Fast Company Middle East bets on Dubai's investor crowd
A four-course dinner aims to turn Dubai Future Week's investor traffic into deal flow
Fast Company Middle East is betting that Dubai Future Week’s crowd of founders and investors is worth catering to, literally. The publication is bringing its Taste of Innovation series to Dubai for the first time this November, positioning the event as a gathering point for the region’s innovation economy during a week expected to draw more than 10,000 people. The event, part of a series usually staged during the company’s annual Innovation Festival in New York City, will run at Jun’s in Downtown Dubai on November 19 from 6:30 PM to 10 PM.
The commercial logic is straightforward. Dubai Future Week, organised by the Dubai Future Foundation from 18 to 21 November 2026, is expected to pull attendees across Emirates Towers and the Museum of the Future. For operators and investors watching the region, that concentration of decision-makers under one theme, “For the Human of the Future,” represents a market in itself. Taste of Innovation is designed to plug directly into it.
Rather than confining discussion of the future to conference stages, the experience invites guests to encounter emerging ideas through taste, conversation, and experimentation. The kitchen, the organisers suggest, has become a testing ground for how technology and science could reshape one of the most established industries: food. The menu will explore both possibilities on Earth and what people might need beyond our planet, an angle inspired by the UAE’s vision for the future.
The talent attached carries its own weight. The experience is being created with chef Kelvin Cheung, chef and partner at Jun’s, a MasterChef Asia judge, and a Fast Company Middle East Most Creative People in Business honoree. Cheung will design a four-course menu, each course a different interpretation of an idea about the future. The evening is also intended to challenge traditional notions of creativity and authorship, asking who or what can help create a dish as technology becomes an integral part of the creative process. That question has direct implications for how creative industries think about ownership and value.
Meanwhile, the pitch to the investors and policymakers expected in the room goes beyond the plate. Organisers describe the event as a place to share ideas, explore new possibilities, and discuss the questions shaping the future of business and society. Food, in this framing, serves as the medium through which capital and ideas meet.
The event is hosted by Fast Company Middle East and Dubai Future Week. Further details are available at https://fastcompanyme.com/news/fast-company-middle-east-to-launch-taste-of-innovation-during-dubai-future-week/, and the broader programme promises to examine how people will live, think, innovate, feel, and do business in the decades ahead. Whether a four-course dinner can convert a week of conference traffic into lasting deal flow is a question investors in the room will be watching.
Q&A
When and where is the Taste of Innovation event taking place?
It runs at Jun's in Downtown Dubai on November 19 from 6:30 PM to 10 PM, timed to Dubai Future Week.
Who is creating the dining experience?
Chef Kelvin Cheung, chef and partner at Jun's, a MasterChef Asia judge, and a Fast Company Middle East Most Creative People in Business honoree, is designing a four-course menu where each course interprets an idea about the future.
What is the expected audience and scale of Dubai Future Week?
Organised by the Dubai Future Foundation from 18 to 21 November 2026, the week is expected to draw more than 10,000 people across Emirates Towers and the Museum of the Future under the theme 'For the Human of the Future.'
What is the commercial logic behind the event?
The publication sees the concentration of founders, investors, and policymakers as a market in itself, using food as a medium through which capital and ideas meet, with the goal of converting conference traffic into deal flow.