First days

The first few days are full of conversations with people, some of a more official nature such as the HR manager discussing organisational things with me or Asda'a Burson-Marsteller's head of the region taking me through the company's credentials presentation. They really have an impressive list of clients (or, as they emphasize, great client relationships; a seemingly small difference - at first glance) and are doing extremely successful work. Just one that struck me in its simplicity: ever heard about the exact height of Dubai's Current Top Model, the Burj Dubai? It is quite possible you didn't. This is because Asda'a didn't want you too. In order to generate interest over a long period of time, these guys suggested keeping the height a secret until the building's official opening. It is said that media even contacted building companies outside Dubai involved in the project trying to find out... "It's creative if it works" is one of the guiding ideas on display in one of their conference rooms, all of them very quotable.

"Asda'a", by the way, is a very strong Arabic word and means "echos" - which is what the agency wants to achieve for their clients, and I'm being told this is a very strong positioning in the market.

People here in the office are extremely nice and open, the culture, it seems to me, is relaxed (that might be different in crisis mode, of course!) but with great determination and pride in quality work. So far, I don't notice much about strict hierarchies, at least within direct teams. Of course the leaders are very respected, as far as I can see not just for their position but for what they stand for and for what they do. The office leader, for instance, is widely viewed as a pioneer in PR and one of the outstanding people in this region's PR industry. On a different level, the head of regional operations truly gives you the impression of seeing "the world from above", with a long-term perspective and an acute sense of what the differences in the different local markets are on the Arabian Peninsula.

Regarding media, there is a range of print and TV that is very diverse - from Arabian language to English papers, business (the largest with a circulation of about 150,000) to yellow press, and from TV channels with soapy Bollywood productions to subtitled English movie channels or hard news programmes such as the famous news station Al Jazeera which has an English version that challenges BBC World News and CNN (both of which can be watched too, of course). As part of Dubai's strategy to become independent from oil (by the way, neighbouring Emirate Abu Dhabi with the federation's capital of the same name produces much more oil), Dubai has set up several dedicated development areas among them Dubai Media City, which has become the place to be for many regional and international media in the Gulf area.

Although the media appear to be free (funny enough, a government-owned paper is seen as one of the best), there is censorship to some degree: as we are still in Arabia even though you could easily forget that at times with the international flair here in Dubai, even a woman's nacked backside was made unrecognisable in a normal US movie; and apparently, you can't access certain internet services such as skype. Generating coverage appears to be relatively easy in some papers: while, as I was told, journalists see PR as something that stands between them and the true stories, they also recognise that PR gives them access to interesting people and information. Very often, media would print a press release almost word for word. Unusual in a foreigner's eye as well: there is a static information page in some TV channels telling religious people it's time for evening prayer - just when you hear the muezzin's call from outside (by the way, maybe I'm getting used to the morning call to prayer - at least I did not wake up this morning at 5 am, even though there is one mosque just opposite the hotel. And the loudspeakers in its spire really do a great job sending the muezzin's words out...)

As you may know, weekend here is Friday to Saturday. So this is the last day of work for this week. Over the next two days, I intend to start looking around the place. For starters, I'll meet up with a friend who lives in Dubai for more than two years now and we want to go to a nice bar next to the famous Burj Al Arab hotel.

So write to you on Sunday, if you wish. By the way: if you feel like it, leave a comment or a question, which I will try to answer. I'm also open for suggestions or interested in hearing about your experience around here. Bye for now!