I'm very excited to be headed to Dubai for a few days this evening! Update: Gah! Sickness has taken over and I was unable to make the flight.  Looking forward to visiting another time. 

 The primary purpose of the trip is to take part in the Inaugural Summit on the Global Agenda, by the World Economic Forum. A few months ago after my participation in Davos, I was nominated to one of the councils (marketing and branding, an absolute honor) and this is the first major meeting for the group as a whole to talk about the purpose and issues each council will be focusing on. There are 70 different councils; everything from science, the environment, to the internet. The WEF is describing the occasion as a “new unique gathering of the world's most influential thinkers… to advance solutions to the most critical challenges facing humanity.” It's certainly a pretty big claim, but I'm very humbled to have been invited, as it's an opportunity to give back in a big way with all our individual organizations alongside an incredible facilitator, the forum.

Although I'll be focusing on the work at hand, I am using my free day and a half before I head back to New York as a chance to check out a few things like the new Airbus A380 on the flight over (an insane piece of aircraft innovation), go skiing indoors (seems like an ecological nightmare but I'll wait and hold judgement until I see it), and see a few other famous places (Tea at the Burj, etc). This is my first time to Dubai, so as usual if you have any tips for food, drink, shops, insider thoughts, must-see things etc, please comment below or drop me a line. Thanks!