Industry leaders from across the world will discuss the opportunities, challenges and benefits of being a host city at the third edition of Host Cities summit set to open tomorrow (November 26) in Dubai, UAE.

Presented by Emirates Airline, Falcon and Associates, Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing and SMG, the two-day Host Cities will be held at the Ritz-Carlton, JBR.

India will be a key focus at the event this year with the midday session on Day One putting a spotlight on the changing sport landscape in the country and asking the question “Is there more to sport in India than Cricket?”

The creators and original winners of “Million Dollar Arm”, the reality TV show invented by J B Bernstein and Ash Vasudaven to find a new baseball pitcher for the Major League Baseball in India, will be a highlight Q&A session for those who want to hear the story first-hand and to know more about their next project.

The two winners of the competition, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel beat more than 37,000 people to secure a move to America and become the first Indian citizens to play professionally in North America.

In Day One’s second session at 11am, the partnership between the UAE and the IPL will be discussed at length with David East, CEO, Emirates Cricket Board; Sundar Raman, CEO, Indian Premier League; Peter Griffiths, director of Operations, IMG (UK) and Maqbul Dudhia, general manager, Dubai Sports City.

Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the former head of the Fifa Technical Committee who is currently considering a run for Fifa President will be speaking as part of the “How To Win The Bid: Agenda 2020 and re-writing the rules of the game” session on the morning of Day Two.

Meanwhile, the daily sessions will provide workshops on all aspects of being a Host City including bidding, funding and community development. – TradeArabia News Service