Startup Weekend Dubai 2015Thursday, November 19 - 21, 2015

UP Dubai (/Communities/United-Arab-Emirates/Dubai/) Startup Weekend (/Communities/United-Arab-Emirates/Dubai/Startup-Weekend) Events (/Communities/United-Arab-Emirates/Dubai/Startup-Weekend/Events) Startup Weekend Dubai 2015

(http://maps.google.com/?

q=CLUSTER%20R%2C%20JUMEIRA%20LAKE%20TOWERS%20Under%20the%20stairs%20to%20the%20right%20of%20parking.%20DUBAI%20United%20Arab%20Emirates%20&key=AIzaSyAw_eRq4KFMvMLd1b-xIhy4a4jFadgg0ys)Thursday,November19-21,2015Event starts at 6:00 pm

ASTROLABS CLUSTER R, JUMEIRA LAKE TOWERS Under the stairs to the right of parking. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates

Buy Tickets (http://www.eventbrite.com/event/18361900940?a=UP%20Community%20Sites)

Entrepreneursonamission.Startup Weekend (http://startupweekend.org/) is a 54 hour startup event that provides

UP (http://www.up.co/)

Startup Weekend (http://startupweekend.org/) is a 54 hour startup event that providesthe networking, resources, and incentives for individuals and teams to go from idea tolaunch. Startup Weekends motto: Build Community. Start Companies. No Talk. All Action.In conjunction with local facilitators around the world, Startup Weekend is run by twoguys out of Seattle, WA. Together, we are our own community of passionateentrepreneurs on a mission to help other entrepreneurs and facilitate innovation.Theevent is open to anyone interested in the local entrepreneurial community, and it putsthem in a setting where anything is possible. In the past 3 years, 550+ startups havestarted, 22,000+ entrepreneurs have been inspired. Teams have even started to generaterevenue during the 54hr event, and others have even gone on to direct angel and VCinvestment. None of these stats take into account the amazing networking, ongoingprofessional relationships, and amazing experience that happen at every event.

SEEWHATIT'SALLABOUTLEARN MORE (/COMMUNITIES/UNITED-ARAB-EMIRATES/DUBAI/STARTUP-WEEKEND/ABOUT)

Startup Weekend - Trailer

01:30

LATESTBLOGUPDATESREAD MORE STORIES

(/communities/united-arab-emirates/dubai/blog/2015/11/02/bootcamp-recap-reasons-start)

(/communities/united-arab-emirates/dubai/blog/2015/09/15/back-sw-dubai-2015)

Bootcamp recap: No More Reasons Not to StartAya Sadder

Were back! SW Dubai 2015Aya Sadder

EVENTSCHEDULE

ThursdayNovember19th

6:00 pmRegistrationArrive at the venue and get checked in

6:30 pmDinner & NetworkingEat food, share ideas, practice pitches, get to know fellow participants

7:20 pmWelcome & SpeakersReview agenda for the weekend and introduce speakers, coaches, and community leaders

7:30 pmPitches StartOptionally line up to give your pitch

9:00 pmVotingAttendees vote for the top pitches

9:15 pmForm TeamsTeams start forming and discussing ideas

10:00 pmBegin WorkStart to formalize teams and take an inventory of skills. Be honest, and direct about what resourcesand skills are needed for the weekend. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow

FridayNovember20th

SaturdayNovember21st

SPEAKERS

Stefano Schintu Executive Creative Director at MarkaVIP (https://linkedin.com/in/stefanoschinto)A Creative Thinker & Designer with an acute sensitivity to exemplary quality. Matchmaker between brands and theircustomers, striving to solve problems and create opportunities through design thinking. From responsive web &mobile platforms to television campaigns and social media, Stefano architected and designed experiences that haveserved millions of people around the globe producing iconic & innovative work that has been internationally awardedand recognised.

Tena Pick CEO & Co-Founder (http://www.sustainabilityplatform.org)Tena is a social impact consultant passionate about applying her skills to help start-ups in the developing world. Sheis currently working on projects in Pakistan, Palestine and India. Her main interests include women empowermentand development of rural communities.

Tena is also the Head of Media for C3- Consult and Coach for a Cause, a non-for prot organization that bringstogether business professionals and social entrepreneurs in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). Shehandles all media relations for the organization and is the editor of the blog (www.consciouscapitalismblog.me(http://www.consciouscapitalismblog.me) ). She also holds various workshops on theory of change and socialbusiness basics and has helped organize Social Enterprise Week, the rst event of its kind in the Middle East.Tena holds a bachelors degree in entrepreneurial economics from VERN University of Applied Science and a Mastersdegree in Social Entrepreneurship from Hult International Business School. During her Master program, she led amultinational team during a waste management project in rural Indonesia. The project was sponsored by HSBC.

Yehia El-Katib Co-Founder & Commercial Director at The Gamiers (http://www.thegamifiers.com)Yehia co-founded The Gamiers, one of the rst gamication digital agencies in the Middle East, in 2013. With a visionto bring this new gamication technology to the region to capitalize on governments and corporations passion toinvest in technology and innovation to better serve their citizens and customers, Yehia was one of the key guresbehind most of the Gamication projects launched in the region over the past several years. This includes workingclosely with the TRA to gamify www.government.ae (http://www.government.ae), the main gateway to the federal

government of the UAE. More recently was the Gamication of The Entertainer Mobile app. Previously Yehia workedfor LinkdotNet as the Regional Manager where he was in charge of its subsidiaries Link Development, LinkOnline andConnect Ads in the GCC Region.

Younis Maqousi Analytical Lead - Retail MENA of Google (http://www.google.com)Younis is a senior analytical lead at Google, with a core focus on business intelligence and big data analysis.Having started with Goolge in 2008, Younis has worked across dierent products including; Search, AdSense andAdwords encompassing the entire online ecosystem of users, advertisers and publishers. Younis started his career as a software engineer, then shifting his focus toanalytical work and big data.

Chad Fox Legal Advisor at Bird & Bird (http://www.twobirds.com)Chad is a legal advisor for Bird & Bird. Bird & Bird have a deep industry knowledge, excellence in client service andinternational reach. Their 1,100 lawyers and legal practitioners, spread across Europe, The Middle East and Asia, usetheir passion and insight to connect with our clients vision and help them to achieve real commercialadvantage. They oer cutting-edge strategic legal guidance in leading sectors where our clients operate. Last nancialyear our unparalleled expertise saw us help clients based in 118 countries across theglobe. http://www.twobirds.com/ (http://www.twobirds.com/)

EVENTJUDGES

Joshua Rajkumar (http://www.sustainabilityplatform.org)oshua is the co-founder of The Sustainability Platform, an innovative social impact consultancy that operates inDubai, focused on maximizing and measuring social impact for CSR programs, NGOs and SMEs in the Middle Eastand South Asia.

He is a development economics specialist with international experience in the for- and non-prot industries, and ispassionate about social enterprise project design, implementation, and scalability. Joshua is also the RegionalDirector of Hult Prize for the Middle East and Africa. Hult Prize is the largest crowd-sourcing platform for social good,with a $1m award for the most scalable and sustainable social enterprise developed to tackle some of the worldsmost pressing problems. Joshua is experienced in high-level diplomacy in both the public and private sector withgovernment leaders and company executives through his time with the Head of State team at the Clinton GlobalInitiative and currently as a Partner at EMCOP, an engineering services company whose principal is MitsubishiElectric. He is committed to bridging the gap between the organizational eciency of the private world and the mission of

He is committed to bridging the gap between the organizational eciency of the private world and the mission ofsocial enterprises, specializing in social impact measurement. He holds a Bachelors degree in Economics and Journalism from NYU and a Masters in Social Entrepreneurship fromHult International Business School, and competed in the Hult Prize 2012 winning the London regional nals in theenergy track.

Chantalle Dumonceaux Co-Founder of WOMENA (http://www.sustainabilityplatform.org)Co-founder of WOMENA, a Dubai-based angel group for women, where I oversee operations, strategy, and investments. We help Gulf-based high-net-worth women get involved in angel investing while beneting from a supportive network and ongoing guidance. I believe that entrepreneurship is a key force behind economic progress and that women will drive this force more and more in the 21st century. I've worked in startups and angel groups in New York and Zurich and have seen rsthand the impact and rewards of angel investing best practices and I want to bring these to the Middle East while adapting them to the local culture.I've lived, in sequential order, in Los Angeles, Paris, Zurich, New York, and now between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. I travel a lot, I like tinkering with things, and I'm learning to DJ.

Muhammed Mekki Co-Founder of Astrolabs (http://www.astrolabs.com)Muhammed is a Founding Partner at AstroLabs, a startup hub and training academy for tech entrepreneurs scalingup in the Middle East. As an Iraqi-American, he has always been interested in bridging ideas and people between theUS and the MENA region.Muhammed caught the entrepreneurial bug while studying for his MBA at StanfordUniversity and working with the founding team of a Silicon Valley tech startup. In 2011, he co-founded Dubai-basedNamshi and helped grow the startup from 1 to 150 employees, raise over $20 million in venture capital, and establisha seasoned senior management team. He developed domain expertise in e-commerce.Muhammed is a formerMcKinsey & Company consultant with clients across the GCC. He studied economics at the Wharton School at theUniversity of Pennsylvania and is a Fulbright Scholar with expertise in Islamic Finance. Muhammed is an avid traveler,having visited over 60 countries and is always looking for his next adventure.

Herve Collignon Founder of HOOKS Strategy & Innovation (http://hooks.fr/en/)Herv Collignon founded HOOKS Strategy & Innovation in 2013, a consulting rm expert in innovation process andbrand strategy management. Designer byeducation, he has also a certicate in marketing from the Manchester Chartered Institute and a diploma from theIBM Global Sales School. Afterhis design school and 6 years in graphic and industrial design agencies in Paris and in New York, Herv moved hiscareer towards design managementresponsibilities in large corporations. With over 16 years of design management experience as Design Manager forIBM and P&G, Herv has become anexpert in Design Thinking for his clients. He recently received his Design Thinking certication from thed.school/Stanford University.

Today, HOOKS advises clients such as Kelloggs, Air Liquide, Tarkett International, Frederic Beausoleil, Carpool Arabia,The Welcomist, Norev, etc While in France, Herv gave lectures at EM Lyon for the innovation entrepreneur IDEAprogram.

Emad Ghanem Regional Manager Middle East and Gulf Region (www.soti.net)Regional Manager Middle East and Gulf Region With over 10 years of experience in the eld of IT and technology,Emad has developed a solid background and knowledge in Enterprise Mobility, taking care of regional andinternational brands locally as well as across the region. Emads prime focus is to support the dierent entities in theregion to adapt new technologies and intelligent solutions that enhance their productivity through EnterpriseMobility systems. He works closely with both private and governmental sectors and organizations managing variousbundles of innovative solutions, which not only support them in utilizing maximum resources and develop theirentire service levels, but also reect positively on their ROIs and overall future expectations. Emad carries aBachelors Degree in Computer Science from the University of Pebble Hills, USA.

COACHESANDMENTORS

Ramzy Ismail Incubation Manager at Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi Ramzy Ismail is the Program Manager for Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi. Prior to relocating to the UAE, Ramzy worked forEnterBridge Mobility, a SaaS product company based out of the U.S. as the Director of Business Development.Concurrently, Ramzy served as the Co-founder and CEO of Venuable.com, a mobile and web-based unique venuesmarketplace that was accelerated through Lighthouse Lab RVA (GAN accelerator) in 2013. Before becoming a founderRamzy was an Associate in Genworth Financials Leadership Development Program where he rotated through M&Aand expense analytics roles. His experience also includes corporate strategy and product development internshipswith VeriSign, Capital One, and the CFO of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). He graduated from VCU in 2012with dual degrees Finance and Entrepreneurship.

Ghassan Kara Associate at Strategy& (http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/)Management consultant at Strategy& (Formerly Booz & Company) in the Middle East, based out of the Dubai oce.Prior to joining Strategy&, I attended Boston University where I studied Biomedical Engineering and EnergyTechnologies. Beyond strategy consulting, my interests lie in tech and internet startups, healthcare, and education.

Mohamed Mehanna Strategy Consultant at Roland Berger (https://linkedin.com/in/mohamemehanna) (http://www.rolandberger.com)A strategy consultant in the TMT & Digital practice at Roland Berger Middle East where he advised several telecomoperators, media companies, OTT apps and e-commerce players across the Middle East and Far East in variousstrategic topics including market entry strategies, business plans development, M&A due diligences and partnershipnegotiations. Prior to that, Mohamed worked as a software engineering intern at NEC Electronics Tokyo. Mohamedholds a BE in Computer and Communications Engineering from the American Univeristy of Beirut.

Will Hutson Chief Executive Ocer at LMTD (http://www.lmtd.me)Experienced in growth companies with focus in industry specic applied technologies and integrated marketing.Worked within, Entertainment, Media, Research, Tech, and Advertising industries.

Scaled service and software operations across multiple markets and in both emerging and frontier markets.

Previous or current clients: Disney, Verizon, Disney/Pixar, Miramax, Walt Disney Studios, Coca-Cola, Walgreens,Jaguar, Red Bull, Ford, VICE

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English

Eddy Farhat Principle Analyst at Google MENA (https://twitter.com/EddyFarhat) (https://linkedin.com//in/eddyfarhat) (http://www.markavip.com)Eddy is the Chief Strategy Ocer at MarkaVIP. His role focuses on supporting MarkaVIP's executive team in settingthe company's strategy and following-up on its execution. Eddy started his career as a software engineer focusing onmobile and web development as well as research around peer-to-peer networks. Later on, Eddy joined themanagement consulting rm Booz&Company where he further developed his understanding of the digital eldbefore jumping into the MENA start-up world with MarkaVIP in 2012.

Alborz Toofani Founder & CEO (http://www.snappcard.com)"A dedicated entrepreneur with the passion of starting projects in the online as well as the oine space. Alborz wasborn and raised in Germany and that is where he started his entrepreneurial journey at an early age. He founded areal-estate business before moving to Dubai to start SnappCard a consumer engagement and customer loyaltyplatform that is tailored to Food & Beverage sector. His passion is everything startup and food related."

Katral Neda Hassan Founder of In2 Consulting FZ LLC (http://www.snappcard.com)As a user experience specialist I have dedicated the last 10 years of my life to learning and developing optimal userexperiences. Working within an agency setting, I have had the opportunity to work on a variety of dierent UXprojects, strategy engagements and clients. Most specically I have been involved in the planning and managing oflarge-scale web initiatives. My main responsibilities included strategic IA analysis and IA development; userexperience design and usability auditing; usability testing; accessibility auditing; and web analytics.

Specialties: Keywords which describe what I do best: user centred design, interaction design, informationarchitecture, usability and user research, taxonomy development, wireframe development, web site navigation,management information systems, business and market analysis and web analytics.

Dario de Angelis

Dario de Angelis Solutions Consultant at Docebo (http://www.snappcard.com)Dario is an Aerospace Engineer turned into Digital Marketing and Sales specialist.

He is in charge of executing Docebo's marketing strategy, particularly through: website management, GoogleAnalytics, Google Adwords, Social Media Management (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, G+, Pinterest), Email Marketing,Online advertisement, Webinar Management, Online branding, Seach Engine Marketing & Optimization, ContentMarketing and more.

Zahra Nasrallah Social Media consultant at Social Addicts (http://www.snappcard.com)Zahra Nasralla brings forward years of Marketing experience, having worked as a consultant aiding companiesharness Social Media Solutions to grow their business. She is the Founder of Social Addicts, a company designed togenerate market share and develop leads through the use of tailored Social Media Strategies for any size enterprise

Sajjad Kamal Co-Founder at Alemhealth (https://twitter.com/sajjadk) (http://inov.io)Sajjad is the founder of Inovio Labs, a product development lab at the intersection of design andtechnology developing cutting edge solutions for entrepreneurs and clients in the UAE and Canada. Inovio Labs hasworked in the UAE with organisations such as Mubadala, Health Authority Abu Dhabi, Cartoon Network and anumber of passionate entrepreneurs. Sajjad has previously worked on NextStretch.com (http://nextstretch.com/), aplatform that organises classes and courses in Dubai with an ability to live book placements; RestroPro.com

platform that organises classes and courses in Dubai with an ability to live book placements; RestroPro.com(http://restropro.com/): a white-label platform for restaurants to manage online and on mobile food orders. Sajjadhas also previously worked at Apple, Blackberry, Nobel Prize winning - Grameen Bank and otherstartups. Sajjad holds a double Major in Mathematics( Combinatorics and Optimization) and Business Administrationfrom the University of Waterloo in Canada. Sajjad loves ideating and has previously won Startup Weekend Abu Dhabiand Angelhack Global Hackathon - World's Largest Hackathon.

Anmar Georges Field Marketing Manager MENA at SOTI (http://www.soti.net)Anmar has an extensive experience in product management and business development. He brings forward a 5 yearsof experience having worked as marketing specialist in multinational companies like Nokia, Microsoft, Lenovo andnow with SOTI. Specialized in product marketing and GTM plans execution in dierent markets heading all marketingactivities, planning and budgeting as well as a rich experience building the country marketing business strategy fromscratch and drive execution strategies on a country localized level.

Rami Alajrami Regional Director MENA - SOTI Inc. (http://www.soti.net)Rami is the Regional Director of SOTI in the Middle East and North Africa,SOTI INC. is a leader in Enterprise MobilitySolutions, Rami helped growing the team of SOTI Globally from 80 to +400 employees, and established SOTI Dubaibranch to manage MENA sales and marketing operations, during the last 4 years SOTI operations in MENA expandedto reach local presence in Morocco, Egypt, UAE, and Istanbul.Rami is introducing SOTI as an incubator of B2BStartups and working actively with many government\private entities, OEMs, and Operators to bring to life a libraryof localized B2B apps that supports various industries such as education, healthcare, retail and hospitality. To helpour community adopt most advanced and innovative technologies applied globally.Using those localized B2B Apps,

our community adopt most advanced and innovative technologies applied globally.Using those localized B2B Apps,He aims to have a digitalized databases and contents that can reect more of a realistic reection of our currentapplied systems and help improving the level of provided services in dierent sectors supporting dierentverticals. Rami holds masters degree in computer engineering and worked as a teacher assistant in the Near EastUniversity in Cyprus.

Walied Albasheer Founder & CEO, Stationery Inc. (www.stationery.ae)Walied is an Intrapreneur turned entrepreneur after years of experience in E-business innovation, corporate strategy& startup management . He has signicant exposure in Product Development, E-Business, Digital Media, EnterpriseArchitecture, Technology Transformation, Project Management, Enterprise Performance Management, ManagementInformation System & Customer Relationship Management. Walied have worked in UAE, GCC, Middle East, Europe &Far east, with industries such as government, tourism, hospitality, real estate, sports, events, nance, aviation,marketing agency .

EVENTSPONSORS,ANDPARTNERSThe Startup Weekend Dubai 2015 team is grateful for the support of local community partners without whom thisevent would not be possible. Learn how to become a sponsor here. (mailto:dubai@startupweekend.org?subject=I%20would%20like%20to%20sponsor%20your%20event.%20Please%20tell%20me%20more!)

Gold

(www.twobirds.com)

(http://www.snappcard.com/)

(http://astrolabs.com/)

(https://www.uber.com/cities/dubai)

Platinum

(www.soti.net)

Silver

(http://www.dotshabaka.com/)

(http://stationery.ae/)

(http://womena.co/)

(http://www.at6labs.com/)

(http://sustainabilityplatform.org/)

(http://www.venturen.com/)

(https://www.vaniday.ae/)

ORGANIZINGTEAMStartup Weekend Dubai is 100% led by volunteer community leaders. Learn how to get involved here (http://startupweekend.org/organizer/)

GiorgioLut

(https://twitter.com/GiorgioLutfi) (https://linkedin.com/in/giorgiolutfi) (http://www.markavip.com)

AyaSadder

(https://twitter.com/asadder) (https://linkedin.com/in/ayasadder)

AbdulWahid

AbdulWahid

(https://twitter.com/color2life) (http://www.color2life.com)

OmarKishk

(https://twitter.com/Okishk) (https://linkedin.com/in/omarkishk)

RamiBaassiri

(https://linkedin.com/ramibaassiri/)

EmanueleCorso

(https://twitter.com/EmanueleCorso) (https://linkedin.com/in/ecorso/)

AhmadKishk

(https://linkedin.com/in/ahmedkishk)

FACILITATORS

Tina Yazdi (https://twitter.com/tinad0t) (https://linkedin.com/in/tinayazdi)Tinas been in Dubai for a year. Shes a strategist with a communications background and has worked with twostartups. Shes also obsessed with the cult of Crosst and is ready to dial up the heat on Dubais tech scene!

EVENTBLOGSEE FULL BLOG (/COMMUNITIES/UNITED-ARAB-EMIRATES/DUBAI/BLOG)

Bootcamp recap: No More Reasons Not to Start Aya Sadder

(/communities/united-arab-emirates/dubai/blog/2015/11/02/bootcamp-recap-reasons-start)

Were back! SW Dubai 2015 Aya Sadder

(/communities/united-arab-emirates/dubai/blog/2015/09/15/back-sw-dubai-2015)

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