What does it take to become one of the Middle East’s most trusted voices in tech and public relations? In this exclusive Dubai AI Festival episode of Below the Fold, we sit down with Shadi Dawi—PR Maven, Content Architect, and Dubai’s #2 Tech Influencer for 2025. Shadi opens up about his unconventional journey from hospitality to the global stage, blending strategic storytelling, emotional intelligence, and AI innovation. We explore how his poet mother shaped his communication style, why authenticity still wins in a data-driven world, and what’s next for media in the MENA region.
In this episode:
Guest spotlight: Shadi Dawi
Whether you're a brand builder, strategist, creative, or curious mind in the UAE or the wider Arab world—this one’s for you.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 – Welcome to Below the Fold
00:55 – Special Edition: Dubai AI Festival 2025
01:15 – Meet Shadi Dawi: Influence, Innovation, and Intention
02:56 – From Hospitality to Global PR Leader
06:06 – Emotions in AI and the Business of Storytelling
09:12 – Lifelong Learning in a Fast-Changing Industry
17:39 – Dubai AI Festival Preview: Tech, Talk, and Transformation
23:45 – Final Reflections from Shadi
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You are watching, below the Fold podcast, ~with~ your host, myself, Andreas Randi. today Marks a really special, special edition. [00:01:00] of the, podcast as we mark the, 2025 Dubai AI Festival. ~you are watching The Date With Tech Podcast in association with Recon, with your host, myself, Andre Frank. today Marks a special edition for date with tech, marking the launch of this year's 2025 Dubai AI Festival~ that is happening next week. we are joined today by somebody truly special. a man who sits at the intersection of influence, and innovation. Shadi Dwe. you're an award-winning journalist, global PR director, a man who was recognized as advise number two, tech influencer over 2025, A huge accolade.
you've hosted over 400 interviews with the region's Most powerful. you've launched 16 brands internationally. I understand. I've done my research. Yeah. That's good. And, you were the first graduate in the AI journalism and Metaverse Media. which is a really exciting. And you sit behind as the kind of guiding force or a key force, behind the biggest tech events here in the region, from the AI and Web3, Festival of old the di Dubai FinTech Summit Hoddle and others.
And you're not stopping anytime soon. Clearly. Shay, Welcome. It's great to have you here. Thank you. Thank you for [00:02:00] the introduction. ~my, ~my,
pleasure. before we get into, The questions that I have today that we've this, put together for you, because I think you're a really interesting, interview.
I'd like to understand a little bit about you as the, man behind you. What drives you? ~ ~who are you when the camera stops rolling and the press coverage fades?
it's,
nice to be with you, Andreas, and, I'm, just a normal man, normal person who, has an ambition and who Things that, impossible is possible.
And, genuinely speaking, I learned this here from,
leadership
of UAE, especially Sheikh Mohammad Raad. He's a real
a real
mentor when it comes to, making impossible possible. And I think if you, if you have, as we say, if you have the will, you will find the way So a hundred percent. ~ ~I started actually my, [00:03:00] I, started my career in hospitality.
that's probably something that most people don't know or many people don't know.
but in the last 10 years, I made this probably what we call, career switch or change, because I had something, when I was at, 18 years old, and this is something probably, that I say it for the first time. I wanted to, do media.
Then my dad,
do you know that time, we were much influenced by, parents, of course,
the decisions,
directions, recommendations. So he said, no. What do you wanna do? You wanna become a journalist. Don't you see around here, the journalist, they don't have jobs. They don't have good salaries.
No, you shouldn't do this. You should go. And, Lebanon was very well, it's very well known, not was still for, [00:04:00] for its hospitality.
The many Lebanese are in the front line of hospitality. They're all CEOs and GMs all over the world, not only here. So that's why my dad has also that since that time, he wanted me to, to, study, hospitality management.
So, I went there. I studied, I didn't want to let him down. And, ~ ~
and
I did good
then in my career. that, that small thing, that that passion was still inside of me. So even when I was working in the hospitality, wherever I go, you will see me going, talking to media, to, to people, trying to, And what inspired me also is my mom, God bless her soul. My mom passed away in 2008 and, that she left a big mark. she was, she was a poet. She had three books and, [00:05:00] she's actually, she ignited this passion more and more because I still recall when I. was studying in university, she used to call me always to, to sit and listen.
For example, this ex poet comes to our house, than another writer comes to our house, and, even she had very good connections with the Minister of Culture. And
so
that particular,
phase
of my life, really stands behind this. until I, Sometimes you, the moment will come.
So when the moment came, if you ask me then when did you do, this change? So the moment came where I was in a company and when I,
had
the chance, we had a grand opening of a big place. And that time something happened and something came and said, Shadi, [00:06:00] this is the time, it's time to change. I. And, this is what I did.
It's amazing to see that you're such a human being at the heart of it, and you're working in such a complex and, highly sophisticated business world now. But it's, beautiful because I think ultimately it's something that truly defines you as a person and obviously the direction that you are going and that humility that you have.
It's one of the interesting things why I've loved got getting to know you these past weeks. Thank you. ~ ~so in the world of business then, What kind of person are you? Are you a communicator? Are you a creator, you a connector, or are you something completely different? Look, nobody is perfect. we all, we are, all good, at, certain aspects and, skills or caliber or traits.
But, and we, so wherever we are good at, we should maintain and, keep going. Wherever we need to improve, we should always, As I said at the start there's impossible is possible. [00:07:00]
for
me, yes, I think I am. it's not good to, for someone to talk about themself, but you ask, so I have to answer.
So I, think I'm a good communicator. I'm good at
understanding
people and listening to people. 'cause when I listen, I discover, I don't know my, my assessment and what I feel is when you listen to people. with your heart, not only your mind and, you feel what they say. It's not like just many people, they just listen to you and, and yeah.
And then the discussion keeps going. No. when you listen in your heart and soul, as we say, when you understand and, when you interact and show, interest and some emotions, I think People, People,
you
will be able to build [00:08:00] really genuine relationships and, people will, I don't wanna say they love you, but in a kind of, they would always like to sit with you and communicate with you and be with you.
So that's very, critical for the relationships.
we
all go out, meet and network and I'm sure you've heard like.
I
I don't like this guy. Yeah, of course. And happens all the time. and the other way around, reversely, oh, that guy is awesome.
this, is what I'm talking about.
So once you're there, so, communication is, yeah, of course, communication and understanding and of course, relationship networking, is, something that is very critical to what I'm doing. love is a very underrated, concept and principle in today's world. we flippantly throw it around, don't we?
We say that, I love [00:09:00] you, I love this, or I love that,
but actually do people actually come to the table and mean it. And I think this is something that I think that I'm really getting from you, that I think that is a core tenant of who you are as a.
person.
you're,
Interestingly, I noticed that you are going back to, education and you are studying to get a doctorate at the moment.
Yes. What inspired you? Is this something deeper? Is it's not just about knowledge. I think No, there must be something more to it. actually, I mentioned it a little bit and when I speak about my mom, I get a little bit emotional and which is, Oh, which is good. I'm happy with this, but we're in a podcast, but anyway, feel free to be yourself.
Don't, worry. I know. look, she, she always wanted me to, to study and to get, to be on the, to become a, PhD holder. Okay. yeah. And, she studied before she passed away. She, at the age of 50, [00:10:00] yeah. 51. She, went to university, and, she was studying, studying Arabic literature.
so
yeah,
hundred
percent she was behind. she, inspiration. Inspiration. And, this is one, one side, the other, thing which is also very important, Andrea, we, we graduated long time back, basically. All what we have learned has changed. We live today in the fast digital transformation, of course, age.
And things are changing like crazy around us. the AI revolution, you just made an introduction. We're about to hit Dubai AI festival. you need to update your information. You need to update your education, academic, and, all the tech technologies, and you need to stay up to date. So to do you need to.
That's why I thought it is it's a good time to, to do my PhD and doctorate or doctorate. [00:11:00] And when I started already, I've been there like for eight months and what I have seen is, is, really impressive. There's a lot of things which I didn't know and, I even when you talk about strategies, leadership,
when
we had the course of ai, one, 1 billion professor, came and gave us three days.
An amazing lecture. a course, we learned a lot of things, which was amazing. yeah, updating knowledge and education and or this, helps you a lot to, to always, stay ahead. It's about now staying ahead, and this, with and, now and at this time, if you are not ahead, if you don't think ahead, if you don't work hard to stay ahead, somebody else will come and will take your place.
but time don't wait for anyone doesn't wait. Interesting that you mentioned time, [00:12:00] actually, and thank you for telling me a little bit about that. And I think it's, I think everybody on the podcast will understand and relate to where you're coming from. I think it's a very beautiful, thing that you're doing this in as accolade to your mom and stuff like that.
somebody
sent me something recently. and It's really funny 'cause we, we've been in the business world for a while now and obviously sometimes you forget where we are as human beings and where we came from. And,
Wow.
the last time I was in a, history class, I was, 16 years old And I'm 40 years old at the moment. there's a big, there's a big time difference since that point. But somebody sent me something recently, it was really fascinating. And did you know the Big Bang happened 13 billion years ago? Right? Earth? I'm sorry for reciting some stats. No, It comes, to the point around Time Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago.
Okay. Life began 3.5 billion years ago. Dinosaurs were around 230 million years ago, and they were around for [00:13:00] 180 million years. Okay? The first emergence of humanity with home erectus was 2 million years ago. So you see how this timeline has gone from billions to 2 million. Homo sapiens. the evolution of primates US happened 200,000 years ago,
and
modern civilization is a few thousand years old.
AI is 10, almost even less years old. So in this world where we've taken tens of millions of years. In some cases, hundreds of millions of years of evolution to establish our consciousness, our language, our abilities as human beings to not only evolve, but survive and learn and grow and adapt.
it's taken that time in order for us to become these super computers that we are as human beings. So in a world now where
AI in that short space of time is [00:14:00] automating communication, a fundamental human trait, do you still think then that. human touch is critical as an enabler versus the AI being the enabler of language and conversation and ability in automating communication.
that, that's a very long and beautiful question. I'll answer you straightforward. yes, and definitely it's a yes. There's, I don't think anything will replace emotions. but I, what I said just now is as a small example, I'm sure there are many people who have. More examples and more interesting probably life stories to tell where they were impressed.
I don't really think that a machine will impress someone emotionally. Yes, they will impress us and the output and what you said and the evolution and the fast pace and
the
progress and the, advancements and so on. But, I think [00:15:00] also, Andreas, we still need, we, don't, you need, You don't need emotions. We, we need emotions. How, can you, how can we can, I can't imagine that emotions can be replaced under any reason. that, that's something that is, very, critical. so the answer is no.
We
still, we are in need for emotions. I think the,
There
is authority in authorship, right? I think the two words are hand in hand, and I think ultimately when you are reading a, a beautiful poem, like you say from your mother or from an Arabic script, or a beautiful piece of text that was written firsthand by that author,
hundreds
of years ago, it's very, different versus, a
predefined outcome from a large language model or a, A GPT.
And I think that you are right, and I think being able to put your heart down on [00:16:00] paper. And vocalize it as a human being is really the point of difference.
~Look~
~Please. ~So let me clarify something of so of course I can be well understood. please, we're talking here about the emotions part, but, definitely the AI and what's going on, and this is a necessity.
This is, a must. It's a need and, this is something that, we should all.
understand,
embrace and, be agile and resilient and do whatever it takes to, to adapt to it, to make proper use of it. That's why I said in, in the previous question, yes, if you don't update your knowledge, that's one of the reason actually, that made me decide to, do my PhD or doctorate and, I'm, in my thesis, I'm gonna focus on AI and content creation. So it'll be around this, about content creation and, and, the ai, landscape or using different [00:17:00] models of ai. technologies and what's going on, now, in all its verticals and, aspects, all technologies are important.
specifically talking about or precisely talking about ai. So I just want to make the small clarification. Yeah. And I think that's what's the interesting debate, isn't it? It's it's a, it is a tool in your toolbox, just like any other, a paintbrush or a pen or a pencil.
And
it
will allow us to be more creative, more inspirational, influential. But, it's it comes hand in hand with the human. embrace as like, to say, yeah, let's take a different direction. Now I wanna talk a bit more about the festival. Okay. I'm really excited about it this year. what surprises do people have in store for coming to visit?
You guys are front and center in the development of the project. The, attendee list, the guest list the speakers, the creation of the event itself. Can you give us a little bit of a excitement a kind of [00:18:00] precursor to the event of what we have? To expect, look, to, talk about the, event and what's gonna happen and what is waiting.
Everyone, we need a separate podcast, probably.
but I'll try to summarize it and, give an ~ ~a brief, summaries. So Dubai AI Festival, this is the second edition. it, it comes this year under, or it's part of Dubai AI Week.
Dubai AI
Festival probably is the biggest thing happening during the Dubai AI Week.
it is, if I want to call it the icon Iconic event, because it, brings, first of all the success and legacy of the first edition together. We're talking about six to 8,000 people expected to attend. we are talking about hundreds of speakers. We have More than hundred, investors, startups, association partner, and we have the world thought [00:19:00] leaders coming and we have ministers and, and of course this is under the directive of his highness, she Hamad
Russia.
Al Tu, minister of Defense, deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Ruler. I. and he's also the chairman of the executive council. And I'm sorry if I forget any. Title. this gives the event, a big boost. And, what what I want to say as well is that, at,
at
Tricon we give, a lot of importance and we focus a lot on the, panels and let me say the themes and the panel discussions and the topics that we choose.
Subsequently, we, we focus a lot on the speakers as well. That's why we have, we have a talented team behind and they really do a lot of hard work, [00:20:00] in, selecting the speakers, communicating with them, onboarding them, and, that this is, this is a core, advantage that I can say this is one of the competitive edges and competitive things that we do at Transcon, which probably very few other events, organizing companies, are doing.
so
yeah, so people can expect, exciting, topics and panels to see in the plenary stage. we have amazing media coverage. I I'm, the PR guy, so if I tell you we have the best, media, but, fairly speaking, you can go on the website, you can check. we've been, onboarding, the world, best,
media, whether it's international.
So we are one of the very few events. if, if I can say that,
[00:21:00] whom. where we have international media, we have regional media, and we have national media, and, I'm talking about partnerships. 'cause there are two types of media coverage or of media,
collaborations
that happens. usually in the events landscape.
You have either media partners
or
media that comes and partner with you. And then within this partnership or the scope of this partnership represents some deliverables and commitments from both sides. So we offer them media, some, commitments, and they offer us in return, some commitments. And of course, this doesn't happen so easy like this.
It requires a very,
it,
requires a negotiation and skills and you have to really make sure the media is convinced in what you offer them and also. You need to make sure like what they deliver and what they offer to us is relevant to the event. it can, have, a good [00:22:00] return and it can really, reflects, or, give out, give awareness and, helps us in driving weather traffic and, delegates and, make the event popular.
so yeah, this is the first type of media which are. Called Media Partners. That's why you see them that with titles all the time, ecosystem Media Partner, official Media Partner, AI and Tech and so on, The second part is the media that comes for coverage. So this media,
those
media entities or organizations they just come to cover, which is all again, still good.
Because they come, they do interviews and they, cover the event and sometimes they write some narrative or, articles about the event. so yeah, the media alignment is unique. We have a, we have, 50 media partner for this edition, [00:23:00] and we expect around another 50 media to come and do coverage.
basically I encourage and recommend everyone who did not register yet to register, to come really and visit. Dubai AI Festival. The second edition is in Medina, Humira, as and yes, anything else you wanna know about? No. I also heard that, date with tech will be there, in the live Studio podcast.
which is really exciting for all the people that can't attend, for whatever reason, to listen to some of the most influential speakers that are gonna be on your guest list. explaining where they see, the future of AI and how, what they're doing in order to inspire change and how they're helping to build Dubai.
As the central hub of ai, innovation globally. we are running out of time. it's been amazing talking to you, but I just wanna ask you one last question before we close. when people look back at your impact, so you started in hospitality, you've got a wealth of, [00:24:00] of influence and career, kind of stories.
You're clearly, an expert in the story in Storytelling in the region.
all the way up to being a journalist and now your work as a, as a tracon and the PR director. When you, when people look back and, think of Shay DOI one day Future, doctor Shay doi,
what
were you best known for and what would you want to be
known for?
~ ~
I'm a people person. straightforward. This is the key for any, for all the things you have mentioned. If you are a people person, you love people, you get,
I,
my, my motto and my, my, what I do if you want, is I'm trying always to add value to people's life. So my
priority, is, to help people, to live a trace.
Yes. And I think, whether by God, grace, or. Whatever, maybe it's the natural law of things, how it happened, [00:25:00] call it whatever you want. This comes back to you, so whatever you do comes back to you. So this is one driver and this is one of the key priorities.
number two, all what you said. So even hospitality, even,
maybe
here, a small hint, hospitality, helps a lot and helped me a lot, to soften my skills to, it Gives me a lot. I learned a lot of soft skills, and communication. I improved a lot and on communication because you meet different types of people from, I met in my life, ministers, prime ministers, and I met ambassadors and I met and I used to go to there. home. And we, that's why I told you if you are a people person.
some people. they have, for example, an objective to meet an a very high level person. Let me not mention, designations. the mistake that happen is [00:26:00] when they, when they meet and talk or network, probably, the discussion and the communication,
is
focused on business side or one, probably,
on
another side, which is not related to.
relationships. That's why when you build real relationships with people later on, business will come and everything else,
will
come.
last
word I wanna say is it is important to to have different skills and caliber when you are in the PR and comms.
industry,
especially if you add to it the government relations, you need to have, you need to process certain.
skills
and improve them, and I'm still improving on, many aspects. So, yeah, that's, basically what it is. Absolutely [00:27:00] phenomenal. ~ ~this
has been below the fold podcast, in association with the Launch Foundry.
~this has been a date with tech broadcast, ~the Dubai AI Festival 2025 Special edition.
Shay has been an absolute honor to host you today. Thank you. I've only known you for a short while, and I can genuinely say, and I'm sure our listeners will also agree. you're a guy who leads from the front, Leads with heart, leads with passion, and has great determination for success and change. A friend of mine once said, and a mentor.
He said, remember those most who move the room, not just the market. And personally, I will forever remember this hour we had together, as I thought truly move. So I just wanna say a big thank you for joining us today. And I look forward to speaking with you again and seeing where life takes you.
Andreas, thank you very much. I think this podcast was, amazing. we did not talk much probably in the, we need to do some other podcasts to talk more technical and about probably the r comms and what comes underneath. But I think it's amazing, great podcast because I. what [00:28:00] matters most is to reach people, hearts and people souls and, really, and all the great people, as you said.
they, when they go and you see them talking, yes, definitely they talk about, technologies or whatever, verticals or industries, but they are all, human beings. So if, you, notice, and they are very humble and, and the key to success, is being humble That's, something probably I, missed or I forgot to say, being humble and kind.
Believe me, everything will come to you. not will come to you. I have to work hard. Definitely But you will enjoy.
~ ~
navigating the success. Let me put it this way, thank you very much. And it was, thank you shouting so much Thank for having much. Anytime. Take care. Take care.