World Family Office Forum Middle East

The World Family Office Forum Middle East is a private two-day meeting for business families and family offices across the GCC, run by Connect Group and held at the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach. The 2026 edition runs on 16 and 17 November. It is the Gulf counterpart to the same organiser's Hong Kong and Montreux forums.

Who attends

The organiser describes the room as leading business families and family offices from across the GCC, together with the advisers those families already work with. No attendance figures are published, which fits how the series is run: these are closed meetings rather than conferences competing on scale.

Advisers attend as part of the design, so this is not a principals-only peer group. The distinction is the same one Connect Group draws in Asia and Europe: commercial participation is not open to whoever wants to buy a place.

How access works

Attendance is by invitation. Anyone who has received a personal invitation is asked to reply to the person who approached them rather than registering online. Anyone else can write to Connect Group to express interest, but the organiser states that all attendance requests are assessed and depend on board approval.

There is no ticket to buy and no published price for any attendee category. That means the cost cannot be judged from the outside, and it also means there is no route in for a family with no existing connection other than to ask and be assessed.

What attendees get

Two days of knowledge sharing, thought leadership and scheduled networking aimed at families that own operating businesses as well as those that run an office around invested capital. A brochure is available from the organiser; the public site does not publish a full agenda in advance.

Dubai is a deliberate choice of location. It sits between GCC family capital, the international offices that have moved to the UAE, and the advisers who serve both. Families already on the Connect Group circuit in Europe or Asia will recognise the format; the Middle East edition is the one that gathers the regional families those other rooms only see in passing.