Dubai, U.A.E.– Design firms here are long on projects and short on staff.

There’s plenty of opportunities for complanies to design the interiors of luxury hotels, villas, resorts and even palaces. But finding the people to do the work is something else again.

Getting and retaining staff was a key challenges voiced by the design professionals who attended my recent presentation here.

Designer “poaching” is commonplace among area firms. Consequently, some companies are so protective of the designers on their team that they won’t identify them.

Dubai design firms seem to range in size from five to 100. But those numbers are inadequate to handle a local building boom expected to attract $300 billion in projects over the next 20 years.

Add to that the pressure imposed from the powers-that-be — from Sheikh Mohammed on down –for design professionals complete these projects on budget and on time.

Promoting themselves to prospective clients isn’t the key marketing challenge facing some firms here. Promoting themselves to prospective employees is.