When a 16-year-old’s passion for performing arts snowballs into an award from the Queen, you know the story’s going to be good!

In the final episode of Season 2 of EventNewsDXB, Zoe Jackson MBE talks to us about how she took her teenage passion and turned it into a performing arts company and charity that inspired thousands of young people and led to numerous prestigious awards.

In 2020 she left the UK for Dubai and has since gone on to form of the region’s most respected entertainment production companies, Entertain X. She shares the lessons she's learned along the way, why saying no to procurement races protects creativity, how Expo’s legacy reshaped her business and why Saudi’s cultural boom is redefining what’s possible for live experiences.

Zoe also opens up about her event journey and how to manage through growth, evolving from hands-on creative to systems-builder, managing cash flow in slow-pay markets and finding balance when passion risks becoming burnout.

If you're in the business of entertainment in the Middle East, this episode is for you.

Production Credits:

Presented by: Ian Carless
Studio Engineer & Editor: Roy D'Monte
Executive Producers: Ian Carless & Joe Morrison
Produced by: EventNewsDXB & W4 Podcast Studio

Support us!

It takes time and effort to put the EventNewsDXB podcast together and we hope it's worth something to you. If it is, please consider sponsoring the podcast to enable us to keep them coming. Contact us for details.

How many times have we sat in a bar and magically come up the next 'big idea', only for it to avaporate along with the last drop of vino in your glass!

In this week's EventNewsDXB, we sit down with Adam Parry, Co-Founder of Event Industry News and Event Tech Live about ignoring all the 'nay-sayers' and turning that 'big idea' into not just one, but two profitable businesses.

Adam unpacks some of the key moments along his journey - why awards became more than trophies but a true community hub and how a daytime conference unlocked sponsorships that ultimatelty made his P/L work!

We also explore what innovation really means in events, why tech is only as good as the problems it solves. And he shares the thinking behind Speaker Stacks, a new tool built to bridge content and contacts without spamming audiences.

Plus, having made the move from the UK to Dubai, Adam shares his perspective on how two very different markets operate and talks candidly about the culture shift, from the UK’s mature but sometimes rigid industry to the Middle East’s speed, ambition, and appetite for scale.

If you're looking for an engaging conversation with one of the event industry's most influential voices, hit that play button!

EventNewsDXB is supported by -45dB and Warehouse Four.

Production Credits:

Presented by: Ian Carless
Studio Engineer & Editor: Roy D'Monte
Executive Producers: Ian Carless & Joe Morrison
Produced by: EventNewsDXB & W4 Podcast Studio

Support us!

It takes time and effort to put the EventNewsDXB podcast together and we hope it's worth something to you. If it is, please consider sponsoring the podcast to enable us to keep them coming. Contact us for details.

When Tammy Urwin swapped dreams of the auctioneer’s gavel for a Lapland winter as Santa’s assistant, little did she realise it would be great training for her future career in the event industry!

In this weeks episode of EventNewsDXB, Urban Events director Tammy Urwin, joins me to unpack how she wound up doing “experiential” before it had a name and how she designs her events for emotion and memory over format. We also talk zero-waste festivals, like Corona Sunsets, which saw 30,000 people attend over three days, with nothing going to landfill and why sustainability has to be in the brief throughout, not a line at the end.

She also talks candidly about saying no to procurement driven briefs and keeping her event agency intentionally small. And we dig into AI’s real utility - speed, not strategy; plus why hiring for attitude wins and how she's building a pipeline of female talent in a male-dominated industry.

If you care about creating moments that outlast the event, this conversation is a good place to start.

EventNewsDXB is supported by Warehouse Four and -45dB

Production Credits:

Presented by: Ian Carless
Studio Engineer & Editor: Roy D'Monte
Executive Producers: Ian Carless & Joe Morrison
Produced by: EventNewsDXB & W4 Podcast Studio

Support us!

It takes time and effort to put the EventNewsDXB podcast together and we hope it's worth something to you. If it is, please consider sponsoring the podcast to enable us to keep them coming. Contact us for details.