ABU DHABI, 9th December, 2025 (WAM) -- Sandy Climan, CEO of Entertainment Media Ventures, praised the BRIDGE Summit 2025, describing it as an unprecedented initiative designed to build a global community and open sustained dialogue on the fast-paced, “almost revolutionary" changes reshaping media, entertainment and communication.
Speaking to Emirates News Agency (WAM) on the sidelines of BRIDGE Summit 2025, Climan said the world is undergoing radical shifts driven by technology, changing consumer behaviour and the ways societies will live “for the next decades."
He noted that global connectivity has moved beyond physical travel to a digitally connected world, where cultures are not merging into one, but increasingly “embracing each other" across a shared digital platform. In this context, he underlined the importance of addressing how technology is used, warning it can lead to either “utopian or dystopian” outcomes depending on governance, ethics and collective choices.
Climan stressed that the most crucial outcome of such gatherings should be the promotion of critical thinking—how audiences consume information, how societies adapt, and whether emerging tools, including artificial intelligence, will be used to weaken human connection or to expand it.
On the role of the UAE capital, he described Abu Dhabi and the wider GCC as a natural crossroads — not just east and west, but north, south, east and west — highlighting what he called the region’s youthfulness, optimism, dialogue and creativity. He said global centres of culture and creativity are increasingly interconnected rather than isolated, and added that BRIDGE has initiated an important forward-looking dialogue in this space.
Addressing concerns over misinformation, Climan said malicious use of AI may scale existing challenges, but the same technology can also serve as a powerful, democratised tool for education and training worldwide. He emphasised the need to close the digital divide and equip young people to embrace technology for self-improvement and lifelong learning.
Climan founded Entertainment Media Ventures in 1999. He previously served on the senior management team at Creative Artists Agency, and was the co-founder of CAA’s corporate practice. Sandy has held senior executive roles across the entertainment industry, including Corporate Executive Vice President and President of Worldwide Business Development for Universal Studios, executive positions in production and distribution for MGM, and as the first CEO of 3D filmmaking pioneer 3ality Digital. His productions include “U2 3D," the first digital live-action 3D film, and “The Aviator," starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese, for which he was awarded a Golden Globe and a British Academy Award.