TEI's region IX convenes in Dubai: EMEA and Asia chapters hold two-day conference in the UAE in January.

While most TEI members may have heard of Dubai from friends who have visited the location on holiday or business acquaintances that may have their hubs in Dubai as a gateway to the Middle East market, it represented uncharted territory for the Institute when the Region IX TEI Leadership Team decided to host its inaugural Region IX Tax Conference in the city. What is it about Dubai that attracted TEI to its shores in January 2011?

Dubai is situated on the Persian Gulf coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a population size of approximately 2.26 million. It is one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates, whose central culture revolves around the Islam religion and traditional Arab, and Bedouin, culture. In contrast, the city of Dubai is a highly cosmopolitan society with a diverse and vibrant culture. Upon landing in Dubai, a visitor experiences diversity immediately. During the short trip from the airport to a hotel, you could encounter nationals from faraway lands of India, Egypt, Africa, and Ireland (among others). Dubai is indeed an East-meets-West location (since 2006, the weekend has been Friday-Saturday, as a compromise between Friday's holiness to Muslims and the West-ern weekend of Saturday-Sunday), and hence was an apt location for Region IX's International Tax Conference.

Compared with TEI's other regions (seven in the United States and one in Canada), Region IX is the most far-flung and culturally (as well as economically) diverse. The leaders of the region were challenged in planning a program of relevance to members of the Institute's EMEA and Asia Chapters. So involved and time-consuming were the selection of the location and the topics that the plans for the conference took more than a year and hence involved the support and involvement of the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 Chapter Presidents, Leadership Team, and Regional Vice Presidents. (The EMEA Chapter, which acted as the host of the event--the ME in its name does stand for Middle East--took the lead.) Below are the key TEI Leaders involved in the organization of the event:

* Region IX Vice Presidents--Peter Taylor (2009-2010) and Sharon Tan (2010-2011)

* EMEA Chapter Presidents--Christer Bell (2009-2010) and Clive Baxter (2010-2011)

* Asia Chapter Presidents--Bill Thomson (2009-2010) and Anthony Fay (2010-2011)

* EMEA Chapter Education Committee--Lluis Fargas and Clarence Ellis

The Dubai event also represented EMEA Chapter's first concerted effort to expand...