• New Alliance unites global thought-leaders, pioneers, and futurists to explore creation of ethical, economic, and technological principles for Metaverse and Web3 builders

Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – In line with its mission to empower entrepreneurs, ignite innovation, and progress into new worlds, LEAP23 – the world’s most visionary technology event – has launched the ground-breaking Alliance for Metaverse and Web3 Empowerment (AM3E).

The launch at LEAP23, which runs at Riyadh Front Exhibition & Conference Centre until February 9, united global companies and creators driving the next generation of digital experiences and creator economies across the Metaverse, as well as the architects of Web3 technology - the economic engine set to power the evolution of the Metaverse.

A year-round, global initiative intended to lead to genuine outcomes, AM3E’s core objective is to create a set of ethical, economic, and technological principles that digital builders can utilise to ensure their products and services represent a fair and safe space across the digital ecosystem. With the objective of producing qualified guidelines and industry-wide best practise to drive diversity, inclusion, and safety, AM3E will seek to identify, address, and resolve challenges which spawned from the evolution and devolution of the Web2 world.

Comprising pioneers, innovators, and industry champions, AM3E assembled renowned individuals, companies, and organisations accelerating the Metaverse for an inaugural two-hour executive roundtable at LEAP23. The founding AM3E working group explored how a unified set of core principles can best serve creators, builders, businesses, and users defining how the world interacts with the opportunity-laden cyberspace of the 21st century.

Chaired by Forbes Ignite’s CEO and founder Nicole Cacal and  Chief Strategy Officer William Thompson, the inaugural AM3E meeting featured His Excellency Dr. Munir M. Eldesouki, President of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, and Chairman of the Board of Directors at C4IR; Professor Jack McCauley, Innovator in Residence at UC Berkeley; renowned futurist and digital development evangelist Jane Thomason, Founder of the Global Meta Blockchain; Sebastien Borget, COO & Founder of The Sandbox – a decentralised Metaverse world; Subha Tatavarti, CTO at Wipro; Cevat Yerli, CEO of the TMRW Foundation; Daniel Diez, Chief Transformation Officer of Magic Leap; Harshul Asnani, SVP & Head of Enterprise Technology Business at Tech Mahindra; Sheila Lirio Marcelo, Co-Founder & CEO at Proof of Learn – a Web3 education platform; and Robby Yung, CEO of Animoca Brands - the Hong Kong-based game software company and venture capital company.

Michael Champion, Regional EVP of MEA at Informa Markets, which is powering LEAP23 in conjunction with Saudi’s Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MCIT) as part of Tahaluf – a strategic joint venture co-owned by Informa PLC and SAFCSP - added: “This landmark alliance underlines LEAP’s commitment to unveil and accelerate breakthrough products and ideas, and forge partnerships that will drive new worldwide collaborations leveraging technology’s limitless potential.

“The Metaverse represents an exciting, yet largely uncharted, new frontier in the potential of technology to unite people across the planet; the alliance will aim to navigate opportunities and pitfalls to create a roadmap for universally beneficial and positive creation and deployment principles across this game-changing technology. We look forward to issuing the Alliance’s first industry report later this year,” added Champion.

For more information, please visit https://www.onegiantleap.com

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About LEAP:

Saudi Arabia is putting itself at the forefront of emerging tech through large-scale adoption and ambitious pilot projects. Its ambition will be showcased on a global stage and the Kingdom will become a hub that connects three continents. LEAP is a manifestation of this ambition. A seismic event that accelerates the adoption of technology and transforms Saudi Arabia’s economy. Together with LEAP, the Kingdom will see mass tech adoption, a shift away from oil as the principal strategic economic resource, and instead become a regional hub for both traditional and emerging technology.

Saudi Arabia has an endless ambition to shoot for something beyond that thought possible, to achieve a significant impact from game-changing tech and globally disruptive projects and to always keep one eye on the stars.

About Tahaluf:

Headquartered in Riyadh, Tahaluf brings together strategically important commercial communities from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the wider Gulf region and from around the world at a portfolio of world class exhibitions and digital platforms.

Tahaluf is a joint venture partnership between the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP) and Informa PLC, the world’s largest tradeshow organiser.

Through 2023 and 2024 Tahaluf will build on its award-winning events LEAP (www.onegiantleap.com) and Black Hat Middle East (www.blackhatmea.com) to launch new, large scale business-to-business events. 

New Tahaluf events include the Artificial Intelligence event DeepFest (www.deepfest.com) 6-9 February 2023; food and hospitality show, Feast (www.Onegiantfeast.com) 24-26 October 2023; beauty industry festival Cosmoprof Middle East; international real estate show Cityscape Global (www.cityscapeglobal.com) 10-13 September 2023 and the Middle East edition of the leading pharma brand, CPHI Middle East (www.cphi.com) 15-17 January 2024.

For more information about Tahaluf, visit https://tahaluf.com.