H.E. Sheikh Hisham bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa, Governor, Capital Governorate kicked off this year’s edition of the Manama Entrepreneurship Week. His welcome remarks were followed by a felicitation speech given by Dr. Hashim Hussein, Head of UNIDO-ITPO Bahrain and Director of AICEI. The seamless digital event was facilitated by Microsoft Teams.

Terrel Jones, founder of Travelocity & Founding Chairman of Kayak.com; gave a very impactful speech on the disruptive force of technology and how COVID-19 has pushed this disruption even further. He stated how big businesses can use technology to propel themselves to be like King Kong–or a giant in the market; whereas startups can use that same technology like David–as a slingshot, to give themselves leverage. He talked about using digital media as a means to get instant learning from customers–to pivot quickly as and when needed, and not wait for the annual company meeting in order to know what is wrong. Instant problem solving is what technology really brings to companies and he gave several examples of how companies can provide solutions through big data, AI, and other technology. He says that this is really what makes the disruption dynamic–that technology can have instant and lasting effects on people’s lives.

He ends by saying that our job–as startups and entrepreneurs–is to get that idea–that disruptive idea–past the finish line. Just get it done.

The next speaker was Suvrat Saigal–Deputy Group CEO of Retail Banking at Ahli United Bank. He introduced AUB’s outlook towards SME’s in Bahrain and how the bank has continually helped SMEs and business owners.

One of the entrepreneurs who gave a testimonial was Wafaa Alobaidat of Obai and Hill. She mentioned how AUB has helped her as a business owner and founder of Obai and Hill–where she leads a team of 30 creatives. Talking about entrepreneurship in the COVID-19 world, she said that “My job is to be creative, to look at what’s happening in the world and see where I can deliver a change”. She further said, “There’s a gift in here for all of us. It’s a time for us to be positive, creative, and display all of our solutions”.

One of the most exciting parts of the program was the fireside chat hosted by Yasin Abouadaoud, Entrepreneur, CDO, and GM MENA at Brinc and Co-founder of Diwan Hub. The chat is titled Telecoms Reimagined, and Andrew Hanna, CCO of Omantel gave his views on how the world of telecommunications is shifting. Mr. Hanna said, “Covid accelerated digital change. Telecom companies are now asking themselves “How fast can I digitally transform my business, how reliable is my network?” In addition, we see the role of key players such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, how they have transformed the industry and the customers. We’ve seen that acceleration happening and the silver lining here is the digital transformation. What should have taken 3-5 years happened in 6-12 months.

He talked about the future as moving towards “real-time” engagement and interaction with customers and he said that “this is important–there are opportunities for engagement, monetization and customer loyalty in real-time transactions and problem solving”.

The opening event also included a fireside chat on scaling up businesses with Baybars Atluntas & Feryal Nass; a chat with the team from Modus Capital (Kareem Elsirafy and Simon Tkachenko) on the future of tech adoption and digital transformation; a panel on diversity as represented by Javad Mushtaq (MAK, MinMentor, JM Ventures), Tiffany Yu (Awesome Foundation Disability Chapter) and moderated by Hejer Krichene (Insomea Computer Solutions). A case study was presented by Dr. Kay Olmstead of Nano Pharma Solutions and this was moderated by Khulood Al Qattan of the Bahrain Business Women Society. Dr. George Moker (Suffolk University) spoke of the post-pandemic world–creativity, entrepreneurship and getting back to basics. To round it all off, Mark Sison, co-founder of Nano Touch Technology spoke about nanotechnology for a sustainable future.

The Manama Entrepreneurship Week is off to a great start and BEntrepreneur will be covering every step of the event. We’ll get back to you tomorrow with a report on the BIBF workshops, Women in Tech forum, and how to be a qualified entrepreneur.