Tag Archives: saudi arabia

The attentive, regular reader might wonder – why have I been going to Saudi Arabia so often of late, when it’s hardly one of the most common tourist destinations? Indeed, I was here a year ago – in December 2024; before that in September 2023 (opening a regional office); and in 2022 I was here a full three times! And in all this is already my eighth visit here!

It’s quite simple really. Saudi Arabia is rapidly changing and developing (see those links above); you can see it in the more relaxed social rules, the number of buildings under construction, and the new airport terminals across the country. Naturally, special attention is given to the IT sector, and logically, cybersecurity is also a key focus. So for us, the Middle East is real interesting, and Saudi Arabia is of particular interest. Year after year, we’re growing here by double digits, and our Saudi business is one of the most significant slices of the company’s revenue “pie”.

So, of course, we have an office here, which I absolutely had to drop in on for an informal, friendly visit:

By the way, we already have more than 60 folks working here – mostly sales, marketing, and tech support.

Read on…

Salam, folks – from Saudi Arabia!

I was there last week at the Internet Governance Forum in Riyadh, where I was invited to give a speech about some of the lesser-known evils of the internet – and about our ideas regarding what to do to best tackle those evils. Traditionally, this annual forum has been attended by politicians and other government officials, representatives of international organizations, and so on. Only relatively recently have they started inviting folks from commercial companies – seemingly so as to get a better handle on the home truths about what’s really going on across the internet.

Since the event wasn’t dedicated to my core field (JIC: cybersecurity!), I didn’t stay around to listen to the other speeches. Thus, that’s all for today about the actual conference! However, I just have to tell you about the place where the event took place…

The forum took place in the enormous… palace (I can’t describe the building any other way) called the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center. And it seems it’s so luxuriously-exclusively grand and ritzy that there’s hardly anything about the place on the internet (e.g., no Wikipedia page) – yes, that same internet the governance of which the forum is dedicated to! Here’s how it looks from the outside:

Inside – breathtakingly beautiful opulence; here, for example, is the entrance hall:

The main hall:

Like? Then let’s take a closer look…

Read on…

Just back home after an important event in a country where… the strongest beer you can get is 0.0%! ->

Getting warm? (That, actually, is another clue.)

Still not guessed it?…

Will a pic of its capital’s skyline help? ->

Well?…

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Our spot of business in Riyadh done, it was time for some fun – on the Edge of the World…

It sure was worth the two-hour drive, and we made it in time for the headliner: taking in the sunset from the top ->

The perfect vantage point for the vastness of the desert. Undeniably must-see…

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As experience shows, the brighter the sun shines somewhere – the more photos are taken…

So when in the capital of sunny Saudi Arabia, a great many pics are taken. Even more if you get to the top of a skyscraper here…

And we got up to the top of Kingdom Centre, one of the country’s tallest buildings, which weighs in at more than 300 meters high ->

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My first international business trip of the year was as modest as it could get – with just a single port of call. But that port of call was sunny Riyadh, which sure made a welcome change to the sub-zero temperatures and daily snow that’s been falling in Moscow since November!…

I’d been to the city before – in 2013 and 2014 – and both times for conferences, speeches and meetings, and with hardly any micro-tourisms. This year – zero micro-tourisms; not even a nano-tourism. As per – the business schedule was a full and busy one, including matters connected with the imminent opening of our local office here (which I’ll get to in another post). Alas, it was so busy… – zero nice photos too. Apologies folks. My excuse? You’ve got to work hard!

What I remember most from my two first trips to Saudi was that practically all the folks I’d meet would say the same thing: without a serious transformation in the country there’s no future for it in the modern world. To be honest, back then I was a little amazed by the boldness of such statements, but now I see that wasn’t just talk. Changes have been made, and though they’re not big changes, they are noticeable. First of all, public transportation is being built! Earlier there was no such thing: Riyadh was strictly car-only. Today there are overhead transportation lines. No trains yet, but things are looking good ->

Read on…