Gitex Global Expands to Year-Round Innovation Hub at Expo City Dubai
▼ Summary
– Gitex Global 2026 will relocate to Expo City Dubai and be held from December 7-11, marking a new chapter for the event.
– Sheikh Hamdan directed the organization of the world’s first and largest ‘TechCation’ experience, blending technology and lifestyle through citywide activations.
– The event supports Dubai’s D33 Economic Agenda to position the city among the world’s top three urban economies by 2033.
– Gitex 5.0 represents a landmark progression featuring a $2.7 billion venue expansion and focusing on AI, quantum technologies, and future sectors.
– The December timing aligns with Dubai’s tourism season, offering immersive stays and reinforcing Dubai’s status as a top global destination for talent and innovation.
Dubai is set to host Gitex Global 2026 at Expo City Dubai, marking a significant evolution for the world-renowned technology exhibition into a year-round innovation hub. Under the directives of Dubai’s leadership, the event will relocate alongside Expand North Star, with the upcoming edition scheduled for December 7–11, 2026. This strategic move initiates a new chapter for the prestigious international gathering.
His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council, has directed the creation of the world’s first and largest ‘TechCation’ experience. This novel concept will merge technology and lifestyle through activations spread across the entire city.
The 2026 edition is poised to feature the debut of TechCation, a next-generation fusion of creativity, discovery, and destination appeal. This initiative is designed to advance the objectives of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, aiming to cement the city’s standing among the top three global urban economies. Following 45 years of establishing Dubai and the UAE as technology leaders, Gitex Global is reshaping the international tech events calendar by introducing a fresh dimension of innovation, business, and lifestyle.
Shifting the event to December places it at the core of Dubai’s dynamic tourism season. This offers international tech executives and investors an opportunity to experience the city’s unique social and cultural offerings, encouraging more immersive and extended visits. Beyond the traditional exhibition floor, Gitex TechCation will transform Dubai into a live, interconnected convergence of business, technology, and daily life, reinforcing its status as a premier global destination, a position recently affirmed by its top ranking in Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best Destinations Awards 2024.
Conceived in alignment with the D33 Agenda, Gitex TechCation aims to reinforce Dubai’s position as the world’s best city to live, create, and scale innovative ideas. The agenda strengthens Dubai’s appeal to technology leaders, investors, and digital nomads by providing an exceptional environment supported by world-class business, cultural, and lifestyle infrastructure within one of the globe’s safest and most connected cities.
This foundation enables Dubai to continually enhance its global competitiveness, nurture a knowledge-based economy, and develop a supportive ecosystem for international investment and talent. The city’s impressive ascent is reflected in various leading global rankings. In September 2025, Dubai secured the top position worldwide for Greenfield FDI projects, drawing $11 billion in inflows during the first half of the year according to the Dubai FDI Monitor. It has also emerged as a hub for digital nomads, ranking first globally in the Savills Executive Nomad Index and second in the VisaGuide Digital Nomad Visa Index.
By attracting a globally mobile talent pool, Gitex TechCation is set to bolster Dubai’s reputation as the premier destination for living, creating, and scaling groundbreaking ideas.
Gitex Global 2026 also signifies a landmark progression in the event’s history, known as Gitex 5.0, which seeks to spawn new technology movements worldwide. The new venue, the Dubai Exhibition Center at Expo City, is undergoing a $2.7 billion expansion to become the largest purpose-built indoor events venue in the region. This expanded facility signals a renewed energy and the reinvention of Gitex into a frontier show that aligns with the next era of global tech growth and the rising ambitions of AI economies everywhere.
The show opens on December 7 with the new outcomes-focused Gitex Scale Summit for global leaders. This day is dedicated to high-level strategic dialogue on the decisive trends, opportunities, and policy frameworks influencing global AI economies. From December 8 to 11, the expo will showcase the most frontier-pushing innovations, from AI and quantum technologies to biosciences and advanced manufacturing, to spark collaborations across future-critical sectors.
December 2026 at Dubai Expo City will reunite Gitex Global and Expand North Star in a single location, creating an integrated platform that amplifies the entire global innovation ecosystem. This gathering will include tech giants, policymakers, startups, investors, and visionary founders, further solidifying the city’s role as the most influential meeting point for scale, capital, and ideas.
Together, GITEX 5.0 and TechCation will represent a redefining moment in the event’s journey: a reimagined global platform where next-generation technologies converge with a city designed to inspire, connect, and accelerate the future.
(Source: Economy Middle East)
