Startup Weekend In Bahrain

Manama, Bahrain: Bahrain Startup Weekend, organised by Batelco – the leading telecom in Bahrain – in cooperation with Tenmou, is attracting much interest from aspiring entrepreneurs and skilled professionals of all ages, with many participants already signed up to participate in the event.

Startup Weekend Bahrain will take place on November 17, 18 and 19 at the Batelco Staff Centre in Hamala and form part of Global Entrepreneurship Week with more than 40 StartUp Weekends taking place globally to mark the occasion. The focus of the event is to discover entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs and assist them on the road to establishing successful ICT and e-business enterprises. Participants with marketing, public relations, business development, web design or application design skills are also required, as a wide range of skills are needed to form teams to develop the variety of business ideas.

The teams will have the opportunity to win cash prizes, funding and technical support to put their business plans into action. The winning team will receive a cash prize of BD4000, second prize is BD2000 and third prize is BD1000. Additionally the first three teams will be given free enrollment into Bahrain Development Bank’s (BDB’s) Entrepreneurship Development Programme. Furthermore, all teams will have the opportunity to benefit from funding from Tenmou of up BD20,000 and BDB will be evaluating the projects during the judging session to see if they qualify for the Pre-Seed Capital Support Scheme, that is jointly run with Tamkeen and which includes a grant of up to BD5000.

Participants of all nationalities and ages are invited to visit the Startup Weekend Bahrain web page (bahrain.startupweekend.org) to learn more about how Startup works and register to attend and participate. Interested parties may also keep up to date with details by following the progress on the Facebook page (facebook.com/StartupWkndBH) and Twitter (@StartupWkndBH).
Startup Weekends are weekend-long, hands-on experiences where entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs can find out if their ICT or e-business ideas are viable. On average, half of Startup Weekend attendees have technical backgrounds, the other half have business, marketing or non-technical backgrounds.
Beginning with brief pitches to outline their idea on Thursday, attendees aim to inspire other participants to join their team. Over Friday and Saturday the teams will focus on customer development, validating their ideas and building a minimal viable product before presenting their prototypes and receiving valuable feedback from a panel of experts who will select the winning ideas.

Batelco Group General Manager Media Relations Ahmed Al Janahi explained that it’s not necessary for participants to have a business idea or plan of their own in order to enter the event as everyone will be placed into teams on the first day of the event.
“Many skills such as marketing, public relations, business development, web design, and application design etc are required to get an idea into plan; therefore a wide range of skills is needed as part of each team, which can have up to ten members.”
“It has been found in numerous events that have taken place all over the world that about half of Startup Weekend participants attend the events to learn a new skill, learn how to develop a product, or learn how to start a venture—there are many opportunities to share experiences and learn from each other and from the mentors and judges who will be on hand,” Mr. Al Janahi said.

Bahrain Startup Weekend has attracted excellent support to date with speakers and mentors from leading companies including Mumtalakat, Microsoft, Ericsson, BDB, O2, Venture Coms, Dynavate Technologies, 4 Spots and Batelco, all volunteering their time to support the teams in developing their business ideas. Batelco has also received an outstanding response from local companies who have pledged their sponsorship and support to ensure the success of the Bahrain Startup Weekend.
Platinum Sponsor: Mumtalakat
Silver Sponsor: Ericsson
Bronze Sponsor: The General Organization for Youth & Sport (GOYS)
Technology Partner: Microsoft
Strategic Partners: Bahrain Development Bank (BDB) and Tamkeen
Contributing Partners: Gulf Air, Nescafe, Red Bull, GMI, University of Bahrain, Expression Computers, Mathias Tourism, Aries Designs &Trading, Union Press, Palace Enterprises, Sofitel Bahrain Zallaq Thalassa Sea & Spa and the Intercontinental RegencyBahrain.
Media Sponsors: GDN, Gulf Weekly, CoEds, Business In Gulf, Al Watan, Al Ayam, Akhbar Al Khaleej, Al Wasat, Daily Tribune, Radio Voice and Amwaj TV.

“We extend our great appreciation to the companies that have committed their support to help us deliver such a worthwhile event that will undoubtedly benefit all the aspiring entrepreneurs who take part,” stressed Mr. Al Janahi.
Organisations such as Tenmou, BDB and Tamkeen, who are participating in the event, hope to find new startups to fund and support. These organisations have established programmes to offer advice and support to innovative entrepreneurs to help bring business ideas to life and in doing so enhance the economy of Bahrain.
Furthermore, Batelco, through its newly established Innovation Centre, hopes to select a relevant project to offer its financial and technical support to, following the weekend.

More information on Startup Weekend including video clips from previous events is available online at bahrain.startupweekend.org

This press release has been issued by Batelco Corporate Affairs department.
For further information, please contact Batelco Public Relations Office:
Public.Relations@btc.com.bh / Fax +973 17611898