I’ve just been beamed up to the Yas Hotel

Alexi Mostrous in Abu Dhabi  www.timesonline.co.uk

The insane Yas Hotel in Abu Dhabi is a bit like the Starship Enterprise might be — if the spaceship had been built in the desert next to a Formula One circuit.

The five-star Yas Hotel in Abu Dhabi

Guests at the five-star hotel, which is hosting the inaugural Abu Dhabi Media Summit this week, can gaze down over a private marina, where glinting yachts form the perfect vantage-point for watching Lewis Hamilton & Co fly past in their McLarens.

Outside, an early-morning fog obscures the racetrack. It’s as if the Yas is in a constant battle with the desert.

At the conference, Maurice Levy, of Publicis, and Kai-Fu Lee, the former president of Google China, are highlights. Predictably, Dr Lee declined to speak about Google’s difficult position in China, although he says that the internet search giant always struggled against Baidu, its Chinese rival, despite being better technically.

In another of the Yas’s suites, Kishore Lulla, the quietly spoken executive chairman of Eros International, tells me that he’s very excited about 3-D cricket. It will take India by storm, apparently, when the finals of the Indian Premier League are played at 3-D cinemas next month.

After the keynote speech yesterday by Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, parent company of The Times, in which he called on the Middle East to relax regulation and decrease censorship, today’s highlight will be Eric Schmidt, the Google chief. He will be speaking at noon UK time, just after James Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp, Europe and Asia. Expect updates then.