Ultimately the Omanis did not become customers, but that meeting introduced the entrepreneurs to the idea of doing business in the Gulf.

FORBES: Arabia-Asia: Tocco Studios Has the Right Touch

The "Freezing Omanis" say that once they're back from Antarctica they will have a renewed purpose to campaign for the environment at home.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

In that hourlong meeting the budding entrepreneurs showed the Omanis an onscreen world manipulated by touch using a tabletop display the pair had built from scratch.

FORBES: Arabia-Asia: Tocco Studios Has the Right Touch

While the latter have most of the oil and grand building projects and bling, Omanis remain wedded to 5, 000 years of history and culture, preserving traditional buildings, opening museums and occasionally bemoaning the flash modernism of their neighbours in the UAE.

BBC: Oman��s sleepy Musandam Peninsula