Motivational self-help for mind, body and spirit – as long as you are willing to pay
- Mindvalley Live Dubai, a self-improvement festival, offers attendees from Hungary to Hong Kong two days of talks by personal development coaches – at a price
It is 9.45am on a February morning in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. The weather is sunny, cool – and thick with the energy of transformation. Or is it impatience?
It is 15 minutes before the opening ceremony of an extravaganza hosted by the world’s largest personal-development platform and attended by 2,000 people and, at the VIP registration counter, the printer is broken.
As the event’s PR agency reps try to corral journalists covering the event into one area to sign waivers and be escorted inside, clamouring VIP ticket holders – who have paid US$900 a pop for the privilege of upfront seating and after-party access as opposed to US$499 for the cheap seats – are desperate.
We have been waiting, they grumble.
The event’s opening ceremony is imminent, they plead. You are letting people in who were not even in the line, they chastise the reps. That would be us, the media.
This is Mindvalley Live Dubai, two days of talks, musical performances, a VIP party and satellite events nearby, hosted by local volunteers.
