANIA by EGIS, Ralf Steinhauer, Global Hospitality Director – RSP and Tim Martin, Managing Director & Principal - Gensler Middle East, individually took the centre stage explaining their views on the subject while Dr. Alaa Q. Al-Ban, Advisor I Board Member I Designer I Misk 2030 Leader later brought them together on a brief discussion on the same. While the speakers agreed that modernization was important to attract a global crowd, preservation of Saudi's natural heritage through design and development processes was equally important in order to retain the global crowd. The summit concluded on a high note with the hosting of a very successful Distributor – Manufacturer Meet, one of a kind platform that helped tens of global manufacturers with opportunities to expand their market in Saudi Arabia. Concurrently also running was an exclusive workshop hosted by Dr. Sami Angawi showcasing the rich architectural heritage of Saudi Arabia, traditional craftmanship and the philosophy behind them. The evening of day 2 saw one of a kind gala dinner at: RICA – REDS Industry Choice Awards that celebrates excellence in real estate development through a transparent process of open nomination and open voting process. The winners were: Aljohara Nour Beydoun, Chief Designer & Founder - Ink Design for Celebrated Designer of the Year; Ignacio Gómez, Global Design Principal – Aedas for Celebrated Architect of the Year; Mashael Bin Saedan, Founder & CEO - Al Saedan for Development for Celebrated Woman in Real Estate & Celebrated Youth Icon of the Year; Oussama Kabbani, Group Chief Development Officer – ROSHN for Celebrated Developer of the Year; House of Consulting Office for Celebrated Consultant of the Year; AlBawani Co. Ltd. (ABCC) for Celebrated Contractor of the Year; OUR HABITAS Al Ula for Celebrated Sustainable Project of the Year; Shebara Resort by Red Sea Global for Celebrated Futuristic Project of the Year; St. Regis - Red Sea Resort for Celebrated Project of the Year Hospitality; Marafy By ROSHN for Celebrated Project of the Year Residential. Put together, the two days were filled with excited conversations, peer-to-peer networking, strategized connection building and a huge amount of learning. The organizers, GBB Venture are further dedicated to crafting more of such positive business networking experiences through their summits in 2025. More details on them are here - 2025 Events For any queries and comments, you can contact [email protected] or +44 2038 68 2202
