The MIT Enterprise Forum Arab Startup Competition is celebrating their 10th anniversary tomorrow evening, here in Bahrain for the first time! Isn’t that thrilling?! Best part of it all? It’s open to everyone! Don’t forget to register though.
The MIT Enterprise Forum Arab Startup Competition is an annual competition that aims to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in the region. Twenty one Arab countries have participated in this competition, and in total 80,000 individuals have applied to the MITEF competition up to this day since they launched ten years ago.
The MITEF Arab Startup Competition Final Award Ceremony, in partnership with Community Jameel, Zain Group and this year’s strategic partner, Tamkeen Bahrain is going to be held on the 27th of April at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Even if you are not a participant, here are 5 reasons why you should definitely and without hesitation go to the final award ceremony. Who knows, you could be one of the participants next year!
- Awesome and inspirational successful speakers! Do you really wanna miss hearing about the journeys these successful entrepreneurs went through? This year MITEF is featuring some major keynote speakers, such as Ronaldo Mouchawar, co-founder of Souq.com, which recently got acquired by Amazon, yes, you read that right. There’s also Omar Samra, founder of the wild and adventurous travel agency Wild Guanabana, and let’s not forget Louay El Dada, founder of Quanergy, who’s going to talk about how an Arab entrepreneur made it to the top 50 hottest startups of the world!
- Meet the three amazing shortlisted Bahraini startups. Come over and support your Bahraini brethrens! Al-Rawi Media, Akalati and ApolloGreen are shortlisted in the MITEF Competition. They are part of the 74 shortlisted startups from all over the region, from about 8,000 applications this year! You’ll have the chance to talk to them and learn about their experience through this competition. There will also be 71 other startups that you can also approach and get to socialize with!
- Network, mingle, and build leads! It’s a no brainer that the event is going to be filled with important figures. You can pitch your ideas to investors, get a few pieces of advice. Having a small chit chat with them might even land you a job! We all know the power of networking in Bahrain, knowing the right people matters (wasta wink wink)! Point is, attending will most likely increase your networking pool.
- Meet the previous success stories from the competition. Some of the previous contestants and winners are also coming to Bahrain to share with you their success stories with the MITEF startup competition. Those will include Priscilla Elora, co-founder of MyKi, Anouar El Guetiti, co-founder of Hydropneumatic Flushing System with Diaphragm, and Rana El Chemaitelly, co-founder of the Little Engineer. Many of these previous winners are now huge companies operating all over the world!
- Finally, and more importantly, announcing the winners. Aren’t you curious about the winners? Don’t you wanna feel the rush and excitement? How the adrenaline pumps through your veins while waiting for the winners to be announced? Well, don’t miss it out! The winners are divided into three segments: the “Ideas track, “Social Enterprise” track, and finally, the “Startups” track.
So are you psyched for MITEF’s anniversary? Because we surely can’t wait to attend and see it all! If you want to know more about the program’s schedule, you can access it from here, and of course, hurry up and book your seats, they’re limited! We hope to see you there!