Dubai Metaverse Convention & Expo is the largest dedicated metaverse trade fair in the Middle East, returning to Dubai World Trade Centre 7-9 May 2025 for its third edition. Built around the theme “Building the Open Metaverse,” the three-day, in-person event positions Dubai as the global gateway for Web3, spatial computing and digital-asset economies, expecting 12,000 developers, brands, investors, regulators and creators from 80 countries. The 2025 programme is anchored by a two-track conference: “Enterprise & Government” explores industrial digital twins, smart-city twins for Dubai and Riyadh, metaverse supply-chain pilots, sovereign digital identity and regulatory sandboxes led by Dubai’s VARA and Abu Dhabi’s ADGM; “Gaming, Entertainment & Creator Economy” dissects Unreal Engine 5 pipelines, volumetric capture stages, AI-generated worlds, on-chain game assets and new monetisation models for MENA creators. More than 180 speakers are confirmed, including Neal Stephenson, co-founder of Lamina1 and coiner of the word “metaverse”; Peggy Johnson, CEO of Magic Leap; Yat Siu, executive chairman of Animoca Brands; and H.E. Omar Sultan Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for AI. Keynote panels will be complemented by technical masterclasses on OpenUSD, glTF, WebGPU and metaverse interoperability standards chaired by the Metaverse Standards Forum. A 16,000 m² exhibition hosts 350 exhibitors: Unity, Epic Games, Sony, HTC Vive, Lenovo, Huawei, Emirates’ VR training lab, Saudi’s NEOM virtual twin, and 60 early-stage start-ups in the “Metaverse Launchpad” zone. Parallel features include an investor summit where 200 VCs will sit opposite 50 pre-seed to Series B start-ups, a government round-table on cross-border metaverse regulation, and a jobs fair targeting 2,000 Gulf-region computer-science graduates. The 2025 edition introduces “Metaverse in Action” live demos: visitors can test-drive Emirates’ VR cabin-crew trainer, explore a 1:1 digital twin of the new Al-Maktoum International Airport, and walk through a virtual Riyadh powered by Saudi’s National Metaverse Platform. A 48-hour hackathon with prizes and an NFT art gallery complete the experience. Admission is trade-only; developers and students qualify for complimentary passes, while enterprise and investor packages include priority meeting scheduling and gala awards dinner.