On June 4, 2020, Prof. Ali A. Alraouf, ISOCARP Board Member and Head of research and development at Urban Planning Authority in Doha, Qatar, delivered a public lecture at the prestigious Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS). The Center’s headquarter is located in Doha with branches in Washington DC, Tunisia and Beirut. The lecture discussed Middle East and Gulf cities in the post-COVID-19 paradigm and question if these cities are ready or whether they will regret not only having missed the opportunity offered by the pandemic, but also the negative impact on their cities and settlements. In the course of the lecture, Prof. Alraouf discussed the revision of the concepts such as globalisation, solitude, urban fear, and economic challenges. He, therefore, interweaved the conceptual discussion with reflections that emerged from the cities of the Middle East in a comparison with the global cities during the pandemic. He concluded with a future framework that proposes a move towards people-centred architecture, urban design and planning, reviewing priorities, practices and even the education of planners to be better prepared for the post-COVID-19 conditions. The talk attracted thousands of followers form the Middle East and beyond. The video of the lecture was seen by 97,000 people. Prof. Alraouf took the opportunity to talk about the Society, to shed light on the upcoming World Planning Congress and to disseminate knowledge about ISOCARP’s objectives and future plans, particularly in the context of MENA region, Africa, Turkey, and Iran.