I've been invited to do a days presentation in person in Riyadh, ignoring the stupidity of traveling for 3 days to do a 2hr demo/presentation, i'm wondering how safe/sensible it is?
My last experience with the region was about 15 years ago when a friend went out with their company and was basically escorted around by their company's security services but it sounds like thats changed quite a lot now.
Does anyone have any recent first hand experience?
Thanks
I did pretty much this a couple of years before Covid. The hotel was a nice resort away from the city centre and I presented at a conference there. Then we did a couple of customer meetings in the city centre.
I was apprehensive but it was fine. The local team took really good care of me and everyone including our customers and partners were super friendly. Everywhere felt extremely safe. No alcohol is a bit annoying.
I did have a hairy moment a couple of days before and almost cancelled the trip - there were some missiles fired at Riyadh airport. When I phoned our local team, the guy told me "No, don't worry, it's totally safe! We shot down all the missiles! I'd tell you if there was a problem, trust me!"
Per above the visa application is a PITA and I don't think you can easily do it yourself. IIRC it has to be done in local language and there is some very specific process that has to be adhered to - I think it was getting your invitation letter stamped by some other organisation and a bunch of forms to be filled in. My company just paid a third party to take care of it and that made it a non factor.