Muntada serves as an innovative platform for sharing new ideas that stimulate creative thinking, learning and active discussions. It is through presenting enriching and locally relevant topics that Muntada aims to inform, update and empower the local community.

The vision of Muntada is to unlock the potential of the UAE people by showcasing innovative thinking and the world’s best practices around important themes, trending topics and issues of strategic importance to the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation. Muntada does this through a speaker series. Muntada is inspired by the traditional Majlis, the Arabic term meaning “a place of gathering” where guests are received with hospitality and where rich discussion and exchange of ideas occur. It also draws on oral storytelling traditions deeply rooted in Emirati society.

Though we are fortunate in the UAE to host a number of international events, exhibitions and seminars, these are not always widely accessible. The connectivity of the digital age now allows content to be widely distributed everywhere and anytime. Muntada is therefore an opportunity to disseminate and reach a wider audience by recording the speakers and distributing the talks online both in Arabic and in English.

The Muntada program has the following objectives:

• To align selected topics with the community’s and country’s interests.
• To foster critical thinking and inspire audiences to think, debate and take positive action within their communities.
• To fulfill the role of the Foundation as a convener around innovative ideas.
• To offer original programming that is an alternative to the mainstream and commercial conferences in the UAE.
• To create a bilingual video archive of innovative and inspiring content.

Muntada Talks Archive

To access all of the previous Muntada talks, please click here.