UAE - In its short history, Dubai's Pro Audio & Light Middle East (PALME) exhibition has provided many companies with a platform on which to build, or boost, their business activities across the Middle East region.The UAE in particular is a much-hyped potential market, with staggering sums of foreign investment pouring into the ambitious development of tourism and business facilities (see L&SI March 2005). Dubai itself is now the UK's main export market in the whole of the Middle East, having shown a 93% growth in 2004, and a further 43% so far in 2005.Generally speaking, the companies who are benefiting most from this potential are those who had a business presence in the region prior to PALME's emergence in 2003; of the rest, those returning for their third, or at least second, PALME show are generally now beginning to see benefits. For others, there is a feeling that they may have missed the boat - or at least the early boat.
