The Middle East and Africa edition of Black Hat, held at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Centre in Malham, combining conference stages, training, live hacking, competitions and a large exhibition.
Black Hat MEA is the Middle East and Africa edition of the Black Hat information security conference series, held annually near Riyadh. The 2026 edition runs from 1 to 3 December at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Centre in Malham. The organiser expects more than 40,000 information security professionals, over 300 exhibitors and more than 300 speakers from over 120 countries. It is by a wide margin the largest event carrying the Black Hat name, and it is structurally different from the Las Vegas and London editions: multi-stage conference content sits alongside a full trade exhibition, training programme, live hacking demonstrations, competitions and an investment track.
The event is an instrument of Saudi cyber policy as much as a commercial conference. It runs with national backing and serves three goals at once: attract international security vendors into the Saudi market, showcase and develop domestic security talent, and channel investment into regional security startups. For international companies, it is the highest-visibility route into Gulf security spending. For practitioners, the appeal is the sheer scale of the technical programme and the competition circuit.
Content runs across multiple stages simultaneously, from executive and policy tracks to deeply technical sessions. Around that sit paid training courses, a large exhibition floor, live hacking and demonstration areas, capture-the-flag and other competitions, and an investment and startup programme. The mix means the same event serves a CISO, a penetration tester and a founder raising a seed round, which is unusual and explains the attendance figures.
Black Hat Europe in London is a compact research event: briefings, trainings, a modest business hall, a few thousand attendees. Black Hat MEA is an order of magnitude larger and weighted toward exhibition, national showcase and talent development. Sharing a brand does not make them the same product, and teams choosing between them should choose on function, not name.
No. Both are licensed editions of the Black Hat series, but MEA operates at roughly ten times the scale and puts exhibition, competitions and national talent development at the centre, where Europe stays focused on briefings and training.
The Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Centre in Malham, north of Riyadh, not in the city centre. Transport time should be planned into the day.
Yes, and the organiser reports participation from more than 120 countries. Visitors should check Saudi visa requirements well ahead of December.
The event is delivered by Informa with Saudi national partners, including the federation responsible for cybersecurity, programming and drones. That backing explains both the scale of the venue and the presence of government stakeholders throughout the programme.
Saudi Arabia bought the Black Hat brand and scaled it past anything the original does, turning a research conference into a 40,000-person national showcase.
Registration runs through the official website. Previous editions have offered free or low-cost visitor passes for the exhibition and general conference stages, with paid tiers for training courses and premium delegate access. Exhibitor and sponsor packages are quoted commercially. Attendees should confirm the 2026 tier structure on the registration page, since it has changed between editions.
1 to 3 December 2026.
The organiser expects more than 300 exhibiting companies alongside the conference stages.
Yes. Paid hands-on training runs alongside the conference, in the Black Hat tradition, with courses at several skill levels.
| Official website | https://blackhatmea.com/ |
| About the event | https://blackhatmea.com/about-us-blackhat-mea |