"AAN’s Martine van Bijlert (with input from the AAN team) lays out what can be learned from last year’s sessions. Key themes include the consolidation of an Islamic system, the push towards both self-sufficiency and connectedness, the expansion of a digitalized administration and the rooting out of what it sees as the ill effects of the last twenty years. The pressing issue of women’s rights, including access to education also featured heavily – not in the presentations, but very much so in the Q&A sessions with journalists afterwards. Comparing this overview with what the Emirate chooses to showcase in the next sessions will be a good indicator of how its focus may have evolved over the last year."