Investing in the Platform

Along with cupcakes and the t-shirt making business, another fast trend is being picked up in Dubai – the business of creative hubs. It is no secret that ever since digital platforms have come to life, social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram gave communities a home. It was only a matter of time before physical platforms arose to serve a similar purpose for users of our digital community.

Reoccurring events like TEDx and Pecha Kucha do a wonderful job of gathering and bringing creatives together for one night in a spontaneous, efficient and fun way. Recently initiatives such as Nuqat in Kuwait and Behance Portfolio Reviews in Saudi Arabia have been actively gathering creatives to showcase art and design as well as deliver educational conferences and seminars.

But there is no substitute for a physical space, open 24/7, with doors wide open that invite and welcome creatives to spend time with each other at their own pace and convenience. It is through physical space that creatives are able to meet, network, and most importantly collaborate.

Over the past few years, a dynamic duo made up of twin brothers Ahmed and Rashid Shabib have been on a mission to create and build creative hubs all over the UAE offering an alternative solution to eating, drinking, and clubbing. At their first space Shelter, a warehouse space at the Serkal Avenue in the industrial Al Qouz, you can work hours on end having cup after cup of coffee inside the house sculpture built inside the warehouse space. The only disadvantage of Shelter is its location, which a visitor always gets lost attempting to find it, and its lack of natural light. Its advantages being the comfy couches, and privacy, which allows students especially in architecture to work hours into the night without being distracted. This after spending hours in can be depressing and claustrophobic. The newly opened Pavilion, is more like Shelter’s younger hotter sister, with its prime location right behind Burj Khalfia, the space is vast, with loads of natural light. Build from the ground up it’s space’s aim is very much like Shelter.

The Pavilion is a hub with an outdoor garden and fountain, gallery spaces, an indoor screening room, cafe, and plenty of space for outdoor sculpture, its advantage is its vast area, cool, comfortable furniture. It’s a great place to meet friends or attend events.

But recently on a short trip to Dubai, I found the right hub for me. Make Business Hub is a concept space created by Leith Matthews that is on the first floor of Al Fattan Tower and with a short walk from JBR, the place is wholesome and laid back, dressed in wooden benches, a bar with funky stools, pods for working in private, and inspirational illustrative quotes drawn on walls. Selling local magazines like WTD, serving sliders, and coffee served in cups from Copenhagen, the place is comfortable enough to make you feel like you are at home. It’s designed to showcase artwork, events, seminars, and lectures in a cozy way.

Bahrain is yet to have a hub like Dubai, with the majority of investors not understanding the value of a space that caters for the creative or entrepreneur if it does not make money, and most of these initiatives bank on sponsorships and donors so for me as a local it is a tad frustrating I have to make the journey to the UAE to experience such an atmosphere but I hope that it will come, and if it does, I hope our creatives come out of the shadows and into the light.