The collection in context
The posts document several phases of exploration, rather than one complete travel account. A solar-park visit was published in May 2023; from November 2023, encounters, learning environments and company visits become more concentrated. The later HarzForum post describes more than 15 weeks in Dubai, the UAE and Oman between November 2023 and June 2024. Publication dates are not always travel dates. Six Senses Zighy Bay is in Oman and is explicitly included here as a regional excursion.
Overall summary
The exploration begins with a shift from an image of a city to encounters with people and projects. The solar park and Desert Board turn attention toward long-term development and implementation. Desert Board offers a particularly clear learning sequence: an unexpected discovery, a deeper visit and a conversation with Kamal Farah about products, persistence and imagination.
Dubai Future Foundation and Paul Saffo open a second space: thinking about the future without simply extrapolating the past. The posts connect foresight with personal development, exponential change and questioning assumptions. A Theory U self-experiment brings this reflection into a movement from exploring to prototyping.
A third thread leads into business models. COP28, Sunreef, Archireef, 25hours, Six Senses and CommerCity show different connections between sustainability, operations, brands and ecosystems. These observations are not only technological. They repeatedly concern people, trust, shared values and translating possibilities into action together.
Encounters in 2024 add co-creation, supply chains and AI. They also reveal limits in real systems: posts after the heavy rainfall describe a flooded city and people working to make events possible nevertheless. This experience belongs alongside the visible momentum, not outside it.
The later application to the Harz brings the reflections into principles: work backward from the desired outcome, persist in development, take major changes seriously and begin without first resolving every uncertainty. The comparison asks about our own capacity to shape the future. It is not a recommendation to copy Dubai politically, socially or in urban planning.
My perspective today
For me, the strongest learning lies in connecting direction, encounter and implementation. An ambitious vision can open possibilities; it becomes workable through decisions, capabilities and responsibility. Translation into democratic practice is essential: participation, criticism, rights and independent scrutiny must not be traded against speed. Impressive individual examples do not replace an overall assessment of Dubai’s environmental and social record.
01 · Long-term direction and persistent innovation
The solar park and Desert Board form the opening. Repeated encounters with Desert Board develop an initial discovery into a deeper business question.
Dubai Innovation Centre: Learning at the solar park
A visit explores how long-term energy development connects technology testing with industrial implementation.
Original on LinkedIn
Desert Board: New possibilities from palm waste
A discovery in Dubai's Design District opens a perspective on circularity and sustainable business models.
Original on LinkedIn
Innovation takes persistence: Desert Board
A further Desert Board visit explores the long development journey behind a material made from palm residues.
Original on LinkedIn
Expo City: Conversations on sustainable urban development
An intense day in Dubai connects urban development, supply chains and hospitality with business encounters.
Original on LinkedIn
Desert Board: The limit is our imagination
A conversation with Kamal Farah explores persistence, product enthusiasm and innovation from palm residues.
Original on LinkedIn02 · Foresight, Theory U and co-creation
A seminar, self-experiment and conversations with Oliver Kreusen and Olga Bezukladova connect foresight with personal development and shared vision-building.
Future foresight: When learning changes how we think
Two days with Paul Saffo and Dubai Future Foundation connect foresight, innovation and exponential development.
Original on LinkedIn
Theory U in Dubai: From exploring to prototyping
A conversation at 25hours connects personal exploration, future thinking and sustainable hospitality.
Original on LinkedIn
Shared visions emerge through open exchange
An encounter with Oliver Kreusen of Bridgemaker Gulf explores shared future thinking and putting innovation into practice.
Original on LinkedIn
Finding your business tribe
A reunion with Olga Bezukladova connects innovation, sustainability and the importance of shared values.
Original on LinkedIn03 · COP28, ecosystems and new business models
COP28 encounters and CommerCity explore sustainability solutions, new products and the human side of ecosystems.
COP28: A new perspective on the sustainability economy
The start of a Dubai exploration reveals a diverse landscape of businesses, solutions and unresolved climate questions.
Original on LinkedIn
COP28: Marine protection and sustainable yachting
Encounters with Sooo. and Sunreef Yachts connect awareness, product development and sustainable business models.
Original on LinkedIn
Archireef: Regeneration as a business idea
A COP28 encounter explores ecosystem restoration as a starting point for business innovation.
Original on LinkedIn
Dubai CommerCity: An ecosystem needs people
A conversation with Mitch Bittermann explores why e-commerce infrastructure and community building belong together.
Original on LinkedIn04 · Hospitality in Dubai and the Oman excursion
A 25hours encounter in Dubai and three video episodes from Six Senses Zighy Bay in Oman explore sustainability in operations, brands and responsibility.
Six Senses Zighy Bay: Sustainability in operations
The first video episode explores history, circular practices and the limits of sustainable luxury hospitality in Oman.
Original on LinkedIn
Six Senses: Circularity as everyday practice
The second video episode explores reducing environmental impact through concrete operational decisions.
Original on LinkedIn
Why a resort protects sea turtles
A video episode with the Olive Ridley Project connects conservation with responsibility in a business model.
Original on LinkedIn
25hours Dubai: Sustainability becomes part of the brand
A conversation with Margo Stieg connects brand, operations, supply chains and the role of leadership.
Original on LinkedIn05 · Technology and encounters in a vulnerable city
The post-rain snapshot and Machines Can See reflection connect technological momentum with dependencies in a real urban system. They are not used to attribute the rainfall to a specific climate cause.
Dubai after heavy rain: Between conferences
A short snapshot of a city whose daily life and connections continue after historic rainfall.
Original on LinkedIn
Machines Can See: Learning and encounters despite flooding
A reflection on an AI summit at the Museum of the Future and the people who made it happen.
Original on LinkedIn06 · From travel insight to application in the Harz and in business
Later posts apply lessons to the region and to strategic sparring. They are reflection and application, not additional days of exploration.
What can the Harz learn from Dubai?
A HarzForumZukunft reflection connects travel observations with shared futures, persistence and local application.
Original on LinkedIn
DubaiStyle in the Harz: Shaping progress democratically
A personal reflection connects lessons from Dubai with local initiative and democratic responsibility.
Shared post; the linked original identifies the original source.Original on LinkedIn
Strategic sparring: Navigating with a nautical chart
How a view of trends and future scenarios can translate into decisions, responsibility and practical implementation.
Original on LinkedInQuestions for your own practice
- Which assumptions prevent us from seeing new possibilities?
- Where is our vision concrete enough to guide decisions today?
- Which people and capabilities can turn an idea into a testable next step?
- Which principles can travel—and which underlying conditions should not be adopted?
Sources and interpretation
This collection draws on personal travel observations and published conversations, not representative research on Dubai. Figures on company size, investment or climate impact remain historical source claims. Economic momentum does not erase political differences or human-rights questions in the UAE. The August 2026 article is a later application of foresight, not an additional travel report.
About the creation of this article
This article was created with the support of AI. I make this visible for transparency and do not see it as a contradiction of personal authorship.
What matters to me is not whether a first draft is produced with the help of a tool. What matters is who sets the direction, sharpens the ideas, leads the iterations, checks the wording and ultimately stands behind the content.
This text is therefore the result of briefings, iterations, professional interpretation and my own revision. In the end, I publish only what fits my thinking and what I personally stand behind.