An Insider Among Strangers: How the Event Business Works in the Middle East

A practical breakdown of how a Russian-language agency can organize events abroad without myths about “sheikhs and easy money”: how tenders are structured, what to look for in contracts, which cultural norms to consider, and what checklists help you survive in real projects. Guest — Ilya Zmiyenko, founder of the communications agency “Svyazi” (“Connections”). Main takeaways and episode recommendations: https://eventkitchenpodcast.ru/episodes/112-kak-delat-iventy-za-rubezhom. Chat for organizers from the podcast “Event Kitchen”: https://t.me/eventpod. To become a partner for the season or a guest on the episode: https://t.me/ipodm. “Svyazi”: taplink.cc/svyazi.agency

Timcodes:
00:00:00 — Intro
00:04:01 — What pushed you to enter the foreign market and focus on it?
00:07:01 — Why did the choice fall on the Middle East: decisive reasons
00:09:44 — Who are your real competitors there: local teams, international networks, or independent players?
00:16:04 — What a typical tender in the Middle East looks like: participants, stages, deadlines, and who makes the final decision
00:20:01 — Red flags: how to understand in advance that a tender or client isn’t right for you
00:29:29 — Boundary of responsibility: what the agency doesn’t take on even with a large budget
00:38:54 — Contract clauses without which you can’t, even if it lowers conversion
00:50:35 — Breakdown of a complex case: what project it was, where problems arose, what solutions were adopted, and how everything ended