ADHLAL DIALOGUES × FASHION ASSOCIATION

As a Saudi-based research institute focused on the future of the creative economy, Adhlal developed Adhlal Dialogues as one of its core research and stakeholder engagement methodologies. The initiative was created to generate structured conversations around the opportunities and challenges shaping Saudi Arabia's creative sectors, bringing together practitioners, educators, policymakers, businesses, investors, cultural organisations, and other ecosystem stakeholders. Rather than beginning with assumptions, Adhlal begins by listening to the people experiencing these realities firsthand.

In August 2025, Adhlal partnered with the Fashion Association to deliver three facilitateddialogues exploring career development in fashion, the future of Saudi heritage crafts, and professional practice within fashion photography.

While each dialogue focused on a different part of the creative economy, together they demonstrated the value of dialogue as a research methodology. The conversations surfaced recurring systemic challenges that extended beyond individual disciplines, while generating actionable insights, strengthening stakeholder relationships, and producing knowledge outputs that continue to inform Adhlal's wider research and ecosystem development activities. More broadly, the engagement demonstrated Adhlal's approach to understanding complex creative ecosystems: combining research, facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and knowledge synthesis to translate individual experiences into evidence that can support stronger creative sectors.

WHY

Understanding a creative economy requires more than measuring growth, investment, or participation. While these indicators provide valuable evidence, they rarely explain how creative sectors function in practice or why certain challenges continue to emerge despite increasing momentum.

Many of the questions shaping Saudi Arabia's creative economy, career development, knowledge transfer, professional trust, collaboration, and long-term sustainability are experienced by practitioners long before they appear in reports, policies, or datasets.

WHAT

In August 2025, Adhlal delivered a first series of three facilitated dialogues, hosted by the Fashion Association, exploring different dimensions of Saudi Arabia's creative economy. Although each session focused on a distinct topic, together they formed a single research engagement designed to better understand how different parts of the creative ecosystem experience growth, opportunity, and systemic barriers.

Across the three dialogues, Adhlal convened more than forty stakeholders representing a broad cross-section of the creative economy, including designers, educators, manufacturers, photographers, investors, heritage practitioners, cultural organisations, media professionals, and government representatives.

Each dialogue explored a different area of practice:

HOW

Adhlal facilitates dialogue as a structured research process rather than an open discussion. Each engagement is designed to create an environment where participants from different parts of the creative ecosystem can exchange perspectives, identify shared challenges, and contribute knowledge that extends beyond individual experiences. The objective was not simply to host conversations, but to generate evidence that could inform future research, strengthen stakeholder understanding, and support the continued development of Saudi Arabia's creative economy.

IMPACT

WHERE THE IMPACT COMPOUNDS