The advent of winter marks the start of the exhibitions and summits season in the Gulf, with officials, businesspeople and tourists from all over the world converging upon the region to connect, discuss, exchange and prosper.
The Gulf’s overall success today echoes that of Venice during the Middle Ages. And so, by examining the Italian city-state’s experience more closely, important lessons can be learnt about how to use commercial and diplomatic hyper-connectivity as leverage in the pursuit of world-leading innovation.
Venice during the 13th to 16th centuries lay at the intersection of the era’s major civilisations: Western and Central European powers through Alpine passes, the Mediterranean and Levant through secure maritime lanes and Byzantine (and later Ottoman) territories along the Eastern Mediterranean trade co
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