The 2025 Cosmic Conference
The System
is the Strategy
How the most effective leaders shift
from firefighting to future-building.
15 September - 3 November
Most leaders are rewarded for solving problems: putting out fires, stepping in to fix what’s broken, jumping into the details. Eventually, they hit a wall. The same issues resurface: teams burn out, silos harden, decisions slow, and growth stalls.
Behind the chaos lies a deeper truth: the system is broken. This is the invisible inflection point, where leadership demands a shift: from heroic problem-solver to systems architect.
Whether they’re scaling a startup or steering a mature organization, the best leaders know that individual effort can’t fix a flawed system. Rather than managing the workload, they build systems that deliver even when they are not in the room.
This year’s conference is about making that shift. Through keynotes, workshops, and reflections, we’ll explore how to sense, influence, and redesign systems to build organizations for scale, clarity, and resilience at every level.
This is a Hybrid Event
Includes in-person sessions in Dubai, Riyadh, Beirut, as well as online sessions on LinkedIn Live.
What to Expect
Our conference brings together peers, mentors, leadership development, and subject matter experts to share insights and facilitate transformative experiences.
We will hold space for reflection, animate networking sessions, and equip leaders with tools and strategies to become
a systems architect.
Conference Program
Leaders' Circles
A half-day of growth and learning featuring keynotes, meaningful conversations, and embodied experiences designed to help leaders expand their perspective and lead through systems.
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Dubai | Friday, September 26
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Riyadh | Tuesday, September 30
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Abu Dhabi | Friday, October 3
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Virtual | Friday, October 10
Online Learning Sessions | Week of October 13
Online workshops and expert webinars. Open to the public.
Riyadh Masterclass | Tuesday, October 21*
An evening Masterclass where experts and leaders come together to share personal stories of how they moved beyond quick fixes
to build smarter, more resilient organizations.
UAE Leaders’ Offsite | Friday, October 31*
A half-day of growth and learning featuring keynotes, meaningful conversations, and embodied experiences to drive the shift from heroic leadership to systems design.
Online Conference Closing | Monday, November 3
Our annual virtual conference recap and reflection with Jose Santos, Affiliated Professor of Practice in Global Management at INSEAD
*These sessions are by invitation or referral.
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What to expect
Our conference brings together peers, mentors, leadership development, and subject matter experts to share insights and facilitate transformative experiences.
We will hold space for reflection, animate networking sessions, and equip leaders with tools and strategies to become a systems architect.
Exploring Systems
Thinking at 3 Levels
At the
leader’s level
At the leadership
team level
At the
organizational level
The most powerful systems are the least visible. You carry one within you, formed by years of habits, assumptions, and inherited ways of working. These inner mechanics shape how you show up, what you notice, and how you lead.
This level of the conference invites you to surface those patterns, examine the architecture beneath your instincts, and build the mindset and muscle to design systems, starting with your own.
When your inner system shifts, everything around you follows.
Some leadership teams operate like well-tuned engines; others grind under the weight of bottlenecks, repeated breakdowns, or competing priorities. The difference isn’t talent, it’s the system leaders operate in.
We’ll look to the patterns that shape the team’s effectiveness: how purpose is shared, how trust, psychological safety, and inclusion are built, and how effort, ideas, decisions, and collective performance flow.
When the system is tuned, the team’s collective capacity multiplies, unlocking performance.
As complexity rises, so does the cost of misalignment: strategies lose coherence, decision-making slows, and once-effective operating models struggle under new realities.
This is where leadership shifts from driving performance to designing the system that delivers it. We’ll explore how to shape an organization using our proprietary model, The Omnichannel Organization™ where people, process, structures, tools, and culture work in concert to deliver enduring results.
When the system works as one, the organization moves with clarity, coherence, and unstoppable momentum.
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Register
PREVIOUS EDITIONS
The Cosmic Conference Over the Years
Great leaders are holistic thinkers.
They recognize that managing in a complex world requires them to master their range, developing the ability to embrace seemingly opposing tensions.
The 2024 Edition of the Cosmic Conference brought leaders in Dubai, Riyadh, and online together to learn how to master these dualities alongside other leaders, experts, and coaches.
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You developed a strategy, now what? A strategy, no matter how brilliant it is, remains wishful thinking if not implemented properly. In fact, bringing the strategy to life is the toughest part because it requires alignment, action, and collaboration.
Join us and learn how to lead your organization to execute strategy with unparalleled precision, and turn plans into real-world victories.
Hybrid work comes with a big set of challenges. Organizations cannot risk having less productive workers and employees don’t want to miss out on creating meaningful connections with others.
With that in mind, we invited thought leaders, experts, academics, entrepreneurs and teams to join us for the 3-day virtual event and share their insights and experience.
The global pandemic catalysed a shift in the way individuals and organizations work. The widespread adoption of remote work has changed how we view the 'where' and 'how' of work.
We set out to help attendees navigate the remote work landscape, learn about its impact on organizations in the region, and how teams and leaders can adapt to our ‘new normal'.