The opening of the brand new Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) in the UAE capital city has been receiving attention around the world.  In addition to extensive coverage in the Middle East, the opening of ADNEC has been covered by the media in North America; Europe; Asia and Africa, where newspapers and websites have picked up the story.

Three factors appear to have contributed to the major news coverage: the opening of a state-of-the-art new venue in Abu Dhabi, the fact that it was constructed in a just eight months, making it what is thought to be the fastest constructed building of its type anywhere in the world and the hosting of ADNEC’s inaugural event IDEX 2007, one of the world’s largest and most prestigious defence exhibitions.

Similar coverage continued in Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Japan and many more countries around the world.  Meanwhile, the number of visitors logging onto ADNEC’s website, www.adnec.ae, has increased by more than 100% during the week commencing February 18th.

ADNEC Chief Executive Simon Horgan said: ‘I’m delighted that the opening of Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre has received so much exposure internationally as one of the primary objectives for ADNEC is to raise the profile of Abu Dhabi internationally by attracting some of the highest profile events in the world.  Our new venue greets people with the message “Abu Dhabi Welcomes the World”; I’m thrilled that the world has been watching.’

ADNEC will soon begin Phase 2 of its construction programme.  This includes the completion of the exhibition centre which will make it one of the largest purpose built exhibition venues in the Middle East, with an exhibition floor space of 55,000sqm and the construction of the Feature Tower.

© 2007 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)