Where people leaders gather.

This month: performance reviews that survive an economy nobody planned for. Three HR leaders walk through what they changed in their cycle this year, what broke, and what they would not do again.

On the table

• Rating scales: kept, collapsed, or dropped entirely?
• Merit budgets under 25% inflation — what people actually said.
• Calibration sessions when half the managers are new.

Format

• 18:30 — arrivals and coffee
• 19:00 — three short field stories, ten minutes each
• 19:45 — open floor, moderated
• 20:30 — informal, stay as long as you like

House rule: no vendor pitches, no selling from the floor. People come to think out loud with peers, and we keep it that way.

A closed room of twelve heads of people. Each member brings one live problem; the room works it. Nothing leaves the room, and there is no speaker.

This session

• Two member cases, forty minutes each.
• One framework input from an Engage consultant, fifteen minutes.
• Commitments round: what each member will change before the next Circle.

Who it is for

• HR directors, CPOs, and heads of people with full ownership of a function.
• Organizations of 150+ employees.
• Members who can attend consistently — the value is in the same room, repeated.

Places are limited to twelve. Requests are reviewed for fit and for competitive overlap with existing members.

The Dubai room takes on hiring at speed: how Gulf teams keep assessment standards while headcount plans move twice a quarter.

On the table

• Structured interviews when the hiring manager wants an offer out by Thursday.
• Emiratisation and national development targets — practice, not policy language.
• Where assessment spend pays back, and where it does not.

Format

• 18:30 — arrivals and coffee
• 19:00 — two field stories from regional HR directors
• 19:40 — open floor, moderated
• 20:30 — informal

House rule: no vendor pitches, no selling from the floor. People come to think out loud with peers, and we keep it that way.

The Gulf Circle meets for the first time this autumn: twelve heads of people, live problems, no speaker, nothing repeated outside the room.

This session

• Two member cases, forty minutes each.
• One framework input from an Engage consultant.
• Commitments round.

Who it is for

• Heads of people in the UAE, KSA, and Qatar.
• Organizations of 150+ employees.
• Members who will show up every month.

Twelve places. Requests reviewed for fit and competitive overlap.

This month: the first 200 employees. What a people function must have in place before scale exposes what it does not, told by leaders who crossed that line in the past two years.

On the table

• The minimum viable HR stack — and the tools that were bought too early.
• When founders should stop making every hiring decision.
• Job architecture before it becomes a rescue project.

Format

• 18:30 — arrivals and coffee
• 19:00 — three field stories
• 19:45 — open floor, moderated
• 20:30 — informal

House rule: no vendor pitches, no selling from the floor. People come to think out loud with peers, and we keep it that way.

Third Cairo Circle of the year. Same twelve seats, same rule: bring a problem you have not solved, not a case study you have already won.

This session

• Two member cases, forty minutes each.
• Follow-up on the commitments made in August and September.
• One framework input from an Engage consultant.

Who it is for

• HR directors, CPOs, and heads of people with full ownership of a function.
• Organizations of 150+ employees.

Twelve places. Requests reviewed for fit and competitive overlap.

Closing the year in the Gulf room: total rewards under pressure. What moved in salary structures, allowances, and benefits across the region this cycle, from the people who signed off on it.

On the table

• Benchmarking when survey data lags the market by a year.
• Allowances versus base — what employees actually value.
• Communicating a smaller increase without losing the room.

Format

• 18:30 — arrivals and coffee
• 19:00 — two field stories
• 19:40 — open floor, moderated
• 20:30 — informal

House rule: no vendor pitches, no selling from the floor. People come to think out loud with peers, and we keep it that way.

Two days away from the office with thirty people leaders. No stage, no sponsor booths, no slides after the first morning. The retreat exists so that the year’s hardest people decisions get thought about somewhere other than between meetings.

Day one — 26 November

• 09:00 — opening session: the year in the function, honestly
• 11:00 — working groups: culture, capability, and cost
• 14:00 — peer clinics in threes
• 19:30 — dinner on the water

Day two — 27 November

• 09:30 — leadership under sustained pressure
• 11:30 — building next year’s people plan, on paper, before you leave
• 14:00 — closing circle and commitments

Practicalities

• Two nights accommodation, all sessions and meals included in the ticket.
• Travel from Cairo is arranged as a group; travel from the Gulf is on you.
• Thirty places. Partners and vendors do not attend.

One day, three hundred people leaders, and the year of the HR Cafe compressed into a single room. Speakers are practitioners who ran the thing they are describing — not a keynote circuit.

Programme

• 09:00 — registration and coffee
• 10:00 — opening: what changed in the region’s people function this year
• 11:00 — three parallel tracks: Talent, Rewards, Culture & Capability
• 13:00 — lunch
• 14:30 — case sessions from Egyptian and Gulf organizations
• 16:30 — closing panel: the questions we are taking into 2027
• 18:00 — reception

Who attends

• HR directors, CPOs, and heads of function from Egypt and the Gulf.
• Founders and CEOs of scaling organizations.
• HR Cafe regulars from both cities, in one room for the first time all year.

Tickets are limited and the vendor rule still applies: sponsors support the day, they do not present from the main stage.