I heard a cracking tale on Tuesday night from an old media contact, over a Diet Coke at the Radisson hotel in Media City. He was recalling the Cityscape event in Abu Dhabi this year, and one particular journalist who made almost as much money as the property developers that week.
The queues at the event are now the stuff of legend, with thousands of people waiting for hours to buy public access tickets.
And according to my source, one UAE-based reporter spotted an opportunity, selling his press pass for more than Dhs2,000. Not content with that return, he went to the press office for a replacement, and duly sold that. He was eventually rumbled, but not before pocketing a month's salary.
The story may be an urban myth, but it underlines the awesome power of the Cityscape brand. Which is quite appropriate, given that the Financial Times says Dubai is lining up a bid for IIR, the events company that owns Cityscape. It would be a complex deal: if reports are true, Dubai World Trade Centre is teaming up with US private equity firm Blackstone to bid for Informa, the UK parent company that owns IIR.
DWTC's bid for IIR three years ago, only for Informa to trump it with a higher offer, so the deal sounds plausible enough. It also sounds sensible enough, given that the exhibition business is booming, not just in the Middle East but also in Asia. Throw in the company's strong training and conference division and Dubai could be looking at a healthy IRR (internal rate of return) from IIR (Institute for International Research), even if enterprising journalists do skim a little off the top.