NEOM/The Line, the city of the future : Can « utopias » come true in the 21st century?

around Giles Pendleton, COO of The Line (NEOM, Saudi Arabia)

Let’s take a break from our certainties on the future by joining an unusual voyage into the future seen from the Middle East!

The technological and geopolitical changes experienced in the past 20 years are enabling Saudi Arabia to invent from scratch a city of lights like Baron Haussmann invented Paris at the end of the XIXth century. To do so, not only money but a precise understanding of the future is required.

What kind of future is NEOM serving – society-, politics-, economy-wise… ?  What does it want to look like in the end ? What changes is it expected to further produce ? Could it fall victim of its success ?…

The « En Thérapie de l’Avenir » conferences consider paramount to provide INSEEC students alternative visions on the future. The angle proposed to the world by Saudi Arabia via its project NEOM casts a highly original and innovative light on this future territory explored in our conferences.

It is therefore not only a great honour but a thrilling opportunity to host Giles Pendleton, Chief Operating Officer of The Line, ending with style the « En Thérapie de l’Avenir » cycle of conferences.

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Programme of the conference

7pm : Introduction to the problematic (and moderation), by Marie-Hélène Caillol, teacher at INSEEC and president of the Laboratoire européen d’Anticipation Politique (in English)

7.05 pm : Welcome words by Claire Souvigné, MsC director, INSEEC (in French)

7.15 pm : Keynote speech : « What does the future look like seen from NEOM ?» by Giles Pendleton, COO at The Line (in English)

7.30 pm : Discussion between Mr Pendleton and a panel of guests, professors and students

• With the kind participation of Samer Salem, Director of Innovation at Orange telecom; and Eric Castelnau, professor at INSEEC and former COO of Club Med
• And the active curiosity of the INSEEC students : Elie Asmar, Sarah Bagorha, Marie-Isabelle Deplanche, Sabah el Hadref, Amine Jabil, Lee Ching Lim, Ramzi Saba

8.30 pm : End of the conference

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A few words on Mr Pendleton (keynote) :                                                                                        

Giles Pendleton is an Australian / South African multiple industry award winning C-Suite property development professional with over 26 years experience in Australia, The Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa specialising in large mixed use masterplanned precincts, districts and cities driven by cognitive ,sustainable and human centric developments. A specialist in property sustainability strategy and ESG reporting his is originally from a construction background and he has spent most of his career in design, project ,development and Executive Management roles and have worked extensivly in private equity , REIT , development or income property fund structures and Government entities. He has a passion for good architecture and new urbanism with functionality at its core and has devoted himself to promoting sustainable and smart buildings in all the organisations he has worked in.

As a specialist in Sustainability Strategy , he has led ESG reporting and Scorecard improvements to a point of being ranked in the Top 30 ESG reports in Corporate South Africa including best property fund ESG report ( FTSE/ Russell ESG Index) for 3 years.

He is currently the Chief Operating Officer for THE LINE, a 170km Linear and net zero masterplanned vertical city in NEOM Saudi Arabia. He leads the master developer team implementing the real estate strategy in line with KSA Vision 2030 and NEOM’s development stratagies.