Iqra Bukhari, Senior Strategy Lead at MCH Global, joined the panel discussion “Festivalisation: Why Every Event Is Becoming a Destination” at the Saudi Event Show 2026, held on Wednesday, 9 September at Seminar Hub 2 (Global Innovation stage).
The session explored how modern audiences now expect events to deliver far more than their core purpose, and how organisers are blending entertainment, hospitality, networking, retail, and culture into destination-style experiences that increase both dwell time and commercial value. The conversation moved across the festival economy, visitor engagement, commercial opportunities, mixed-format programming, and experience ecosystems.
Iqra was joined on the panel by Hadi Rahhal, Founder and Managing Director of The Event Advisory, and Santiago Olea, General Manager of Coca-Cola Arena, with the discussion moderated by Natalie Crampton, Director at TEC Event Management.
At MCH Global, Iqra’s work sits at the intersection of strategy and experience design, shaping how brands think beyond a single event into building sustained audience engagement. Her appearance on this panel put that thinking directly in front of the organisers and decision-makers shaping the next phase of the region’s events industry.
Key takeaway:
This wasn’t just a stage for Iqra to share a point of view, it was a stage that put MCH Global’s strategic thinking alongside operators like Coca-Cola Arena and The Event Advisory, in a room built for exactly the kind of decisions the region’s events industry is making right now. That’s the kind of visibility that compounds, one session at a time, as MCH Global’s presence in Saudi continues to grow.
