The Beirut Business Forum (BBF) has announced its inaugural edition, set to take place on April 8 and 9, 2026, at the Seaside Arena in Beirut. The new platform aims to reshape how leaders, innovators, and thinkers across the MENA region connect, collaborate, and envision the future of business and technology.
A New Platform For Regional Dialogue
Designed as an immersive and thought-led experience, the Beirut Business Forum moves beyond the traditional conference model. Through powerful conversations and perspective-shifting sessions, BBF invites participants to rethink established frameworks, interrogate the systems they operate within, and explore new pathways for meaningful impact across the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean.
Global and Regional Voices Convene
The inaugural edition features a distinguished lineup of influential figures from various fields. Speakers include Mo Gawdat, Bestselling Author and Co-Founder of Emma.Love; Marcelo Claure, CEO of Claure Group; Rola Dagher, Former Global Channel Chief at Dell Technologies; and Patrick Chalhoub, Executive Chairman of Chalhoub Group.
Also joining the roster are Rahaf Harfoush, Digital Anthropologist and New York Times Bestselling Author; Mohamed Hadid, Real Estate Developer; and Sanna Marin, Former Prime Minister of Finland, among other leaders shaping business, innovation, and culture.
Why Beirut, Why Now?
Choosing Beirut as the launchpad for the forum carries profound significance. The city, defined by its resilience, creativity, and cultural depth, provides an ideal backdrop for a gathering centered on reinvention and meaningful dialogue. Organizers state the choice is intentional, as Beirut stands at a pivotal moment where challenge meets possibility and complexity fuels innovation.
Founder Bassem El Jisr shares, “Beirut has always been a place where ideas are born, challenged and transformed. With the Beirut Business Forum, we want to create a platform that pushes leaders to think differently, act with intention and shape the region’s next chapter. This is not just a forum, it is a call to reimagine what leadership can be and how collective progress can look when courage, curiosity and collaboration meet.”
About Beirut Business Forum
The Beirut Business Forum (BBF) is a leadership platform hosted in Beirut that serves the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean, created to ignite bold thinking and future-focused dialogue. Rooted in the spirit of Beirut, a city known for its creativity and resilience, BBF brings together leaders, innovators, and creators to exchange ideas, challenge assumptions, and inspire transformative action. The forum is founded on a belief in the ongoing pursuit of learning, growth, and collective progress, championing visionary leadership and purposeful innovation.
Source: Zawya
