Tahaluf's Richard McKeon On LEAP's Formula For Success
"We set the bar very very high for ourselves, but as a leader, I think what's important is creating that vision for what we want to achieve."
Given how LEAP has broken records yet again with its 2025 installment in Saudi Arabia, here’s a question that we at Inc. Arabia are pondering about: what goes on behind the scenes to get a gathering of this nature – billed as “the world’s most attended tech event” – off the ground?
This question formed the basis of our chat with Richard McKeon, vice president of marketing and communications at Tahaluf, the Saudi Arabia-based organizer of LEAP, who gave us an insider view into the work that happens to make an event of this scale happen.
"I think what a lot of people do is they look at their competitors and they try to be better, but we, as a team, never took that approach," McKeon told us, on the sidelines of LEAP 2025. "We looked at the individuals that we were trying to speak to, we [looked] at the exhibitors, we [looked] at the speakers and the sponsors and everyone that we wanted present at LEAP, and we looked at the language they were using. And we shaped our brand, we shaped our messaging and positioning around what they were communicating in the market."
According to McKeon, he and his team have, from day one, focused on content as LEAP's unique value proposition, which, in turn, has largely driven its success as an event. "We set the bar very, very high for ourselves, but as a leader, I think what's important is creating that vision for what we want to achieve," he said. "For us, what was best was not better than our competitors, it was like what is brilliant in the market, and what speaks to our audience."
Check out more of McKeon's insights by watching the full video!
