Middle East Family Office Investment Summit

The Middle East Family Office Investment Summit is the oldest and largest of the regional summits run by Alea Global Group, a Kuwait-based conglomerate owned by a member of the Al Duaij family. The thirteenth edition takes place on 14 and 15 December 2026 at the Mandarin Oriental Downtown in Dubai. Alea says it has held more than 30 summits across five regions since the series began, and this December event is where it started.

Who attends

The organiser expects more than 100 family offices from across the Middle East and holds the room to a stated 70:30 ratio of family offices to service providers. Content is Gulf-specific: Saudi Arabia's transformation programme, Kuwait, the wider GCC and North Africa, with off-the-record sessions alongside the open panels. Because the host is itself a family office, the tone is closer to a peer gathering than to the sponsor-driven wealth events that dominate the Dubai calendar.

For a Gulf family office the 70:30 rule is the practical point. It admits enough managers and providers to make the investment content real, without letting them outnumber the families.

How access works

Registration is by application and, in the organiser's words, subject to Advisory Board approval and payment of an attendance fee. No fee is published, for families or for providers. Sponsorship runs in tiers named Turquoise and Jade plus general sponsors, and is the usual route for a firm that wants visibility beyond a delegate seat.

What attendees get

Two days of panels, presentations, roundtables and networking, with the agenda moderated by Alea's own team and speakers drawn from regional principals and international managers. The December slot places it after most of the year's other Gulf events, and it is often paired by international visitors with year-end meetings in the UAE.

Alea runs the same format elsewhere: the Europe Family Office Investment Summit in Rome, the LATAM Family Office Investment Summit in Mexico City, an APAC summit that rotates cities, an Africa summit and, from November 2026, a global gathering in London. Families based in Saudi Arabia can also look at Prestel & Partner's Riyadh forum, held two weeks earlier in December, which uses a stricter guest test and publishes its provider prices.