Dow Jones has announced a multi-year partnership to expand WSJ Tech Live, bringing the flagship event to Qatar next year.
Speaking at this year’s event in Laguna Beach, California, Sheikh Jassim bin Mansour bin Jabor Al Thani, Director of Qatar’s Government Communications Office, and Almar Latour, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and CEO of Dow Jones, revealed that the WSJ Tech Live Qatar will launch in late 2025 and run annually for five years.
This marks the first time WSJ’s invitation-only conference will be held in the Middle East. The conference aims to bring together an audience of over 200 C-suite executives, investors, innovative startups and influential venture capitalists from across the world.
Dow Jones will continue to operate WSJ Tech Live annually in California while adding WSJ Tech Live Qatar to the calendar starting in December 2025.
Sheikh Jassim bin Mansour noted that the conference aligns with Qatar’s goal of becoming a global hub for technology and innovation, as set out in the Third National Development Strategy and Qatar National Vision 2030.
“Hosting WSJ Tech Live marks another significant step in the growth of Qatar’s technology ecosystem,” said Sheikh Jassim bin Mansour. “When the world’s top tech leaders gather in Qatar, it will create an unparalleled opportunity to benefit from their diverse expertise, insights and global networks. This will inspire local talent, attract international investment, and create avenues for strategic global partnerships that propel our development journey forward.”
“Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal deliver reliable journalism, data, and analytics to business professionals worldwide, and to do so we must reflect the entire global business community,” said Latour. “With the MENA region’s growth and increased role in tech–especially at the intersection of AI and the energy sector–we are delighted to be partnering with Qatar.”
Now in its 11th year, WSJ Tech Live gathers top figures in technology from sectors including entertainment, robotics, AI, and science. This year’s event marked its most successful to date, with record sponsorship revenue. Discussions ranged from the global impact of generative AI and the future of brain-computer interfaces to the outlook for startup investments, fostering new tech talent, and how the upcoming U.S. election could shape the industry.
WSJ Tech Live will join a series of global events hosted in Qatar, including the FIFA World Cup™, Web Summit Qatar, Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix, and Doha Forum.
The event also aims to build on Dow Jones’s existing presence in MENA, which it claims serves as an important hub for reporting from The Wall Street Journal, and is home to key sales and services functions.