Client: Gulfood 2025 (Dubai World Trade Centre) Location: Dubai, UAE My Role: Project Coordinator Project Type: Exhibitor Lifecycle Management System Timeline: 2025 Team Size: 8–12 members across development, QA, and client teams Tools Used: Jira | Google Sheets | MS Project Methodology: Agile / Scrum
Gulfood — one of the world's largest annual food and beverage exhibitions held at Dubai World Trade Centre — required a comprehensive exhibitor management system to handle thousands of exhibitors across UAE and from all over the world.
The key challenges were: → Managing structured onboarding for a large volume of exhibitors within a tight timeline → Coordinating across multiple development teams working in parallel → Strict deadline tied to a fixed live event date with zero flexibility → Frequent change requests from the client mid-project → Ensuring seamless cross-functional coordination between internal teams and the client organisation → Managing complex backend integrations for exhibitor data across multiple modules
→ Coordinated full SDLC lifecycle from requirements gathering through to live deployment → Facilitated all Scrum ceremonies — Daily Standups, Sprint Planning, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives — for a team of 8–12 members → Maintained a comprehensive RAID log to proactively track all risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies throughout the project → Created and managed a detailed delivery roadmap with clear milestones for both the client and internal teams → Conducted regular stakeholder alignment calls with DWTC team to ensure requirements were clearly understood and deliverables were on track → Managed all change requests through a structured change management process — assessing impact on timeline and resources before approval → Maintained full project documentation including MIS reports and status updates for executive leadership → Proactively identified and resolved dependency conflicts between parallel development teams through daily standups and dependency tracking
Challenge 1 — Mid-Project Scope Change The client requested a significant feature addition weeks before go-live. I immediately raised a formal change request, assessed the impact on timeline and resources, presented trade-offs to both the client and internal team, and restructured the sprint plan to absorb the change without delaying the final delivery date.
Challenge 2 — Parallel Team Coordination With multiple development teams working simultaneously, there was a high risk of dependency conflicts and integration issues. I maintained a detailed dependency tracker within the RAID log and ran daily standups to surface blockers early — resolving issues before they could impact delivery timelines.
Challenge 3 — Client Communication Across Time Zones Managing communication with a large international client organisation required structured and consistent updates. I implemented a weekly status report ensuring full visibility for both client and internal leadership at all times.
✅ Delivered 100% on time — zero delay to live event date ✅ Zero critical escalations during live event execution ✅ Successfully onboarded thousands of exhibitors with structured lifecycle management ✅ 40% reduction in escalations through proactive RAID log management ✅ 30% reduction in workflow bottlenecks through process optimisation ✅ 15% improvement in turnaround time through streamlined workflows ✅ Full executive visibility maintained through MIS reports throughout delivery
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Key Achievement: Delivered a large-scale international exhibitor management system for one of the world's biggest food and beverage exhibitions — on time, with zero critical escalations and full client satisfaction.
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→ Early RAID log management is the single most powerful tool for preventing escalations in complex multi-team projects → Structured change management protects both the client relationship and the delivery timeline → Real-time Power BI dashboards significantly improve stakeholder confidence and reduce ad-hoc status queries → Daily standups with dependency tracking are non-negotiable when multiple teams work in parallel → Proactive communication with clients always prevents escalations better than reactive problem solving