On December 8th, CreativeMornings Dubai combined the November and December themes — Fantasy and Sound — to feature three speakers: Arafaat Ali Khan, Joshua F. Williams, and Abbo.
Arafaat is the Director of Communications at The Alliance, a public events and exhibitions company. In his presentation, he talked about his experience with co-founding the Comic Con in the Middle East. According to Arafaat, the idea for Comic Con in the Middle East first came up in a playful conversation between him and his friends. Soon, he began pitching his ideas to potential investors, but unfortunately he had to host the first Comic Con in 2012 with no sponsors. However, the event was a huge success and attracted around 15,000 people — looking back, Arafaat thinks he took a risk that was definitely worth it. Arafaat is motivated by a desire to make other people’s dreams become a reality; to many, Comic Con is a method of escape, from their daily lives into a realm of fantasy.
Joshua F. Williams is a record producer/recording engineer and Abbo is a singer and songwriter. The duo talked about establishing the local music community into what it is today. At first, they relate that it was very difficult to find any music scene whatsoever in Dubai. Although there were many talented, promising musicians, there lacked a community for these artists to interact or advertise themselves within. The duo’s initial goal was to make albums to showcase regional talent. Thanks to their efforts, the underground music scene in Dubai has grown exponentially, to the extent that many new companies have arose, making Dubai an attractive site for rookie musicians. Currently, the two have moved on to focusing on fostering the raw talent of younger, teenage musicians.
