Annabelle Mander on Taking LEAP Beyond Saudi Arabia

Five years on, LEAP no longer measures itself against Riyadh alone. The technology platform began as a Saudi gathering and has grown into something with international reach, according to Annabelle Mander, Executive Vice President at Tahaluf and Co-creator of LEAP.

Speaking with Entrepreneur Middle East at LEAP 2026 in Riyadh, Mander said size is not the yardstick she uses. More than US$15 billion in contracts had been announced around the event at the time of the interview. Global technology companies, investors, founders and policymakers were there, and Saudi Arabia's standing within the international technology ecosystem has risen considerably.

None of that tells her whether the platform worked. The question she asks instead is what follows the four days in Riyadh.

Tracking what happens after the halls close

Mander's team watches outcomes: partnerships formed, investments secured, contracts signed, introductions that turn into commercial relationships. That marks a shift in how large technology events are judged. Attendance shows reach. It does not show impact. The harder test is whether gathering thousands of people changes the trajectory of the companies, entrepreneurs and investors in the room.

LEAP has built its model around that distinction, following connections and business results well past the event itself so the team can see whether the platform generates economic activity rather than visibility alone.

A changing Saudi technology landscape

The approach has taken on more weight as the Kingdom's technology sector has matured. Saudi Arabia is no longer viewed only as a market for foreign technology firms. Global businesses now open offices, commit capital, form partnerships and build products and operations inside the country.

Mander has watched that shift happen alongside LEAP's own growth. The event's trajectory has tracked the wider ecosystem's development, and it has become a meeting point between international technology players and the companies, investors and institutions behind Saudi Arabia's digital ambitions.

The relationship runs both ways. Saudi Arabia's rising profile as a technology hub has lifted LEAP's international standing, and the platform has introduced global companies and investors to opportunities in the Kingdom.

What makes an event global

LEAP is now taking that proposition abroad, the next step for a brand built in Riyadh but shaped by conversations that stretch beyond it. For Mander, going global is not a matter of exporting a name into another geography. It depends on building communities, convening the right decision-makers and producing results that outlast the event.

Those relationships carry weight in an industry where major technology decisions are shaped by ecosystems rather than individual companies. AI, cloud infrastructure, venture capital, digital transformation and emerging technologies all rest on partnerships among governments, technology providers, startups, investors and enterprise customers. Platforms such as LEAP sit where those groups meet, compressing conversations that might otherwise take months into days.

The measure she returns to

Asked what she counts as the clearest sign of success after five years, Mander points somewhere else. Not contracts, attendance or international expansion. The team.

Running a platform at LEAP's scale takes hundreds of people working behind the scenes. Mander says one of the achievements she values most is a team that has stayed together, grown professionally and kept taking ownership of how the platform evolves. In a fast-moving events and technology business, retention is a measure in itself.

Sustainable growth, in her view, depends on people who understand how an event operates and why it exists. Five years in, LEAP is no longer only about bringing the global technology industry to Riyadh. It is about taking what was built there to the international stage.