Issue 01 . June 2026Loose change. Sharp eyes.

brand strategy.

9 pieces filed under brand strategy

PoliticsJun 4
The Regional Press Conference Has Become a Building, Not an Event. Souk Weekly politics.

The Regional Press Conference Has Become a Building, Not an Event

Why the staging, the seating chart, and the side rooms now do more diplomatic work than the answers from the podium.

By Mira Faraj

WorldJun 3
The Suitcase Economy of the Arrivals Hall Is Bigger Than the Trade Statistics. Souk Weekly world.

The Suitcase Economy of the Arrivals Hall Is Bigger Than the Trade Statistics

Why a quietly enormous category of regional cross-border commerce is moving in passengers' checked baggage, and why nobody who tracks trade data is counting it.

By Mira Faraj

OpinionJun 3
In Praise of the Boring Conference. Souk Weekly opinion. Photograph keyed to conference.

In Praise of the Boring Conference

Why the regional conference circuit's best moments happen, increasingly, at the dullest events nobody wants to put on the highlight reel.

By Diego Arroyo

OpinionJun 3
The Man Who Sells Nostalgia to Oil Traders. Souk Weekly opinion. Photograph keyed to vintage.

The Man Who Sells Nostalgia to Oil Traders

What a particular Dubai shop tells us about a regional market for the lost world that the regional economy itself was, in part, responsible for losing.

By Diego Arroyo

PoliticsJun 3
Every Country Now Has a Ministry of the Future. The Future Is Underwhelmed.. Souk Weekly politics. Photograph keyed to parliament.

Every Country Now Has a Ministry of the Future. The Future Is Underwhelmed.

Inside the global rush to bureaucratise the long term, and the suspicion that the long term has noticed.

By Lena Holloway

BusinessJun 3
The Regional IPO Pipeline Just Got Quieter, and Richer. Souk Weekly business. Photograph keyed to exchange.

The Regional IPO Pipeline Just Got Quieter, and Richer

Inside the deliberate pivot away from headline-grabbing listings, and towards the kind of company that closes in twenty minutes and trades flat.

By Marcus Okafor

BusinessJun 3
The Five Star Hotel Lobby Is Now Your Coworking Space, and It Is Winning. Souk Weekly business.

The Five Star Hotel Lobby Is Now Your Coworking Space, and It Is Winning

Why a generation of regional founders has quietly abandoned the dedicated workspace category and reorganised their entire working week around hotel lobby coffee.

By Marcus Okafor

TechnologyJun 3
The WhatsApp Broadcast List Is the Real Regional Content Management System. Souk Weekly technology.

The WhatsApp Broadcast List Is the Real Regional Content Management System

Why a generation of regional small businesses has quietly abandoned the modern content stack and is shipping more product through a feature designed for forwarding birthday messages.

By Priya Chen

WorldJun 3
The Embassy Iftar Is the Most Underestimated Instrument of Regional Foreign Policy. Souk Weekly world.

The Embassy Iftar Is the Most Underestimated Instrument of Regional Foreign Policy

Why a single carefully assembled guest list, served on a single carefully assembled plate, can do more strategic work in three hours than a year of communiques.

By Lena Holloway