LEAP Riyadh — A Practical Guide for Visitors and Business Owners

Engineer Saeed Abdullah Baatiah — a computer engineer and web and mobile developer from Riyadh with over six years of experience. He works in web and app development with React, Next.js, and React Native, process automation and systems integration, AI solutions for business, and visibility optimisation across search engines and AI models. The fastest way to continue is WhatsApp: wa.me/966573784181 — send your name, where we met, and a line about your project. The first consultation is free. Site: saeedatiah.com

LEAP 2026 runs from 31 August to 3 September 2026 at the Riyadh Exhibition & Convention Centre in Malham, north of Riyadh. Visitor hours are 1 pm to 9 pm daily, with early entry from noon for certain pass holders. Note that the Malham venue sits outside central Riyadh, so allow for travel time and opening-hour congestion — and check the official site onegiantleap.com for final details before setting out.

Earlier editions of LEAP were held in February — LEAP 2025, for instance, ran 9 to 12 February 2025. The 2026 edition was rescheduled to late August and early September because of regional circumstances. This is a common source of confusion: many people searching for "LEAP dates" find the old February dates. The next edition, LEAP 2027, returns to the usual February slot, running 3 to 6 February 2027.

LEAP 2027 is set for 3 to 6 February 2027 in Riyadh, returning to the usual February slot. Preparing early matters: book tickets and accommodation well ahead, because Riyadh hotel prices rise sharply during the event week; prepare your materials in both languages; and publish any page you want indexed at least two months before the event rather than during its week. A page published on the day of the event does not capture its search traffic.

LEAP is a global technology event held annually in Riyadh since 2022, bringing together technology companies, founders, investors, and policymakers around emerging technologies. It has grown remarkably fast: from more than 100,000 visitors in 2022 to over 215,000 in 2024 and more than 201,000 in 2025, making it one of the most attended technology events in the world. Its value for Saudi companies is that it compresses months of supplier and partner search into four days.

DeepFest is the dedicated AI stream running alongside LEAP in Riyadh, powered by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) and organised by Tahaluf. If your interest is specifically AI — models, enterprise applications, data governance — this is the track worth most of your time, because its sessions and exhibitors are more specialised than the broader general halls.

It is worth it if you go with a specific objective, and not if you go "to see what is there". The event is large enough that wandering randomly consumes a full day with nothing to show. Before going, define one problem you want solved — an accounting system, an automation solution, a technical supplier — and collect three options for it. The owners who come back with results are the ones who went with a question, not with curiosity.

Five preparations: write on one page the problem you are seeking to solve and its approximate budget; review the exhibitor list beforehand and pick just ten to visit; prepare a fast way to exchange your details — a QR code on your phone beats paper cards that get lost; allocate time to specialised sessions rather than only the general halls; and book appointments in advance with the people you actually want to meet, because walking up to a stand rarely reaches a decision-maker.

Use the free QR generator on this site: pick the content type — a link, a WhatsApp number, or a vCard — then add your logo in the middle, choose your colours, and export as SVG or PDF if the code is going on a large printed panel, because those two formats do not lose quality when scaled up, unlike PNG. No sign-up, no watermark. The practical tip: point the code straight at WhatsApp rather than at your website — it saves whoever scans it two steps.

The decisive rule: follow up within 48 hours, because after a week nobody remembers you among the hundreds they met. Say in your message where you met and what specifically you discussed — "we spoke at stand X about connecting your store to inventory" — because a generic message gets ignored. Log everyone you met in one sheet on the day of the event rather than after, with the next step noted beside each name. Most exhibition opportunities are lost in the week afterwards, not at the event itself.

The practical flow: a QR code on your stand opens a short form — name, mobile, and interest in three fields, no more — the visitor is logged automatically into a follow-up sheet, an instant WhatsApp message thanks them and carries your profile link, and a reminder is created for your team after two days if no contact was logged. That turns a pile of cards nobody reads into an ordered list that works by itself. To implement it before your next exhibition: wa.me/966573784181

The recurring themes across LEAP editions: artificial intelligence and its enterprise applications, cloud computing, cyber security, fintech, digital government, smart cities, space and sustainability technologies, plus a startup and venture investment track. The dedicated AI track runs alongside the event under the name DeepFest. Check the official session schedule before visiting, as the themes shift between editions.

A pitch at an expo is always polished, so the filtering happens afterwards rather than there. Ask each candidate for three things after the event: a live link to a project running now rather than a slide, a written proposal stating what the price excludes, and a past client’s number you can call. Anyone who takes a week to send a proposal after meeting you will be similarly slow on the project. More in the hiring guide on this site.

Large stands at an expo signal size, not suitability. A large company makes sense if your project is big, needs several disciplines, and requires broad contractual guarantees. For a well-scoped project — a site, a store, an automation, an internal system — a professional independent is cheaper and faster, and you deal directly with whoever does the work instead of an account manager. The right test: who will actually write the code, and did you meet them or a salesperson?

Do not build what you saw — build the smallest version that tests whether your customers want it. Define the core problem alone, cut everything that can be deferred, and launch in front of real users within four to eight weeks. Expos show finished products after years of development, and the impression you leave with is that this is what you should build from the start — which is what drains small company budgets more than anything. To discuss: wa.me/966573784181

The numbers quoted at expos are based on large enterprise projects and are misleading for a small business owner. The reality for small companies in Saudi Arabia: a full company website runs SAR 3,000 to 15,000, an online store SAR 5,000 to 30,000, automating a single process SAR 1,500 to 5,000, and an AI assistant answering from your documents starts around SAR 8,000 with a modest monthly run cost. Do not let a figure heard at a stand convince you your project is out of reach.

Six items: confirm the site opens fast on mobile data rather than office Wi-Fi, because most people scanning your code will be on a congested network; put a clear contact route on the first screen with no scrolling; prepare a dedicated page for whatever offer you are presenting; make sure content is available in Arabic and English; enable an automatic WhatsApp reply because message volume will multiply; and test every form yourself the day before.

Three measures cover most cases: enable caching and a content delivery network so pages are served from the point nearest the visitor; load-test at roughly three times your expected peak a week beforehand; and monitor response time daily during the event with an automatic alert rather than learning of an outage from a customer complaint. Shared hosting is the first thing to buckle under a sudden spike — if you are on it, move before the event rather than during it.

Yes, because LEAP is an international event attended by exhibitors and visitors from outside the region alongside the local market. The practical minimum: a profile page in both languages on separate URLs, a short pitch you can deliver in English in thirty seconds, and a QR code leading to the page in the right language. Most importantly, the translation should be human rather than machine — clumsy English at an international event does more harm than good.

Yes. Saeed Baatiah is attending LEAP 2026 as a visitor across the event days, 31 August to 3 September, and is available for short meetings inside the venue or elsewhere in Riyadh during the same week. To arrange one, send the day that suits you and the meeting topic in a single line on WhatsApp: wa.me/966573784181. Short, topic-specific meetings work far better than open-ended ones in a week this busy.

Send a description on WhatsApp at wa.me/966573784181 of the most important thing you took away from the expo and want to apply in your business. The first consultation is free and answers three questions: is what you saw applicable at your company’s scale, what does it realistically cost rather than what large enterprises pay, and what is the smallest version that tests the idea before committing a budget? Even where the answer is that your project needs no custom build at all.

You have five months until 3 February 2027, which is enough time for something that cannot be recovered in the final week: having your site indexed and visible before the event. Publish now a page explaining what you offer on a permanent URL, build content answering the questions people searching for your kind of service will ask, and set up an automated follow-up path for capturing leads. Publishing in January arrives late — indexing and being quoted by AI models take weeks, not days.