Future World Forum Dubai Future Week 2026
Emirates Towers and the Museum of the Future, Dubai · Organized by Dubai Future Foundation
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- Dates
- Nov 18, 2026 – Nov 21, 2026
- Format
- In person
- Where
- Emirates Towers and the Museum of the Future, Dubai
- Organizer
- Dubai Future Foundation
Since we published
- The official site is up. Registration is open, the eight programme formats and 500 Future Minds are described, and the organiser counts about 75 events. Separately, the Museum of the Future, one of the two venues, has been closed to visitors since the beginning of September and plans to reopen in early 2027.
Dubai has spent several years running its futures events separately. From November it runs them as one week.
Dubai Future Week 2026 dates
18–21 November 2026, across Emirates Towers and the Museum of the Future, organised by the Dubai Future Foundation under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai. The Dubai Government Media Office announced it on 1 September 2026. The official site now describes the tracks and the formats, but as of 23 September 2026 it had published no day-by-day timetable and no named speakers.
How to register
Registration to attend is open through a form on the official site, dubaifutureweek.com. It asks for your name, nationality, country of residence, email, mobile number, organisation, job title and date of birth. No price appears on the form or anywhere else on the site as of 23 September 2026. Separate applications take would-be speakers and partners.
What it absorbs
The week folds in events that used to stand alone. The Dubai Future Forum, the foundation's gathering of futurists, policymakers, scientists and researchers, had announced its fifth edition for 17–18 November at the museum; its 2026 page now redirects to the week's site, and which of the four days are the forum's has not been published. Its 2025 edition drew 2,500 participants from 100 organisations, with around 150 speakers across some 70 sessions. Dubai AI Week held its second edition on its own, 6–9 April 2026. AI Grandmaster is now part of the week's competitions, the Prototypes for Humanity exhibition fills its prototype floor, and the annual AI Retreat sits in its policy room. The Dubai Foresight Awards and TED Talks are on the list too.
The five tracks
The programme is organised around people rather than technologies, under the line For the Human of the Future. Each track, with the subjects the organiser lists for it:
How We'll Live: future cities and urban design, smart and sustainable homes, mobility, climate resilience, public space. How We'll Think: AI, education, human–machine collaboration, ethics and trust in AI. How We'll Innovate: robotics, space, synthetic biology, quantum, deep-tech start-ups. How We'll Feel: longevity, mental health, food, health technology, sport. How We'll Do Business: money and finance, trade, the future of work, digital assets and fintech.
500 Future Minds
One strand has its own application. 500 Future Minds takes 100 each of teachers, frontline responders, urban planners and architects, finance professionals and homegrown entrepreneurs who work or run a business in Dubai. They meet behind closed doors for a two-hour session on each of two days in the week of 16 November, mostly in English. The application takes about ten minutes and asks for an Emirates ID and a CV. Decisions come by 1 November: if you have not heard by then, you were not accepted. Accepted applicants still have to register for the week itself.
Getting there
The two buildings are about 250 metres apart in a straight line, by the pins on the organiser's own map, both on the east side of Sheikh Zayed Road. Emirates Towers station on the Metro Red Line is connected to the Museum of the Future by a walkway.
The museum itself is closed
The Museum of the Future closed to visitors at the beginning of September 2026 and says it will reopen in the first quarter of 2027 with an entirely new exhibition. The week still lists the building as one of its two venues. Nothing published so far says the exhibition floors will be open to people attending, so do not count on seeing them.
The size
More than 10,000 participants and about 75 events by the organiser's count, across four stages that take speakers: the Big Stage, the Policy Room, the Pitch and the Offstage.
Two days after Future World Forum
Future World Forum Dubai, the one-day urban-technology conference this site follows, is on 16 November. It has a different organiser, Futur World Expo, sells paid tickets on Eventbrite and shares nothing with the week's programme. A visitor who flies in for one is in the city for the other.
Programme
- The Big Stage
- Headline keynotes, debates, the week's major announcements and its award ceremonies.
- The Prototype Floor
- Working prototypes from universities around the world, including the Dubai Future Solutions – Prototypes for Humanity exhibition, in AI, health and climate.
- The Pitch
- Founders pitch future-focused ventures on stage, judged live, with investors in the room.
- The Policy Room
- Closed-door roundtables for policymakers and experts, including the annual AI Retreat.
- The Challenge
- Live AI and robotics competitions with prizes, including AI Grandmaster.
- The Offstage
- Workshops, invite-only dinners, creator gatherings and closed roundtables away from the main stage.
- 500 Future Minds
- Closed-door sessions for 500 Dubai professionals, by application; see above.
- The District
- Immersive installations, family activities and food, which the organiser describes as open to the public all week.
Who it's for
- Government and policymakers
- Investors and venture capital
- Founders and start-ups
- Corporate innovation leaders
- Researchers and academics
- Media and creators
The consolidation is the story, and it changes how to plan a trip. Anyone who used to block separate dates for the Future Forum and AI Week now needs one window, and the week of 16 November holds more than this one: Future World Forum on the Monday, 500 Future Minds sessions within the same week, then the four days from Wednesday. The two buildings matter less than they sound: about 250 metres apart, with the Metro walkway between them. The track structure is a real signal rather than branding. Organising by "how we'll live" instead of by technology tends to produce cross-disciplinary panels, which is better for scanning a field and worse for depth in any one of them. For a PropTech reader, the track to target is How We'll Live, with How We'll Do Business for the tokenisation and digital-asset side. The one thing not to assume is a look inside the museum: it is closed to visitors until early 2027, venue or not.
Emirates Towers and the Museum of the Future on the map
Dubai Future Week 2026: questions
When is Dubai Future Week 2026?
From 18 to 21 November 2026, at Emirates Towers and the Museum of the Future in Dubai. As of 23 September 2026 no day-by-day timetable had been published.
How do I register for Dubai Future Week?
Through the form on the official site, dubaifutureweek.com. It asks for your name, nationality, residence, contact details, organisation, job title and date of birth. No price is shown on the site as of 23 September 2026.
Is Dubai Future Week open to the public?
Part of it is. The organiser describes the District, with its installations, family activities and food, as open to the public all week. Everything else goes through registration, and some of it is closed-door or by invitation: the Policy Room roundtables, the Offstage dinners and 500 Future Minds.
Is the Dubai Future Forum still happening in 2026?
Yes, as part of Dubai Future Week, 18–21 November. The Media Office lists it among the events the week absorbs, and the forum's own 2026 page now redirects to the week's site. The days within the week that belong to the forum have not been published.
Is the Museum of the Future open during Dubai Future Week?
The museum closed to visitors at the beginning of September 2026 and says it will reopen in the first quarter of 2027. It is still one of the week's two venues, but nothing published so far says its exhibitions will be open to people attending.
What is 500 Future Minds?
A closed-door strand for 500 professionals who work or run a business in Dubai: 100 each of teachers, frontline responders, urban planners and architects, finance professionals and homegrown entrepreneurs. It runs as a two-hour session on each of two days, with applications decided by 1 November 2026.
Is Dubai Future Week the same as Future World Forum Dubai?
No. Future World Forum Dubai is a one-day conference and expo on 16 November, organised by Futur World Expo and ticketed on Eventbrite. Dubai Future Week is the Dubai Future Foundation's four-day programme, which starts two days later.
Source: Dubai Future Week, the organiser's official site checked against the source
