Every new year arrives with its own roll call of names, ideas and objects worth knowing about, and 2020 is no exception. From an Arab nation steering the world's largest economies for the first time, to electric aircraft inching towards commercial reality, here is our alphabetical guide to what should be on your radar over the coming twelve months.
Artificial Intelligence. Already delivering real value through unprecedented efficiencies across countless industries, AI takes centre stage in the region this spring. Keen to position itself as a global player in the technology, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will host the Middle East's first-ever Global AI Summit on 30 and 31 March at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Centre in Riyadh, beside the Ritz Carlton. The event is intended to drive discussion and partnerships between local and international stakeholders. "AI is bringing us new insight and new capabilities that are reshaping the world around us," said H.E. Dr Abdullah bin Sharaf Alghamdi, president of the newly formed Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), at the formal announcement. "The Global AI Summit will become an international platform to discuss those changes and to understand how AI technology can be utilised for the benefit of all."
Boats versus Ships. Three years ago the Ritz Carlton announced a fleet of vessels designed to bridge the gap between 20-guest superyachts and 650-person cruise liners. Carrying around 140 guests, these smaller ships could call at islands, bays and marinas larger vessels could only dream of entering, offering long, leisurely port calls and amenities fit for an oligarch: two onboard helicopters, a submarine, jetskis and palatial guest suites. The build, however, is running behind schedule, with the 2020 cruises now pushed to 2021 — handing the advantage to Scenic, whose 168-metre Eclipse launched last summer.
Circulose. A mere one per cent of the world's clothing is currently recycled, but a new textile from Swedish company Re:newcell aims to change that. Circulose takes old cotton, breaks it down to a molecular level and rebuilds it into a pristine new material. "The fashion scene is always changing but the industry itself hasn't," says Harald Cavalli-Björkman, the company's head of brand, who calls Circulose the world's first industrial-scale, circular, affordable and top-quality alternative to fresh cotton. With Re:newcell already targeting a billion recycled garments a year by 2025, it is little wonder that H&M has taken a minority stake.
Drones. They keep getting smaller, cheaper and better. Our pick is the DJI Mavic Mini — not the fastest or most powerful, but light at just 249 grams, capable of smooth 2.7K video and accessibly priced.
Electric Vehicles. Soon, spotting an electric car will be as routine as passing a traffic light, but the new Porsche Taycan remains special. Built from the ground up, it pairs the leg- and luggage-room of a Panamera with the low centre of gravity of a 918, four-wheel drive and steering borrowed from a Cayenne, and an 800V architecture that lets it launch like a GT2 RS. With a useful range and an 80 per cent rapid charge in around 22 minutes, it is the most epic EV yet.
Foodie Vacations. Culinary tourism — travelling somewhere specifically for its food and drink — is a serious business for millennial consumers. A University of Florida report estimated that travellers aged 23 to 38 spend as much as a quarter of their budget on food and choose destinations by the strength of their culinary scene. The gourmet hotspots to watch this year: New York, London, Paris, Copenhagen, Tokyo, San Sebastian and Salina in Sicily.
Group of 20. The G20 is an annual summit fostering economic cooperation among twenty member states that together represent 85 per cent of global output, and with so many officials in one place it doubles as a non-stop platform for formal and informal diplomacy. The big news for 2020 is that Saudi Arabia has become the first Arab nation to take over the presidency. King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud will host the summit in Riyadh on 21 and 22 November, focusing on three objectives: empowering people, safeguarding the planet and shaping new frontiers.
Hydrogen Cell. Toyota, which has been developing hydrogen technology since the 1990s, argues that EVs may not be the future of clean transport at all. The better option, it suggests, is the fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV), running on compressed hydrogen combined with atmospheric oxygen to generate electricity, with water the only by-product. Toyota's second-generation Mirai, on sale in 2020, offers a 640km range and refuels in three minutes — assuming you can find a hydrogen station.
Inclusion. Socially conscious fashion consumption is reshaping the industry. Where there was once a blind spot around body type and religious belief, brands are increasingly taking a stand: Universal Standard now produces garments in sizes 00 to 40, while figures such as Rihanna have upended traditional ideals. The hijab, meanwhile, has been embraced by mainstream names including Nike, Gap, Banana Republic and Dolce & Gabbana, the last of which launched a capsule collection aimed at conservative Muslim fashionistas.
Jetting into the Future. Electric planes have existed as prototypes for decades; commercial viability is now within reach. Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Siemens are jointly developing a four-engine prototype that will swap one engine for a two-megawatt electric motor later this year. Zunum Aero — founded by an MIT graduate and a former Brown professor, and backed by Boeing and JetBlue — is proposing a hybrid-electric craft that uses traditional fuel only as a backup. Its ZA10 will seat up to twelve passengers and fly more than 1,100km at a stretch, the equivalent of London to Nice, making it ideal for cheaper, greener short hops.
Kaia Gerber. The daughter of Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford is already something of a veteran, having signed with IMG aged thirteen. She walked her first runway at sixteen and, having only reached the minimum cover age of eighteen last September, appeared in 25 fashion-week shows across 27 days in October alone. Kendall Jenner may have been 2019's highest-earning model, but Kaia is six years younger, and it seems only a matter of time before she claims that title.
LVMH. Last year was a strong one for the group and its owner, Bernard Arnault: it acquired Tiffany & Co. for $16.2 billion, opened a third Louis Vuitton factory in the United States, and ended the year up some $82 billion in market value. Expect more of the same in 2020.
Mars: The Next Frontier. A permanent human colony on Mars is a necessity, not an option, according to figures such as Buzz Aldrin, the late Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk. We have the technology to get there; the challenge is staying. France-based Interstellar Labs has proposed building a Mars simulator in California's Mojave Desert — a closed-loop, environment-controlled village serving as a hospitality and science centre for astronaut training, agricultural research and curious tourists.
Nootropics. Analysts expect sales of these cognitive enhancers to surpass $6 billion by 2024 (for context, Viagra generates around $2 billion a year). Silicon Valley is enthralled: one biohacking company, HVMN — pronounced "human" — counts Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus and Kabam chief executive Kevin Chou among its backers.
Off the Worn Path. This is the year to finally visit Scotland. As if the history, scenery, world-class hotels, Ben Nevis and Loch Ness of the Highlands and Speyside were not enough, Macallan has opened a new Visitor Experience Centre that took six years, 8,000 tonnes of steel and £189.2 million to complete, transforming a windswept barley field into an architectural marvel.
Patek Philippe. Already a maker of coveted watches, Patek now carries the halo of having created the world's most expensive timepiece: its one-off Grandmaster Chime, reference 6300A, fetched some $31 million at auction last November. With two dials, a reversible case and twenty complications, it was originally sold for $300,000, with the auction benefiting research into Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Quest by Oculus. The fourth consumer VR headset from Oculus — now part of Facebook — is the one to own. A standalone design requiring no phone or PC, it is built for gaming, bundled with dual hand controllers and four wide-angle tracking cameras that let you move freely around a sizeable space.
Regenerative Beauty. Victoria Beckham launched her beauty range only in January 2019, but she is already making waves, partnering with Professor Augustinus Bader, a leading expert in regenerative medicine, on her first skincare product. The Cell Rejuvenating Priming Moisturizer builds on Bader's TFC8 technology, adding papaya enzymes, micro algae, black-tea ferment and avocado oil to create an instant glow while renewing skin from within.
StockX. This sneaker-trading platform wants to be the "stock market of things", and last June it reached a billion-dollar valuation after a $110 million Series C round led by DST Global, General Atlantic and GGV Capital. It makes money on transaction fees but differentiates itself with data, listing each product's full pricing history so users can track trends, historical highs and lows, and volatility. It is now even working with brands to "IPO" products into existence.
Truffles, Always in Season. If truffles are the most divine of ingredients, Chez Bruno is the altar at which they are offered to the gods. Tucked into the Var in the South of France, near the old town of Lorgues, this Michelin-starred restaurant runs a year-round truffle menu — paler summer truffles from May to August, richer black truffles through winter — and is the single most important purveyor of the delicacy, selling 4.5 tonnes to its 36,000 annual diners.
Under the Radar. That the Mandarin Oriental chose tiny Canouan, in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, for its first ultra-exclusive 40-key Caribbean resort is reason enough to take notice — and with Aman and Soho House following suit, you had better visit before the secret is out. Home to just 1,700 residents, Canouan offers untouched verdant land and miles of white-sand beaches; one insider calls it "a place where billionaires go to escape millionaires".
Virtual Reality. Beyond gaming and training, VR has yet to set the world alight, but Black Box — the world's first VR gym — offers an intriguing new use. Combining trendy fitness programmes with video games, three 30-minute weekly workouts deliver the science-backed intensity needed to build strength and burn close to 400 calories a session. So far there are just two US locations, in San Francisco and Boise, Idaho.
Workwear. Summer temperatures in Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East can reach 45 degrees Celsius, with humidity making it feel hotter still — a serious toll on migrant construction workers. CE-Creates, a vertical of UAE-based Crescent Enterprises, has developed Shamal, billed as the world's first specialised industrial clothing for outdoor labourers in hot climates, using tech-fabrics from Coolmax, 3M and Cordura. Chief executive Samer Choucair points to significant weight reduction and improved thermal comfort, though, as one traditional overall-maker cautions, "Technology in isolation is never enough — it has to be used with other safety measures such as air-conditioning stations, midday breaks, electrolyte drinks and ice boxes."
X Marks the Spot. The Aston Martin DBX will dominate luxury-SUV conversation when it arrives in the second quarter of 2020. With the segment showing no sign of slowing — and 72 per cent of existing Aston customers already owning an SUV — the marque is confident of selling 5,000 units a year, putting the 542bhp, 700Nm DBX in direct competition with the Lamborghini Urus on both price and volume.
Generation Z. The first truly digital generation has never known life without the internet or social media. Where brands spent the last decade chasing millennials, experts say the thrifty, disloyal and image-conscious under-23s will have an even more profound effect on the economy. Brace yourselves.
Yeezy. Launched by Kanye West in 2009, the Yeezy line passed a billion dollars in sales in 2018 and hit $1.3 billion last year. To reach a "decacorn" valuation it would need to surpass $3 billion — territory only Nike's Air Jordan empire occupies — but the brand has already transformed West's fortunes, helping take him from $53 million in debt to overtaking Jay-Z as the highest-paid figure in hip-hop, with $150 million in income recorded in 2019 alone.
Words: Nicolas Shammas & Karim Mounib
